Layover In Paradise

This morning there was frost on the ground and my breath hung in the air when I walked Danny at 630AM. The clouds departed overnight and it's a beautiful day. I found when checking messages that the business needs a little of my attention, so I'm staying over until Friday. I drove to the Historic District this time, looking longingly at the beach exit, and past a sign reading: "Welcome To Pensacola, America's First Settlement". Do you know how many towns are "America's First Settlement". I'll have to put my OCD on hold to avoid counting them all! Anyway, everybody likes being first at something. Time to quote P.T. Barnum, eh? I spent a couple of hours downtown which the city is promoting hard. Plaza de Luna....more thought went into the name than the plaza, unfortunately. Seville Quarter...an entertainment area near the Village. Historic Pensacola Village...I loved it, but it's only about two city blocks. The two photos above were taken of recreated days past. The homes are authentic, but the laundry, the garden, the tent for shade, are all for effect. The home shown in the picture with a tent in the forefront was owned by "Julee Panton, a noted freewoman of color". Costumed college students earn their beer money with tours. The vegetables in the garden are real and so are the earnest smiles of the guides. A couple of blocks away were art galleries, a museum, a cultural center. It's across the street from the downtown marina which I tried to photograph but, alas, what I really wanted you to see was the high stone wall built to protect the docks and that doesn't show up at all. You CAN faintly see one of the causeways from the mainland to Gulf Breeze. There's another joining Gulf Breeze to the beaches. During the week, there are as many Alabama cars on the streets as Florida cars. It must be easier for those just across the state line to find work here. Mobile is almost 60 miles west and it's the first city of any significance in Alabama. There are the requisite statues for the Confederate dead here also. Although the city lies on the Gulf, the land itself rolls gently and is alive with blossoming red bud, tulip trees, japonica and forsythia. Spring has already come from Charleston south. Even the gardenias are in full bloom. Pensacola was first settled by the Spanish in 1539. That settlement lasted 2 years and was then abandoned. The first permanent Spanish settlement was in 1698. Many of the streets in Pensacola have French or Spanish names. In 1783 the British relinquished all claims to Florida and the Spanish reclaimed it, but in 1719 Pensacola belonged to the French briefly. They traded it to the Spanish in return for New Orleans. Hard to say who got the best of that deal, but I'll say the French did. You never forget New Orleans, but Pensacola is a bit like vanilla ice cream. Delicious while you're eating it, but can you name the last time you ordered it?