The National Naval Aviation Museum

If you need an excuse to take a vacation to the beach, you won’t find a finer one than the National Naval Aviation Museum at Naval Air Station Pensacola on Florida’s panhandle. My friend Cliff took me this week and all I can say is “Wow”. It’s huge. It’s beautiful. And it has everything you can imagine. We spent a few hours there. You could spend a few days. Seriously, it’s that big.



We toured both floors, watched an iMax movie, ate lunch at the cafe, walked around some more and didn’t even scratch the surface. We didn’t even get to the outdoor parts of the museum. Speaking of which, let me make that perfectly clear...the indoor part is air conditioned. That’s the second or third best thing about the whole experience.

I’ve been to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and I really think the Naval one is better. Seriously. At Pensacola, you can leave the wife and kids at the beach if they aren’t into aviation. But if they are, the museum is free. Yes, it surprised me too. It’s free.

But even that isn’t the best part. The best part is -- if you time it right -- that you can see these guys. (Notice the dates at that link. It’s time to go.) Again, for free.

(Museum Photo)

Don Brown
October 9, 2009