Spring Break - for some of us

April 4 through 8 was JoAnne's spring break from school. She had this trip planned before the no-notice trip we took at Easter when Matthew was ordained a bishop. This blog is from my (Gary's) point of view, so details of what she did will be kind of incomplete.

JoAnne caught a flight out of Charlotte, Monday morning of April 4th. I took her to the airport early so I wouldn't be too late for work. She flew from Charlotte to Dallas, then from there to New Orleans. Matt met her at the airport and they spent the afternoon doing a little exploring of New Orleans.

I worked.

After work, I took the dogs to the kennel. I felt a little bad since I would be at home until Wednesday. But the kennel closes at noon on Wednesday so I couldn't take them then, so they really only went in one day early. It was nice not to have to deal with them by myself.

On Tuesday, 5th of April: Matt had been talking about replacing his 2006 Accord with either a new CR-V or Civic. Well, somehow he talked Vanessa into making it happen. On this day he bought a new Civic with all the bells and whistles on it. It looks really nice. I cannot confirm since I have only been able to look in the windows of the car! :-)

While they were car shopping, I worked. And my Star Wars Blu-ray did NOT come in like it was supposed to!

On Wednesday, Jessi got her new cell phone. We got billed TWICE for our car payment at Honda. JoAnne called them and they said there was a computer glitch and the would fix it. The Mississippi clan went mini golfing and found a new place to eat called "The Reef" that was really good (they claim!)

Messin'

More messin'

The Reef

Nanni-o Andretti

I worked. But I did get my Star Wars Blu-ray.

I got up early on the 7th and headed to Biloxi strait through on the usual route through Columbia and Augusta.  I planned on getting there after they picked up Joshua from school. I didn't know Matt and Vanessa were waiting for me to get there before they left on their mini vacation sans kids to Destin FL. I got there around 2:15p. JoAnne and I had a great night with the kids reading and watching movies --- uh, Star Wars.

On Friday, we were up early to get Joshua out to school. We mainly packed up for the trip to Florida and messed around with Nathan. We picked up Joshua just before 2pm and headed to Pensacola.

The drive to Florida was uneventful until we got about a mile from crossing the river in Mobile and everything came to a complete stop - the interstate and the surface streets. Apparently a wreck on the bridge. We went back out of town towards Biloxi, got on I-65 and then came back to the river from the northeast side of town. That worked. Don't know if we really saved time but we were moving.

When we got to Pensacola, Matt called and told us of a place to eat and to meet them there. The restaurant was called the Oar House. It was right on the water and was very busy. The food was pretty good, but not great. 

 We spent Friday night in the Navy Lodge at NAS Pensacola. The boys stayed with us in our room - how did that happen?

Saturday we got up and had breakfast and walked down to the beach for a little bit.

Pensacoloa Lighthouse
I don't know why it is black

Nanni liked this tree

Then we were off to the National Naval Aviation Museum. This was apparently for my benefit. It is a very good museum, along the lines of the National Museum of the United States Air Force, but much smaller. Still they have a lot of airplanes and it is free.  This is going to be a picture dump. 

Pratt and Whitney R-4360
nicknamed the corncob

R-4360 Engine like was on my Dad's
HC-97G in Bermuda

Hellcat

SDB Dauntless
This airplane was at Pearl Harbor and
the Battle of Midway

Homecoming

TV-2 (aka T-33)

USS Enterprise model
WWII (CV-6)

USS Enterprise model
1st Nuclear Carrier (CVN-65)

NC-4
1st plane to cross the Atlantic

Homefront WWII

Pacific Island WWII

Joshua in F-11 Tiger

Hot figher jock

Lighter than air exhibit

Outside aircraft

They do have newer planes, too. But am mostly interested in the older ones. This last picture was my biggest disappointment. Their trolley was broken and they won't let you just roam around out there because it is next to an active airport. I wanted to see the C-130s, C-118, and C-121 among others. :-(

After leaving we tried going to a restaurant in Biloxi that was supposed to be really good, but there was a one-hour wait!!! We ended up going to Cracker Barrel. Nanni was disappointed.

Then we headed for home. Matt had his first sacrament meeting to attend to, and we had bishopric /PEC/Ward council ourselves to go to on Sunday. We got home around 11:15pm