Trish & Anne RV Adventures

We moved to Jacksonville on Thursday, May 4 – once we got our rental car, we went to Pat Calvin’s house for a visit. Those who have been following our adventures since the beginning may recognize this name, as this is our third visit with her. Pat was the Mock’s maid on and off from before Trish was born until her mother passed away. She’s 91 years old now, and other then bad knees, she’s still going strong. In fact, she insisted on cooking us dinner all three evenings that we visited with her – she let Trish help her a little and I did the dishes, but she is definitely in charge in her kitchen.

Pat stays up late and sleeps in,, so Friday morning we went grave hunting again.

Trish’s brother Roger in buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Jacksonville. The Hebrew on the tombstone means “Son of Abraham and Sarah” which is how Judaism refers to the parents of someone who converted to Judaism. This is because their birth parents are not Jewish, and that Sarah and Abraham are considered to be the forebears of Judaism.

We then went across town, where with help from the concierge at the Oaklawn Cemetery, we were able to find Trish’s parents grave site and pay our respects. The dogwoods along the side of the plaque are one of their favorite plants. Pretty sure this will be the end of the dead family members that we will visit this trip.

On Saturday we met Trish’s sister-in-law Sharon at her sister’s house for lunch. And their mother Maxine was also there – she’s 98 years old, and though she is a lot deaf, she still lives on her own. Trish has told me many stories of when Maxine and Hank would join in the Mock holiday celebrations, with Maxine always having a dirty joke to tell. I forgot to get a picture of Cathy and Larry. After lunch Maxine and Sharon rode over to join us in visiting with Pat. They stayed for an hour or so, but Maxine wanted to get home in order to watch the Kentucky Derby.

Sharon making a point, and Pat and Maxine enjoying a laugh – not sure if there was a dirty joke involved or not.

Pat wanted us to stay longer, but we had reservations at the Katheryn Abbey Hanna City Park – which was a great find. It was near Jacksonville Beach and we moved there on Sunday, May 7. After we set up camp we had some lunch. While we were sitting there we looked out the window and spotted this guy.

Then we explored the park a bit. We started by walking over to the camp store. On the way I heard what I thought was woodpecker, and I looked up and spotted a pileated woodpecker. I only had my phone, but I did manage to get this picture.

Then we headed over to the lake side of the park, there were lots of places to picnic, big fields for folks to play games, a splash park for the kids, a place to rent kayaks and canoes, and in the middle of the lake – a rookery with tons of heron, egrets, cormorants and anhinga.

After walking around the area, and watching some of the boaters – we finally decided that we would give a double kayak a try. So we rented one for half an hour. It was a blast, and with both of us paddling we didn’t go in circles – which is a problem for Trish when she paddles alone. I got some even better pictures of the birds which will be in the other post.

After our kayak trip we went back to the camper and packed up a snack of cheese and crackers and headed to the Atlantic Ocean beach portion of the park – the are 1.5 miles of coastline with a nice beach.

Looking both ways on the beach.

That’s a surfer – I wasn’t watching him constantly, but I didn’t see him get up on the board. And that’s a laughing gull flying down the beach.

Sanderling on the beach

Walking back to the car, the beach is beyond the dune on the left.

On Monday our plan was to explore Amelia Island, which was another place that Trish would visit with her family when she was young. We drove to the island on Florida Route A1A – a nice scenic drive through a wildlife preserve and past several state parks And by the way, that isn’t us driving off a bridge, we were on the Mayport Ferry.

As we were getting close to the biggest town on the island, Fernandina Beach, we drove past this shop and had to turn around. JW Frame Gallery is the name that Trish’s sister and nephew call their frame shop.

The Isle of 8 Flags, is a nickname for Amelia Island. The flags seen above ignores that the Timucuan Indians that were there when the Europeans invaded did not fly a flag. There flags were French, Spanish, British, Patriots of Amelia Island, Green Cross of Florida – which was Scottish, Mexican Revolutionary, the US, and the confederacy. Quite a history and the docent told us some great stories.

A map to show you that Amelia Island is the northern most barrier island in Florida. And the book that our docent wrote – about his adventures raising a baby cardinal that he found in the road. Sounds like it will be interesting.

