Here we are in Jacksonville!

"BigFoot" loves Mike's bike!
He won't stay off of it!

BigFoot and "LD" (aka Little Dog)
They seem to be getting along here....
 

Aarrgh!  We had a great time at the
Pirate Party!

The flipflops won out!
No Pirate boots here!

They start out young here
at Ortega Landing!

Pirate Party in full swing

Maybe this will be our Christmas Card
picture this year! 

Cheryl and Ed
S/V Slowdown

Good view of the pool and marina
Pool is always a fun spot!

Picture at Poe's Tavern
Thought it was very cool!

We're not located where we can get really good shots
of the sunsets - but this one was pretty good!

Whitey's Fish Camp - on the river

Fun place to be!

To all our biker friends - just so you know!

Cool sign!

Old boat makes a great decor

Shopping at the Farmers Market

Lots of vendors - good produce
and lots of "stuff"

At Harpoon Louie's
'57 Cadillac - another great ride!

 

Billy's Boat House
Jacksonville Beach

Nippers
Plan to check it out this weekend!

Cloudy and a bit rainy
Still a great day at the beach, right?

Beautiful sky

We’re in Jacksonville – Marina at Ortega Landing.  It’s on the Ortega River just off the St John’s River.  This is a great marina and “hurricane safe”.  That’s the biggie – although hurricanes don’t seem to be a problem so far this season.  Let’s hope it stays that way!  August and September are usually the months that are the most active so we’ll see.  Anyway, the marina is really nice – it has a great pool and several social gatherings for us cruisers.  Oh and the laundry is free!  It’s the little things that make it a fun place to be.  J  We’ve only been here a couple of weeks so we’re still trying to find our way around.

The first weekend we were here they had a Pirate Party.  It started out on Friday with a gathering and a potluck dinner.  Saturday night the dinner was supplied by the marina along with a great rum punch or “grog”!  It was held poolside and they even had a band.  Of course, there were pirate costumes – Mike came in third in the costume contest.  Now I might be a little biased but I think he should have won.  Just sayin’……..

Every Saturday there is a Farmer’s Market down at the bridge just a few miles away along the river – perfect for a scooter ride.  It’s a pretty nice market with lots of vendors and usually pretty good music!

One day we decided to go on a scooter ride and check things out.  We found a “dive” called Judy’s Pub – not in the best part of town – but it was an interesting place.  We also found the American Legion.  They have a pretty neat place with a pool and tiki bar.  We’ll probably be back to the Legion.  Not so sure about Judy’s.   Hmmm…..   When we go on scooter rides or to the market we usually end up at either the West Inn Cantina or Harpoon Louie’s. This is in an area called Avondale not far from the marina.  These are pretty nice local hangouts.  I would say we’re becoming regulars at both of them.  At least the servers remember our drinks when we walk in.  J

Anyway we’ve been just hanging most of the time.  It’s been so terribly hot here we don’t venture out much in the afternoon.  We heard on the weather the other day that this is the hottest August they’ve had here in three years.  Go figure!  We did take a shopping trip one day to the Home Depot.  We were in search of a “sun shade” for the sundeck.  We found a perfect one too!  Now we can sit out on our sundeck in the afternoon and not be so hot with the sun glaring down.  Of course the day Mike installed it - it rained all day!

We plan to check out Jacksonville Landing soon.  There are several restaurants/bars and shops there.  We can get there on the scooter but want to wait until it cools down a bit.  Hopefully soon! 

We took the car last weekend to check out the beaches of Jacksonville.  They’re about 15-20 miles away.  We had lunch at Billy’s Boathouse.  There’s a Nippers here too – copied after the one in the Bahamas.  We passed on it this time but will definitely be back.  We found the beach but of course, once we did – it began to rain.  So we ducked in Poe’s Tavern.  This place was pretty cool – its theme is Edgar Allen Poe.  Hence – Poe’s Tavern.  Decorated pretty cool!

We were told about Whitey’s Fish Camp so we decided to check it out.  It’s on Fleming Island about 20 miles away so we had to go by car.  Turned out to be a pretty neat place.  Had the best hushpuppies in a long time and great Mahi tacos!

We plan to stay here at Ortega through the month of September at least.  Then we’ll start working our way south back to the Keys. So I suppose there will be more places here to check out.  The marina is also having another gathering Labor Day Weekend.  Sounds like a good time.

Stay tuned!

Admiral “C”