Jacksonville Beaches

First things first - yesterday was my mother's 82nd birthday - happy birthday, Mom! - and although I wasn't there to share the day in person, Gary and Dolores took her out to dinner and sent me the attached picture - quite a "babe" for 82, huh? And, I tell you, when I'm that age I hope I'm half as alive and vibrant as my mother is! She works four days a week in a Sparta first grade classroom and on the other day she volunteers at Radio Bible Class. Way to go, Mom!

So, meanwhile, we're still down here, doing nothing with any social significance but having a ball nevertheless! On Monday, we did go back over to the beach area - I did another of the AVA walks (the Neptune Beach walk, as opposed to the Atlantic Beach walk that I did last Friday). Dave brought his bike along and rode it all over the place for almost three hours - he loved it! He rode on the beach for a couple miles, which he loves doing, and spent the rest of the time riding up and down the streets that are along the beach front - checking out the beach houses, the bars and restaurants, and no doubt the girls on spring break (but that's ok!). The area is really cool - there are basically three beach areas strung together - Atlantic to the north, then Naptune, then the Jacksonville Beach, which looks like the most popular for vacationers. There are a ton of bars and restaurants, lots and lots of hotels, a great fishing pier from which you can watch all the surfers, etc. My walk was 11K, a little longer than the normal 10K walks, but it was very nice - lots to look at. About the time I was at my further point out (i.e. away from the car) I suddenly heard this voice and, of course, it was Dave - I was amazed that he found me. We were in the middle of Jax Beach (that's what they call it here!) so I took a break from my walk and we went into this really neat bar called Sneakers. It was a really big bar, and it had 3 of the biggest TV screens I've ever seen - almost the size of movie theater screens. Plus it had a big outside patio area so that's where we sat. (I only had a Coke because I didn't want to be sluggish on the remaining three miles of my walk!) I had to do the last two miles walking on the beach and it was just beautiful - the long foamy swells coming in from the ocean were gorgeous, the sun was shining, people were out walking and playing on the beach - it was great. When I got back to the car Dave was just putting his bike on the rack, and then we stopped at this neat little place right on the beach called The Lemon Bar - it was on Lemon Street. I had this wonderful frozen ice cream drink called (of course) the Lemon Bar - it was lemony, but not too tart, and creamy and tasted wonderful after walking 6.5 miles!

Tuesday was supposed to be in the 70's again, but it was overcast so didn't seem quite as nice. We spent the afternoon on a kayak ride right off the beach of the campground. Because we are on the far side of the peninsula, instead of right on the ocean, it was a nice kayak paddle. We paddled up the shore line past some shrimp boats, past the public boat ramp, and then up a large creek and past the marina. Dave has already been out here two or three times and tells me that he's seen dolphins and lots of jelly fish swimming past him, but I didn't spot anything on this trip. But it was fun to change the pace and get out on the water for a few hours.

Today we're going to finally go to St. Augustine, which everybody has told us is a "must." I'm up early doing this post because I needed to get onto the reservation system at 8:00 on the button to make my reservations for our stay starting on Feb 10 next year (you can make reservations for periods starting 11 months from today). The problem is that's the START date, and the person making the reservation then locks up that site for up to the next 14 days. When I went out yesterday to look at the park I was interested in, there were only THREE sites that were opening up for reservations on March 10. So I set the alarm and when my computer clock said 8:00 I hit enter - and I got my spot. After I finalized my reservation with my credit car and stuff I went back to check the other two that had been available and they were already taken - and this was at 8:05AM! Unreal. But I've finally realized this is what you have to do if you want to get into the state parks on the ocean - sounds ridiculous, but you have to do the same thing back home if you want to get into Ludington, so you just plan accordinging (...and set the alarm!).

I'll let you know how we liked St. Augustine...