I’d spent quite a bit of time in the Pensacola area, so there were a few places I wanted to revisit, specifically a beach and a pub, which sounds Florida-typical, non? But I promise you this beach and this pub are special.
Pensacola is better than the rest of Florida. For one, there’s always a breeze. It’s a breezy place, so I feel less like I’m dying. Two, there are actual trees, big deciduous shade trees, so I feel less like I’m dying. I still hate Florida, but if I hafta be there, Pensacola is a good area.
Ft. Pickens (click here for geeky-good info) is a beautiful, historic place. It’s most beautiful in winter, while riding a bicycle through it all day, but it’s also very beautiful in summer, while you sit in your air-conditioned car. It is slightly less beautiful outside the air-conditioned car in summer, while you wander around on the white sand, the sun ravaging your body. You knew it would be this way, but you are a good sport. Your face wears SPFkajillion and you wear your large straw hat and your long-sleeve, thin white shirt because the sun is not your friend. You are a trooper. Not only have you upped your water intake over the last week in preparation for this excursion, but you also guzzle water like it’s your job and never, ever mention to anyone that you feel like you’re dying because your throat only seems to work while you’re drinking the water and not so much for breathing. Despite the nagging anxiety that tells you you’re in a Salvador Dali painting, you know that your face has not melted off, because your Rosacea has flared and you can feel the red hot pin-pricks of a thousand angry capillaries rupturing. People begin to ask you if you’re okay, and you say you are, because you don’t need medical intervention. They ask if you’re sure, because your face is red in a way that indicates heat stroke is upon you. You take your sunglasses off and reveal puddles of sweat behind the lenses, and you say, “I’m alright. See? Still sweatin.” They ask if you’re sunburnt and you say, “No, this just happens when I’m hot.” Your youngest child tells everyone about your Rosacea, and how you can’t deal with heat, and how your body is northern, and that’s fine. You wear a wry smile and are glad no one can tell you’re blushing, even if your face just went up twenty degrees.
Your youngest child has your mother’s skin, and got a tan in the car on the way to Florida. You know by the end of the week she will be brown as a bean, and you are glad for her.
Your other little one begs you to sit with her in a tunnel and then asks if she can take off her shirt. You allow that, knowing that it will only provide five seconds of cooling, but she’ll learn. You realize she isn’t just white like you, she’s miserable like you.
It’s not long before your even whiter son joins you both in the tunnel, and asks you what the summer’s like in Indy. He doesn’t remember anymore. You tell him there are very few days like this one, and that summer only lasts three months. You tell him about how cool soft green grass feels underfoot, and how often a good rain brings the temperature from the 90’s into the 70’s. He tells you he’s had enough of the heat and can’t wait to leave. You feel badly for him, but remember he chose his own college, so you tell him that it’s even hotter where Grandma is. He shakes his head. You shake your head, too.
But before all that, before you knew you were going to die in a tunnel with your whitest babies, you walked around and climbed things and explored, taking pictures, because like you said, you think it’s beautiful.
You regret that you’re not a particularly good photographer, and that you didn’t take a hundred better photos, but in your defense, you were dying, and the sun was so bright you could scarcely see.
Also, scenery, I don’t care who you are or where you are, is never nearly as beautiful when caught by a camera. This is one of the things Moo learned on our trip. She said, “I wish the camera could see things the way I do.”
That water felt better than any water I ever felt. Until the next time I almost died, then that water felt better than any water I ever felt and so on and so forth.
But isn’t it beautiful?
For Florida, anyway.
joeyfullystated 
My memories of living in Georgia/Florida are limited but I remember the sticky heat. I remember the AC going out in the middle of the summer and my mom putting cool, wet cloths on our heads so we could try and sleep on the floor in front of a fan before ultimately surrendering to go to my grandparents’ house. Also, I remember the bugs being ginormous.
Your pictures are lovely, especially for someone who was dying at the time of the photography.
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Haha! Thanks, Hollie 🙂
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You can make hot and miserable sound as funny as anything LOL.
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Thanks 🙂
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It is beautiful, for Florida, for camera-taken, for a family of really white people forced to be in the relentless and unforgiving heat of the southern sun. It is really beautiful. Thank you for sharing the Pensacola stop on the great return south. And that beach water surely does look like a soul-saver, Joey.
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Thank you, Mark. I did try. lol
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Love your Pensacola post. I’ve neve been ther, but now I’d like to. Those old forts are so fascinating.
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It is beautiful. The pictures may not be what you saw but they are very nice and fascinating. I’m glad the heat and sun didn’t hang up and kill you.
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Thank you, Dan 🙂
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I’m going to have a very similar post this summer…
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Ooh, terribly sorry. Take a lot of water.
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Imagine being posted there in a heavy woolen uniform.
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I cannot, although I know they did. Ick.
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Just as creatively written as yesterday’s. You certainly succeeded in making the cause and degree of your discomfort available to your readers. That’s what goid writing is all about.
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Well thanks, Sammy 🙂
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I read you and can feel your pain. At the same time I can’t really relate. I am cold 10 months out of the year if not more. I am sorry to tell you how I love heat! I do. I really do. If it’s below 80 degrees, I am cold and I must add, I have very pale skin and burn so easily. I think I would have been happy on that trip with you.
