Goodbye Florida

Jacksonville, FL March 15 - 20, 2013

We arrived at our Jacksonville RV park which is famous for its Pecan Park Flea Market next door.  It is a nice flat RV park with long concrete sites and a large open area next door, perfect for the dogs.  Instead of neighboring train tracks, this park was under the flight pattern of the Jacksonville airport.  The planes were so low we could tell what airline they were from!  Peg was very excited about the flea market so we headed over there on Saturday morning.  It turned out to be a very large yard sale with booth after booth of mostly junk.  We did purchase some new sheets which sounded too good to be true for the price and some new Stuart Woods books.  Of course the sheets turned out to be paper thin, but a lesson learned once again.

Zoom lens not required!

We used our next day to drive the area and scope out things to do.  We drove up to Amelia Island to see Fernandina Beach.  The beaches were beautiful and the towns really quaint.  We also visited Fort Clinch State Park on Amelia.  There was a beautiful boardwalk along the beach and a great bird watching exhibit.  There were some good hiking and biking trails, but dogs were not allowed on the beach.  We then drove down to Talbot Island to see Big and Little Talbot State Parks.  Both parks have great trails and beach areas so we decided to come back with the dogs and take the five mile hike on the Dune Ridge Trail. It was a loop with two miles of it being on the beach.  No dogs remember, so we turned around and went back the way we came. It was a great hike to the beach and back.

                                                    The beach we couldn't walk on

Drive into Fort Clinch State Park

Cool tree that wanted to steal some sun (phototropism) on our Dune Ridge hike

We decided to use our last day to explore Jacksonville's downtown and visit the Cummer museum and gardens.  Jacksonville is a great city that straddles St Johns river.  The Cummer Gallery of Art was a fabulous collection of art spanning 4000 years and a beautiful collection of 18th Century Meissen porcelain.  It is also famous for the gardens!  Mrs. Cummer was responsible for starting the Florida Federation of Garden Clubs.  It is a beautiful spot overlooking the river and impeccably maintained.  

                                          Jim Draper a local artist with a show at the Gallery

                          Italian Fountain shipped by boat to the States in 1930 just for this garden

Coming soon.  Brunswick and Savannah, Georgia