At the museum, we picked up a booklet that gave us a tour of many of the historic houses in Fernandina Beach. At the top are the 17-room Baker House – it has been in the same family since 1860 and the Fairbanks House – built in 1885 for George Fairbanks – who was instrumental in developing the Florida citrus industry. Below are two views of the Bailey house, a Queen Anne style house built about 1895, because if you look closely, you can see carousal horses on the porch and I didn’t want you to miss them

Nassau County Courthouse built in 1891 – it is the oldest county courthouse in continuous use in Florida.

The Italian Renaissance Style post office built in 1912.. Way fancier then the Framingham Post Office.

View of Main Street in Fernandina Beach, along with a flamingo rainbow. We did find an ice cream spot.

Outside and inside the Palace Saloon – built in 1878 as a haberdashery, it was refurbished as a saloon in 1903 and is Florida’s oldest operating saloon. It survived prohibition by selling gasoline, ice cream, 3% near beer and cigars. We stopped in and had a drink.

After finishing up in town, we went to Fort Clinch State Park – we didn’t tour the fort, but we went on short nature walk where we didn’t really see anything. Some folks we saw said they had seen some armadillo, but we didn’t spot any.

Views of the beach near Fort Clinch.

Magnolia blossom and a dear we spotted leaving the park.

It was another ride on the ferry back to the campsite – where we took a walk and discovered we could see the rookery without driving around the lake – those pictures will be in my rookery update.

Tuesday we went to Saint Augustine – it was my first time there and we decided to start by taking the hop-on, hop-off trolley to get the lay of the land.

Saint Augustine was started by the Spanish in 1565 to protect the gulf stream shipping route and to maintain their hold on Florida. After having 9 different wooden forts on this spot, they built the Castillo de San Marcos between 1672 and 1675. We left the tour for next time.

The first place we got off the trolley was the St. Augustine Distillery. (Thanks to Mary Beth and Mike for suggesting this.) It was just before noon, but we took the self-guided tour and tasted the cocktails they provided (but those were not self-poured.) We decided we needed to bring some bourbon home, but also decided we would come back when we had the car.

Views of the sea wall protecting the city – the original wall was built in the 1600’s, but it was replaced by the lower one you see in the 1800’s. The higher one was built to protect the lower one in the 1950’s.

These houses were on the road home from Saint Augustine – Notice that the one on the left has no stairs leading to the house, and that on the right there is not much support under that garage. I think this might be the result of Hurricane Ian.

That evening, in honor of the 3rd anniversary of my mother’s passing, we, along with other members of my family, had pierogies for dinner. Since we had had a pretty heavy lunch, we skipped the kielbasa.

On Wednesday, when I was sitting outside the camper having my tea, I was finally able to spot and photograph a northern parula. We knew it was around because our Merlin App had caught its call several times, but we had not been able to find it.

And here you can see what I meant about the privacy of our campsite.

We drove back into Jacksonville proper, to an area called Springfield. It was established in 1869, and is north of downtown Jacksonville and is the oldest neighborhood in the city. Once home to the city’s wealthiest residents and famous silent film stars (Jacksonville used to be the winter film capital of the world!), this historic neighborhood is now filled with restored mansions (and bungalows). Above is one of the bridges over the St John’s River, and the building at the right was built in the Classical Revival style in 1921 for the the Church of Christ, Scientist. It is now privately owned by David Karpeles, a former math professor who made millions investing in real estate before taking up manuscript collecting. He has repurposed buildings across the United States to house his collection, now the world’s largest. This location is now closed, but I will have to look for others. Check out this link if you are interested in knowing what some of his holdings are: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karpeles_Manuscript_Library_Museums#Examples_of_documents_from_the_collection

Then it was time to stop for BBQ at Bono’s. Lou Bono’s opened this BBQ spot in 1949, and Trish’s family used to stop here on the way back from the beach. And for those who have ever had BBQ at our house, the recipe is from Lou Bono’s.

We split a rib plate and a sliced brisket plate – I was chomping on a rib while Trish took these photos.

On the way back to the RV, we stopped at the Beaches Museum in Jacksonville Beach. It told the story of the development of the area, mostly via old pictures of the area, but they also had a movie. Interesting and physically cool, so a nice break.

And then we took a look at Jacksonville Beach – there are all sorts of places to stop and just walk onto the beach – especially at this time of the year and day.

Other than two more looks at the rookery, that was the end of our week in Jacksonville. And then we were on to Winter Park – before I can tell you about that, I have to get the rookery pictures together. Hopefully coming soon.