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I understand. There are plenty of people like you, happy to be walking around when it’s 103– my parents for two, lol but not me! I love the cold days. I seldom complain of the cold, and when I do, it’s because it’s below 0 and I’ve been out too long! The really important part is that I no longer live down south 😀
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Oh, Man. I TOTALLY feel your pain! The heat is NOT my friend at all. Thankfully I live up north where I only need to deal with it a few months a year. And I, too, have terrible rosacea. After a day of hiking not long ago, I got the same, “OMG! Are you OK?!” reactions from people. Sadly, this also happens when I drink wine. My sister thought I was going into anaphylactic shock after I had a glass of red wine. Sigh!
Anyway, loved your story and your pics! Have fun and keep drinking lots of water!
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Oh thank you, Jen, it’s so nice to have company in my misery! Your comment means a lot to me.
I have found ONE red wine that doesn’t trigger my Rosacea — Malbec. Give those a whirl?
I can drink whites without issue, but I don’t enjoy them nearly as much. Except maybe Prosecco, YUM!
Yeah, no strenuous exercise can be a real bear. I love walking and swimming and yoga, because I still look human after. Hiking and tennis are still worth some red, but not in 100degree temps! PHEW!
I don’t think too many people understand what the Rosacea FEEEEELS like, nevermind how it looks! lol
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Oh, I’m with ya! Pretty much any amount of exertion or sun exposure on a hot day is bad news!
Thanks for the wine suggestion – I’ll give Malbec a shot. Although I do enjoy white wines, especially Rieslings! And you’re right, they don’t turn me a fiery, “call an ambulance” red, which is nice, lol!
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I don’t know whether to laugh or join you in the tunnel, because white. Probably both 😉
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It was 103 and very much climb-y. You wanted that tunnel after 😉
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Haha, try it hot here in Phoenix! Yuk. A tourist from the UK just died on Camelback Mountain today because it’s so damn hot. At least, I think that’s why she died. But Ft. Pickens sounds beautiful. I know, I know, it’s humid there. Don’t tell me Phoenix isn’t humid in monsoon season sigh.
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I wouldn’t dream to tell you about Phoenix as I have never been to Phoenix, but I have been out that way, and it’s still too frickin hot for me! People are all like, “OH but it’s dry!” Psh. It’s hot. The difference between an oven and a steamer, either one is HOT! HOT! HOT! Stay cool, Luanne 😀
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People always say “Dry heat? Yeah, my oven is dry heat, too.” The truth is that in the heat of the summer it’s not dry in Phoenix. In the chill of the winter, it can be very dry. The coldest years, the drier it is, and the dryness makes it feel much much colder. Visiting Michigan this spring when it was still quite cold I was struck by how much I didn’t mind the cold because it was so humid.
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I concur! Cold wet winters are much less abrasive! 🙂
I don’t do well 70 and up, that’s the truth. Sun and humidity aside, I can’t take the heat.
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That beach looks beautiful, but a nice, cool cabin in the mountains sounds like a better vacation to me.
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You took some pretty good pics and write well;for a dying lady. Never been to Pensacola. I am fortunate in that I seem to able to tolerate most weather. You are indeed a trooper. Ft. Pickens. It’s nice that the Gov. named a fort for old Slim.
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LOL
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It does look very beautiful, and that water looks very inviting! I am not surprised you had to take refuge in the tunnel with that sort of heat!
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So two things:
1. If you drank more than your body weight in water, did you have to pee every 5 minutes? Or are you one of the warrior-types whose bladder will hold it all proudly for hours and then once your body decides its ready you have a 10 minute pee?
And
2. I love that word “Pensacola”. Reminds me of Spanish “pensar” = to think and Spanish slang “cola” = a line-up or an animal’s tail.
Ps. I have a warrior bladder but now that I’m heavier it’s harder to squat gracefully above the toilet in a public restroom without the force of the urine to go spraying everywhere. Sorry for the visual, but that’s how I do…
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I have a decent bladder, and am an expert squatter, but as I’ve gotten older, sometimes the lolz make me pee. Beware those “Dear Kitten” videos.
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I’d never heard of the “Dear Kitten” videos. Just saw one – pretty funny. When I sneeze I have to squeeze my thighs together so nothing escapes, lol. This convo is definitley tmi…but that’s how we roll 🙂
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IDGAF, I live in the real world 😉
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Woohoo me too!
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Enjoyed your post! Great pics, especially the shot of the ocean. I recently found out that I have rosacea—definitely not fun in the summer heat. Glad you made it! 🙂
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Oh I am sorry you’ve joined the Rosacea group
If it weren’t for the ocean…oy!
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Beautiful photos and the beach looks wonderful 😀
Time in Spain is now 8 pm and we have now 88 F. here. They just talk about the 3. heatwave is on the way.
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I’ve been to Florida several times but never really liked it. Maybe I should try Pensacola out. I enjoyed your post.
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I do prefer it, it’s quite nice. For Florida, lol 🙂
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Oh, this Fort Pickens through your lens is amazing, Joey. You are a great picture taker. Love the photo of the “fam.”
I liked picking up sea shells and sea glass along the beach and watching my brothers try to catch chameleons. My son is an animal and critter whisperer so he could practically sit down and wild things come to him, Joey.
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Omygosh that beach scene is gorgeous! I would have been in that water the entire time…
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