Pensacola

During my recent 9-day / 2-state / 1,690-mile road-trip I visited Florida’s westernmost city – Pensacola. Over 50,000 call Pensacola home, and over 500,000 live in the metro area. I live almost 700 miles away in the far southeastern corner of Florida. This was my very first visit to Pensacola. I had previously only driven along I-10 north of the city limits. (A small portion of the city actually crosses over I-10 to the north side.)

This side-visit to Pensacola was planned in advance. I spent the night at a hotel very near their airport, and then the next morning I drove in to the historic downtown district to walk around, take lots of photos (coming soon to a blog near you), and visit two of their biggest museums. (Most of their smaller museums and other historic buildings were actually closed due to COVID-19. They are slowly reopening some of these other facilities.)

It was a fun 2½-hour visit on a hot and sunny Saturday morning. Had everything been opened for visitors I could have easily spent all day there, and maybe even part of the next day. I’ll have to consider a future visit the next time I drive to and from North Texas to visit my family.

Pensacola is considered to be the “icebox” of Florida. Their weather is just like the rest of the state from about April to October – hot and humid with scattered showers and thunderstorms. But in the wintertime – watch out – because it gets cold there, and it can even sleet, ice, and snow there. I wouldn’t want to live there when I retire, but it’s a nice city to visit for a day or two.