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Thursday, January 26, 2012

Pensacola, Florida. Downtown.

Our first weekend here, we visited the downtown area of Pensacola.
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Besides the building associated with a county seat, the town has a couple of nice "town squares" and a waterfront area.  Live Oaks are the evergreen attraction in the squares.
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At various points around the city, there are painted pelicans, part of the Pelicans in Paradise project.  The local minor league baseball team is known as the Pensacola Pelicans.
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Pensacola lays claim to being the first permanent settlement by Europeans here in the United States.  You might be familiar with St. Augustine and Jamestown along those lines.  But Pensacola was established by the landing of Spanish explorer, Tristan de Luna, who arrived here with eleven ships and 1500 settlers in 1559.  The Smithsonian tells the rest of the story here.  In 2009, the King and Queen of Spain stopped by to help celebrate the 450th anniversary of the landing.
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And, just to prove that Pensacola is a full-fledged modern city, it has its own Occupy Pensacola corner.
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I'm not sure just what the meaning is of the sign that says, "ALL OUR BASE ARE BELONG TO 1%"  but I didn't see anyone awake to ask.  (The tents are behind the large banners.)



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