Fort Pickens

And sometimes you go on guided tours of old military installations but 2-year-olds are bored just standing there so they find echo-y places to yell in or they just run around, much to the extreme displeasure of some cranky old guy who keeps giving poor Mom the evil eye for disturbing this most fascinating lecture about cannonball trajectory ... Yeah, that's about how Fort Pickens went for me. Didn't hear a word from the Park Ranger even when I was trying to pay attention to what he was saying.

So, um, yeah. AC and Sunny did the tour of the fort with AC carrying Magnolia in our pack carrier. I took Posy and Birdie back to the beginning of the tour where we could sit in a cool(er - it was still hot but not in the sun) area and wait for them. I have no idea what they did, but for Sunny, it was a field trip. And it marked off one of the requirements for her Junior Ranger pin.

What I remember of Fort Pickens - it was built by slaves prior to the Civil War, and was part of the defense of Pensacola Bay during the Civil War. There were 3 main forts - the Union had one and the Confederates had two ... or something like that. They didn't fight much. It was more of a standing truce for the most part. Then there was a bunch of military build-up in the area around World War II - there are random concrete bunker type things all over the place. I'm not sure what the danger was to the Gulf Coast in that time period but there's a lot of concrete around there!

at the beginning of the tour before we got too hot

Sunny getting her Junior Ranger book signed and talking with the National Park Service rangers about the pin she was earning.