Monday, February 28, 2011

Finally...Some Sightseeing!

Who is eating whom?

Time here at beautiful Bella Terra has flown by.  Every day is beautiful and we have been lulled into a pleasant routine that has made us oblivious to the date...We recently looked at the calendar and discovered that it was almost time to go back!  (We reserve the word "home" for the Gus Bus.)   And we still had so many things to see and do yet!  It is so comfortable to just sit on our patio or at the pool and read or take a walk with the dogs or talk to your neighbors or... But we had places to go...Two weekends ago, we went to the Exploreum in Mobile...a science museum with lots of interesting exhibits for grown-ups and kids.  The current exhibit was our favorite...giant models of bugs!  One of the sponsors of the exhibit was Terminix!  Bet, they never had to kill anything this big.  Most of the bugs moved...very creepy some made sounds!  And our brief look at Mobile, gave us a sense of the city...old houses like you see in New Orleans with the lacy ironwork balconies mixed with modern structures.  All surrounded by the waters of Mobile Bay.
Larry being mistaken as mantis mate.
Last weekend we headed in the other direction, into Florida, to Pensacola.  Our destination was the Naval Air Museum, but as luck would have it our GPS led us astray.  Apparently, we were not the first.  The lady who made this sign was out in her yard and told us that at least a hundred people are misguided to this spot each weekend.  She sent  us in the right direction and we arrived at the gate guarded by Navy security....we had to show ID to visit the museum...which we assume is safe from terriorists!


Blue Angels planes suspended from the atrium roof.

The NAS museum was a treasure and our guided tour was made even better with the personal experiences of some of the attendees who had been pilots in the Vietnam era (our youth.)  Pensacola is the home of the Blue Angels and we sat through an IMAX film that made you feel like you were in the plane with them.  Not a good feeling!  All of the planes were amazing, especially some that were recovered from the depths of Lake Michigan and restored after years on the bottom.  We went in search of information about our cousin Greg Taylor's father, Commander Jesse Taylor.  We think we saw the road named in his honor, but found most of the information on a website about a ship that was named for him.  It was an inspiring day!  We'd like to go back sometime!

Never trust your GPS!
So what to do now that our time at Bella Terra is almost over...it's still cold in New Jersey...we decided to stay two more weeks!  KB

Pecans....any way you say it!


Pecan orchard
 While driving west on Route 98 towards the lovely town of Magnolia Springs to find yet another fabulous restaurant, we passed a farm where horses were grazing under the canopy of huge trees.  Nothing unusual except that the trees were planted in rows...it looked weird!  It didn't take us long to figure out that they were a "crop" of some sort.  A billboard for "pralines" gave us the clue that this was one of many pecan groves in this area.  The trees are huge, so how do they harvest the nuts?  Does someone climb them?  Of course the answer was on the internet  and it's fascinating...nothing you would see in New Jersey.  Now that we know what a  pecan grove looks like, we see them everywhere, even in residential  backyards. We'll have to come back in the Fall to see the actual harvest, but in the meantime, here's a video of how they do it.  Oh, by the way, found out that you call them "orchards" not "groves"! KB