It's Good To Be Back Home

I always like going on vacation but there is nothing like sleeping in your own bed. So, where do I start with this trip? Carol and I left at 5:09 a.m. to drive to Jacksonville. We needed to get to the Jacksonville airport by 10:30 to pick up Laura who was flying in from Davenport, Iowa and changing planes in Atlanta. About 9:15 she called and said her flight from Atlanta to Jacksonville was canceled due to "weather" but they would try to get her on another flight at 11:30. At about 11:00, she called again (by this time, Carol and I had already checked into the hotel, donned our bathing suits and were lathering up with sunscreen) and said she couldn't get on the 11:30 flight but was guaranteed the 2:30 flight. Oh was she mad! She had already missed a good hour of sun. We joked that had we known she would be stuck in Atlanta, we would have waited and picked her up at the airport and she could have driven down with us. Oh well, Carol and I laid in the sun until about 2:00 until it was time to leave for the airport. It wasn't very sunny and quite chilly but we were determined to be on the beach.

We picked up Laura at 3:45 from the airport and she had been drinking since early that morning when she missed her first flight and was talking up a storm. We then showered, dressed and went to dinner across the street. We were so hungry b/c we didn't eat lunch we were true floridians and ate dinner at 5:45, just in time for the early bird special!

Our hotel, Casa Marina, was a charming, historic hotel. They had a wedding going on every day we were there and so we had music every night until about 1:00 a.m. Also going on in Jacksonville was the Blues Festival right down the street from our hotel. We walked down to the Blues Festival and listened to the music and looked at all the eclectic items (and people). It was a lot of fun. We then went to a bar called Ragtime - a local pickup joint - that had a great band and had a lot of fun. Also went to a bar across the street with another great band. There seemed to be a lot of good bands in Jacksonville beach.

We met "Jim" who told Carol in the course of conversation his address. What an idiot. So we partied with him and he made Carol buy him a drink. We decided he was a desperate loser who hung around bars to have women tourists buy him drinks.
At Ragtime.
Saturday morning started out cloudy but quickly turned sunny by the time we made it to the beach at 11:00 a.m. We stayed on the beach until around 2:00 when it started to turn cloudy and rain. We showered and headed to Amelia Island. On Amelia Island, we ate at this fantastic restaurant called Brett's Waterway Cafe. The food was unbelievable and our waitress was out of this world. The best waitress I have ever had. Anyway, the food was so freakin' unbelievable. I would recommend this restaurant to anyone! Well worth the $32 I spent on my steak but it melted in your mouth. The rain stopped for a little while but then started up again as we were walking around the quaint little shops - what a great little town.

We headed back to our hotel room at about 8:30 p.m. and were so tired we decided to just stay in - how pathetic are we? But I guess that's what happens when you get old! We were in bed by 11:00 and even called the front desk to see how late the wedding band would play. I hate getting old.

Sunday it was cloudy and rainy. No beach time today. Laura had a total meltdown b/c that's all she wanted to do was lay in the sun after being stuck in dreary, cold, snowy Iowa for the last six months but we told her Atlanta had three snowstorms, a tornado and the weather sucked all winter too. That didn't seem to help. She started drinking, drinking, drinking and by the time we left for St. Augustine, she was feeling pretty good.

In St. Augustine, between the raindrops, we walked along the cobblestone streets and historic shops. What a neat little town. We had fun shopping. We had dinner at a charming restaurant and sat outside on the upstairs deck, overlooking the waterway. It was a great view!In St. Augustine
We then came back to Jacksonville and we had had just enough to drink that we thought we would see if "Jim" really did live at 3218 1st Street like he told Carol. So we found the house and the windows were open, we were yelling Jim, Jim, and pounding on the door. Of course, Laura was hiding in the front seat b/c she couldn't believe Carol and I were doing this. So sure enough "Jim" comes to the door and Carol said we had come to collect on our beers and he's like, uh, okay. Talk about no personality - we are like no thanks and we ran back to the car. Pretty high school stuff but he was such a LOSER and had no sense of humor, we had a lot of fun doing it!

We then headed to a bar called Bonefish Grill, which is a chain, but was another local hangout. We reminisced about all the parties we had while in high school at Grandma's cabin and we were all laughing until we were crying with all the different stories.

Okay, so Monday morning, our last day in Jacksonville, was another crappy, rainy day - Laura had another meltdown. We then were trying to figure out how to get Laura on a plane in Atlanta so she could drive back with us and not have to wait at the JAX airport until 7:00 but we didn't have much luck. We dropped her at the airport in Jacksonville at about 2:30 and she was able to get on the 3:50 flight. She would then have to wait at the Atlanta airport for 5 hours to catch her connecting flight, one of only two, to Moline. By the time she got to Atlanta by plane, we were just making it back into the city. Carol and I decided to drive to the airport and have drinks and dinner with her so she wouldn't have to wait alone. We got home at 9:30 and she called me at 11:44 and had made it back to Davenport.

Despite the rain, we did have a good time - next trip we're hoping for more sun. Hopefully we'll get it in December when the entire family is going to Tampa and then on a cruise. I can't wait for that one!