Pensacola, FL: Naval Aviation Museum

Our first day in Pensacola was rainy and chilly, so it was a good thing that we had already planned to go to the Naval Aviation Museum and spend the morning inside.



The museum is on base, and to get there you need to go through a checkpoint (be in the visitor's lane). Make sure you have your IDs (like a driver's license) for the adults in the car and don't bring in anything stupid like weapons.




The parking lot is huge, and it was full this day. The museum is pretty much the only thing to do in Pensacola when it's raining out, so plan accordingly.


There are two buildings to the museum, the main building and Hanger One. Do both.


I have mentioned before that Eric and I really like planes. We were in this museum for a solid 4 hours and didn't get tired of it. We mostly left because we were hungry for lunch (there is a cafe but it was some kind of sit-down place, and we had food in the car) and we wanted to see the lighthouse before it got too late in the day.







There is also a space section, along with various other sections like hot air balloons and zeppelins. They have a video playing that shows tricks the astronauts did in space with zero gravity, which was awesome.



The Blue Angels train in Pensacola. We were there a couple weeks too early to see their practices, but if you are lucky enough to be there when they practice, they are open to the public and free to watch. (We actually saw a free Blue Angels show in Baltimore in 2012 at Ft McHenry, as part of the Baltimore Sailabration commemorating the bicentennial of the War of 1812.)





You know how there's Air Force One? There's also Navy One:


Requisite shark plane eating head photo:


They had a drone (unfortunately it didn't have anything cool inside it).




Did I mention this museum is free? And you can get up close and personal with pretty much all these planes? It was awesome. If you get there early enough in the day, you can take a free golf cart tour of the planes they have out back, too, but we missed out on that. Either way, you should definitely check it out if you're in Pensacola.
Pensacola, FL: Naval Aviation Museum Pensacola, FL: Naval Aviation Museum Reviewed by Maria on 3:00:00 PM Rating: 5

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