Evenings in Olde Seville Square

If it's a Thursday evening in the summer, you will find many islanders heading "into America" to enjoy Evenings in Olde Seville Square. Last night Tim Jackson's MR. BIG party band performed to an enthusiastic crowd.


Swing your partners, rock n' roll!


Even the little ones jump for joy!


Why not enjoy a wonderful evening and great music in Olde Seville Square under these magnificent old live oak trees.


Beautiful moms bring their beautiful babies and create beautiful memories.


There's plenty of dance room left for all ages.


It's a great place to meet your friends...


...and enjoy the music with a special someone. It will put a smile like this on your face.


Admire the fantastic wood sculptures around the park.


If you get bored, you can play with your Matchbox cars -- or poker chips.


Just pack up dinner, the lawn chairs, the family, and come out for a great time.


Moms can chill out with friends and kids can bounce on beach balls or swing in the playground.


And a few dribbles of apple juice won't matter a bit.

Love worthwhile

"Love doesn't make the world go 'round; love is what makes the ride worthwhile."

~~ Franklin P. Jones

Bands on the Beach

Every Tuesday night during the summer, the Santa Rosa Island Authority presents Bands on the Beach (formerly known as Blues on the Beach), a free concert series on Pensacola Beach. Last night The Reunion pulled in a large crowd!


Bring your lawn chairs and come on down every Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m.!


"It's okay, you can be Robin."


"Grandma, he won't play with me."
"It's okay, Batman. Grandma will dance with you."


Sometimes the kids just have to stop dancing to stare at the goofy grown-ups.


Children are under watchful eyes and having a great time.


So...your mama DOES dance, and your daddy DOES rock 'n roll.


Making great summer memories with dad.

Sand Sculptures on Pensacola Beach

Work on the sand sculptures started at 9:00 a.m. this morning! Looks like a truck is getting 'detailed' here.


Judging was at 2:00 p.m. and prizes awarded at 3:00 p.m. I'm glad I didn't have the responsibility of judging, but I sure had a great time snapping photos today.


Ah, every good Chevy truck on the beach has a surfboard in the back, even in the sand sculptures!


One of my favorites today because it says exactly what I say to myself everyday. "Lucky U" - you live on the island!


Captain Nemo? Is that you?


Yep, it turned out to be Captain Nemo, but it looks like he's in the clutches of a giant squid!


It's the famous Pensacola Beach sign!


Looks like a sunbather is getting out early today. She definitely needs some SPF 50!


Wow, I think she turned out to be a Pillsbury Dough girl --- and she's starting to rise. Everyone loved this sculpture.


Beach Ball Realty sand sculpture in progress.


The finished product.


Beautiful dolphins on the Beach Ball Realty sculpture. What a great job.


Hmmm...this must be a beach sunflower. It was nice that there were different age classes for the sand sculptures. The kids did a great job.


Yikes! It's a green sea snake!


A large sea turtle in the making and just in time for the real turtles to start coming ashore to lay their eggs on Pensacola Beach.


Turtles, turtles, everywhere!


"In memory of #6" stands for Lt. Commander Kevin Davis, our Blue Angel who died on April 21, 2007.


Blue Angel #6. This was a very nice memorial.


SpongeBob SquarePants!


The big octopus.


Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your seaweed - oops, I mean 'golden' - hair! See the tiny seashell prince waiting for her below?


Aw, a baby turtle finally hatched.

A circle

"...There's far too much to take in here
More to find than can ever be found,
But the sun rolling high through the sapphire sky
Keeps great and small on the endless round...
In the circle, the circle of life."

~~ Elton John, "Circle of Life"

Within

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."

~~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Evening shadows

"I want to do the right thing, but often I don't know just what the right thing is. Every day I know I have come short of what I would like to have done. Yet as the years pass and I see the very world itself, with its oceans and mountains and plains, as something unfinished, a peculiar little satisfaction hunts out the corners of my heart. Sunsets and evening shadows find me regretful at tasks undone, but sleep and the dawn and the air of the morning touch me with freshening hopes. Strange things blow in through my window on the wings of the night wind and I don't worry about my destiny."

~~ Carl Sandburg (1878 - 1967)

Memorial Day in Pensacola

Barrancas National Cemetery encompasses over 94 acres within the U.S. Naval Air Station at Pensacola, Florida. At the end of 2006, more than 33,000 veterans and spouses had been laid to rest within the grounds of the cemetery.

I hope on this Memorial Day my blog visitors pause to remember all the heroic men and women who paid the ultimate sacrifice for their country. Let us pause "to put the 'memorial' back into Memorial Day."

"...gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with choicest flowers of springtime....let us in this solemn presence renew our pledges to aid and assist those whom they have left among us as sacred charges upon the Nation's gratitude,--the soldier's and sailor's widow and orphan."

--General John Logan, General Order No. 11, 5 May 1868




"The muffled drum's sad roll has beat
The soldier's last tattoo;
No more on life's parade shall meet
That brave and fallen few.
On Fame's eternal camping-ground
Their silent tents are spread,
And Glory guards, with solemn round,
The bivouac of the dead...




"For many a mother's breath has swept
O'er Angostura's plain
--And long the pitying sky has wept
Above its moldered slain.
The raven's scream, or eagle's flight,
Or shepherd's pensive lay,
Alone awakes each sullen height
That frowned o'er that dread fray.




"Sons of the Dark and Bloody Ground
Ye must not slumber there,
Where stranger steps and tongues resound
Along the heedless air.
Your own proud land's heroic soil
Shall be your fitter grave;
She claims from war his richest spoil
--The ashes of her brave...




"Rest on embalmed and sainted dead!
Dear as the blood ye gave;
No impious footstep shall here tread
The herbage of your grave;
Nor shall your glory be forgot
While fame her records keeps,
Or Honor points the hallowed spot
Where Valor proudly sleeps.



"Yon marble minstrel's voiceless stone
In deathless song shall tell,
When many a vanquished ago has flown,
The story how ye fell;
Nor wreck, nor change, nor winter's blight,
Nor Time's remorseless doom,
Shall dim one ray of glory's light
That gilds your deathless tomb."

~~ Theodore O'Hara, "Bivouac of the Dead"