Reader Question, Answered
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BeeHive asked:
Do you ever miss Pensacola?
Great question! The answer is yes, and no. There are tons of things I definitely don't miss, including (but not limited to), sweet tea, Southern accents, the oppressive heat and humidity, bugs, fear of hurricanes, and more sweet tea.
Yet, I've realized there are several things that I do miss about Pensacola:
1) That it was a big city. Pensacola had tons of restaurants, stores, bars, and other important city components. Even though the geography of the city could make traveling from one part to another a bit of a challenge, it was still all there. And Anacortes just can't compete there.
2) That it had a fairly substantial sized airport. Traveling home (or anywhere) was vastly simpler when we lived in Pensacola. Drive twenty minutes to the airport, and hop a flight. Now, it's a two hour drive to the aiport in Seattle. Additionally, the Pensacola airport had lots of flights to Wisconsin, which was great for us.
3) That it was relatively closer to home than where we are now. Traveling from Wisconsin to Northern Florida is totally do-able. NavyGuy and I drove it in two days. Flights were a simple jump to Atlanta, then a short connecting flight to Milwaukee. Pensacola is also in the Central Time Zone, so it was easy to keep in touch with friends and family back home - no irritating math to try and figure out if I'm going to wake someone up or interrupt someone's workday. Northwest Washington to the Midwest is a different ball of wax - basically, you have to allot an entire day just for the trip, which cramps my jet-setting style.
4) That it had beaches. Lots of beaches. If you're going to get technical, Washington has beaches. But if I have to wear a wet suit and winter coat to go swimming, it ain't really a beach.
5) That Pensacola meant I could see lots of NavyGuy. Let me explain. When NavyGuy and I were in Pensacola together, he was still in flight school, so he'd go several days without having to do much of anything. Maybe show up for muster at 8am and then back home for the rest of the day. One or two flights a week. So, I got used to having him around. And I'll always associate Pensacola with us. It's where we started our Navy journey, and despite all the struggles, sweat (literally), and sweet tea - I'll always miss Pensacola just a little bit.
Where have you previously lived that you can now look back on fondly?
4 comments:
I also miss the base. Don't get me wrong, I like Whidbey, and I like flying gray jets much more than training aircraft, but NASP was just so much bigger, and had a much higher profile so many of the services were more developed. Whidbey is much more straight utilitarian than NASP. Also, there were a LOT more choices as far as where to eat on base. And this makes much more of a difference when you're only allowed to go to places on base in your flight suit.
I guess Pensacola did have lots to do. I just was just one of those who didn't care for the area at all, mainly the people/overall-inbred-quality of life.
But then again, I was living/working in Oregon while Mr. Wookie was in Pensacola. It was the 2 connection, far-away destination that was just a pain in the ass to get to.
And I can totally understand your complaining about flying WA to WI. It is rough jumping time zones/connections and not having a Starbucks to calm your nerves. I usually sleep the flights across to make time go by faster.
But now we live in Norfolk, Virginia. In all opinion, muuuuch better than FL. I guess it goes to show I'm not much of a "South" person. And while Virginia still considers themselves Southern...who are they trying to kid?
I miss Monterey, and will even more in the summer. I'm with you on hating the bugs and humidity in the south (we're in Georgia). I like being able to go outside in the summer without covering myself with bug spray.
But sweet tea? Really, you hate sweet tea? Why?
As a Pensacola girl from almost birth, I had to laugh when you said there are things to do here. (Trust me, just because I live there doesn't mean I'm one of them, my parents are from Chicago and New Hampshire.)
But my CGman just winged and when we were going through the recieving line, Captain Berghorn (the highest ranking CG officer here) said "I bet you're glad to be running off to Cape Cod instead of staying i Pensacola." I just had to laugh at that.
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