Sonya's Blog - Day 194 - Exploring Jacksonville
Sonya’s Blog - Day 194 - January 2nd - Exploring Jacksonville
We decided to head into Jacksonville today and check it out. It cooled down last night and today is not going to be as warm as it has been. I think the high for today is 18 or something, still nice enough to walk around. We decided to go to Costco first as we need some new chairs. We have had 2 break and now don’t have enough chairs to sit around outside together. Well, we forgot it was Saturday and Costco was a zoo. We went in, but they didn’t have any camping chairs and we left right away. We probably would have gotten groceries, but it just isn’t worth the crowds and the hassle. So that was a waste of time.
We decided to find the riverwalk and roam up and down that. Jacksonville is on one side of the St. Johns River and San Marco is on the other side. They both have riverwalks. We parked on the Jacksonville side at The Landing. The Landing is an area with shops and restaurants with a courtyard area where they have concerts and events. We thought it would be busier at The Landing because the Gator Bowl was happening (okay it’s not called that anymore, it’s called Taxslayor,com Bowl - which is a stupid name. Everyone needs a sponsor I guess). Gator Bowl is much cooler, I will stick with that name. Blake had looked at going to the game (Penn State and Georgia were playing), but it was going to be $260 for the tickets. He thought that was a bit pricey for College Football. Anyhow, it wasn’t busy at The Landing. We walked along the riverwalk and read the plaques that described some of the history of Jacksonville. After about 45 minutes or so, we walked back to The Landing and decided to find somewhere to eat. We needed to find a patio that would allow us to have Kizmet with us. We ended up finding an Irish Pub/Restaurant (McCools) and they had a covered patio where they would allow us to have Kizmet. This was perfect, because it was like it was inside and kept us out of the cooler breeze and Kizmet just laid down beside the table and was a good girl. Okay, first she cleaned up all the food under our table. She likes to take her opportunities when they are presented to her.
I had the Guinness Beef Stew, Blake had Fish and Chips, Isaac had Bangers and Mash and Natasha had a salad and Buffalo French Fries. I also had a Magnum Cider, I think this might be my favourite Cider. I like Strongbow too, but I think Magnum is a little bit better. The food was really good and we all had a good lunch. The bonus was that they had the College Game on - The Gator Bowl. It was the 4th quarter and it was a bit of a blowout. Georgia was up by many points and it didn’t look good for Penn State. Near the end of the quarter, however, Penn State, started to mount their comeback with a touchdown. They ran out of time in the end and Georgia won. The point is, the last part of the game was exciting and that is the part Blake was able to watch. We saved $260 and Blake still got to see the most exciting part of the game. Cool.
After lunch we walked down the the riverwalk the other way for a bit. We then decided to check out San Marco. We drove over there, but it wasn’t overly exciting and we decided to head back to the RV instead. It was about 5 when we got back, but we were all still really full from our late lunch. We decided to watch a movie instead. The latest Sherlock(with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman) is out and Natasha wanted to try and watch that. She found it, but we could only find it live streaming. It went well for about 1/2 hour or so, but then it got all jammed up. She tried to get it going again, but it just kept loading and loading to no avail.
I had started another book that I had gotten from the campground book exchange. It was called Buckingham Palace Gardens or something ( have already returned it to the book exchange by the time I am writing this blog, so I cannot even look at the book to be sure). It took place during Queen Victoria’s reign and it was a murder mystery. The author has written several books about this one detective, this is like the 10th or so, but you didn’t need to have read the other ones to follow this story. There was a murder in the Palace and this detective from Special Branch was called in to solve the crime. Of course, it is a delicate matter because it is in Buckingham Palace the the Prince of Wales is involved and it needs to be kept our of the public eye. It is pretty good so far, but I am pretty sure I know who did it. I don’t know why, but that won’t be obvious until the end.
Sonya