Earlier this summer, we brought the boys to Ft Pickens on Santa Rosa Island just down Pensacola Beach. This was our first visit, so we weren’t sure what to expect but it was wonderful. There was so much space, so many things for the boys to explore and run around and learn about, and so pretty.
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The National Park Service puts Ft Pickens under the heading of Gulf Islands National Seashore which includes Mississippi barrier islands.
At the Ft Pickens giftshop, the boys picked up a kit to complete so they could become Gulf Islands National Seashore Junior Rangers.
History of the fort is here along with self-guided map (Geronimo was imprisoned here!).
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Official Junior Rangers
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Before leaving Pensacola on this trip (of course we had lunch one day at McGuire’s, and brought home a cooler-full from Joe Patti’s like always), we decided to go in New York Deli and Pizzeria for a change. We go to Pensacola so much and have been to most of the restaurants (and always eat fish/seafood there), so it was time for something completely different.
At NY Deli, I ordered the three-salad plate, which I thought meant I’d get three dainty little dollops of the selections I made (to choose from: chunky chicken salad, curried chunky turkey salad, shrimp salad, Italian pasta, pasta Rockefeller, tortellini pesto pasta, marinated artichoke salad, antipasto, maybe six or eight others…). Anyway, no! There were two huge mounds of each of the three salads I chose! We were going to be out for a while so I didn’t pack the rest of it for carryout, but needless to say it could have fed me for another three days. They obviously take the deli = huge quantity maxim to heart.
And it was delicious.
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The boys thought this was one of the great pizzas of their life too
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This fall, we’re making plans to visit the Pensacola Museum of Art for the Frederic Brenner: Icon Series exhibit that will be up from October 14 – December 31.
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If you know or love a rising 4th grader, the National Park Service is continuing its Every Kid in a Park program so those kids and their families will enjoy a year of free entrance into National Parks just like Ft Pickens. Nice.