2020 How to Spend 24 Hours in Pensacola, Florida [PICTURES]
Photos, left to right: Flora-Bama bar, Elbow Room, Perfect Plain Brewing Co., The Kennedy, The Union Public House
Where to Eat & Drink in Pensacola, Florida
The Union Public House - Dinner — Get the slow-cooked pork 🤤
Elbow Room - Bar — Dive
Old Hickory Whiskey Bar - Bar — Very posh and cool
Intermission - Bar — Dive
The Kennedy - Bar — Old school diner vibes
Perfect Plain Brewing Co - Brewery — Great beers
Fosko Coffee - Coffee
Flora-Bama - Infamous dive bar right on the ocean
Photos, left to right: Flight suit at Tin-A-Hut Military Surplus store (+wearing it in Big Bend for a photoshoot!), hats at the Loaves & Fishes Thrift Store (favorite thrift store), spoils from St. Vincent de Paul.
Where to Thrift in Pensacola, Florida
Pensacola, Florida Photos
3 Anecdotes in Pensacola, Florida
Hurricane
Flor-Bama
Tin-A-Hut Military Store
Fugitive + Tropical Storm = An Adventure
Did I say that right? Sure did.
On Wednesday morning, in the middle of my stay in Pensacola, I read a rap on the door which was my next-door neighbor coming to say hello.
Or so I thought.
She started by saying, “so the topical storm that’s coming tonight…”
Wait, what?
I had no idea. That evening, Hurricane Zeta hit New Orleans as a Category 2, though some would say it was closer to a 3 (winds were topping at 95 MPH, sustained) and I was all sorts of excited, scared, uncertain, and more.
Mostly excited.
A Texas girl who has a penchant for adventure? Count me in.
Tina started commenting on the “obvious” things to do (I had no idea),
“Don’t forget to fill up a thing of water so that you can use it to flush.”
“Put the things on your bed.”
“Turn up the AC REAL HIGH and your fridge and DON’T OPEN A GOD DAMN DOOR so that you keep the cold in.”
I had a brief chat with the neighbors earlier that day, who were by all accounts, the funniest people I have encountered on this trip so far.
I’ve mentally coined them the “Neighborhood Watch Comedy Troupe”. Tina, my next-door neighbor, is a Louisianan by blood and knew exactly what to do. The other next-door neighbor, Ramona, was a gale-force wind herself who remarked, with her Spanish accent, that “Zeta has already passed over Mexico, so you know it’s had too much Tequila.”
I think I’m going to like being stuck with this crew.
At one point I had to run out to Walmart to get some supplies, and you could feel the crazy in the air. The shelves were ransacked. People were, at best, erratic. I saw a man on a 4 wheeler speed down the Walmart parking lot so quickly I thought it was a suicide mission.
When I was driving back to the Airbnb, I passed by a few officers with K9 dogs sniffing a car parked at a local convenience store, odd (just a block away from where I was staying).
Then when I got home, the Neighborhood Watch was talking to one another from their screened-in porches.
Apparently, there was a fugitive on the loose and he passed through our backyard.
The K9s (handsome dogs) and the police officers (handsome men) passed through our backyard and did a full inspection of the grounds. Very thankful for their service as I was shaking in my boots, not playing it cool on all accounts (where are you going to be after the hurricane? Which bar? When you’re off duty? Call me!).
Then I hung out with Tina in her living room, sipping on a Hurricane, watching the weather channel closely.
Everything was fine, but it was certainly an adventure.
A highlight: FloraBama
Yes, that’s right. This bar is technically in Florida, but you’re RIGHT on the border with Alabama.
You can smoke inside, hear three different live bands in one night, see the ocean, and play Buck Hunt all at the same time.
From the outside, the bar doesn’t look too big, but on the inside, it’s a labyrinth. The vibes are a chill as the Miller Lites.
There are bras hanging from the ceiling, and the two story inside venue makes for a fun “make it rain” moment when the band asks for tips.
A few danced, but everyone slurred their words.
…and that was at 8:00 pm. Hey, blame it on the gorgeous full moon, the recent hurricane (they were open the Tuesday after Sandy hit, this bar is STEPS from the ocean), or the fact that Halloween was the next day.
Did I mention you could eat Shrimp at the same time?
Shopping in an Army Navy Store
Army Navy Stores, or “military surplus stores” as they seem to call them in Florida, have a soft spot in my heart.
There used to be an Army Navy store just behind a 7-11 not too far from where I grew up. My siblings and I would ride our bikes with wadded up dollars in our pockets to the store when we were under little parental supervision.
Our presence was always welcome, though inappropriate given our age, by the staff. They still smoked in the store back then, and sometimes I wondered if they ever opened a door because, by the time we got there, smoke billowed out the front door so heavily it was like a Halloween movie set and my lungs cringed and withered as I took deep inhales after the extraneous bike ride.
It was rumored that the woman who ran the store was either Harvey Oswald’s wife, or sister, but of some relation. I didn’t understand what it meant at the time, but thinking back on the fact that she actually told me that (I was maybe 10 at the time) and I just nodded and scooted my airsoft bullets a little closer to the register as a hint that we had a game to be played and needed to move on
That fact gives me chills today. What if she actually was Harvey Oswald’s wife?
Well, I did some research.
“All the while, their mother tried as hard as she could to live a normal life, working for more than 20 years, Aynesworth said, at the now-defunct Army Navy Surplus Store in the 4400 block of McKinney Avenue in the Uptown section of Dallas, just a few miles from where the president was killed.”
This brings me to my experience at the Tin-A-Hut Military Surplus store in Pensacola.
Unlike your typical military surplus store, the owner of A-Tin-Hut has a daughter who stocks a section of the store with vintage pieces (I actually interviewed Mary for the Seeking Inspirato series).
Commenting on my orange jumpsuit, my stepdad said: “It’s a good color to be rescued… and good color to get captured”
