I love this view. Puget Sound, Olympic National Park and Steilacoom.  Beautiful.

Mobile or bust- Day 2

We left Jacksonville and headed north to Amelia Island.  After struggling to figure out where to stay the night before, I decided to sit down with my laptop and see if I couldn't locate us a "home" in advance of our arrival.  Combined with the Memorial Day weekend crowds, I was a bit concerned about ending up "homeless."  While locating a hotel/motel I came across a website for Ecomotion Tours and knew I had found our adventure for the day.

Ecomotion Tours is located within the Fort George Island Cultural State Park and offered off-road segway tours and instruction.  What an adventure!  With regards to wildlife, we spotted a gopher tortoise and weekend revelers.  It was amazing to see so many people and boats in one location.  Quite honestly, it was what I always imagined Memorial Day weekend would/should look like.

Mom- sporting her helmet

Me- seriously, could I look anymore special?



HORRIBLE angle...guh!



Time to do the cone course!

Owner, instructor, leader- Greg

Look- after just 5 minutes, she is a natural

Amazing view!



Helmet head- posed pictures



More helmet head posing

Look at all those boats! The water was 75 degrees!

Awwww

self-portrait (a la helmet head!)

Judy



Look, we both really did it!



Look Mom- no hands! 

Me

Gopher Tortoise



With the governor off- look out!



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Observations from our trip.  The amount of industry on the waterways of Florida is unreal.  I seems as if no forethought was put into it.  Maybe it's just that the industry has been where it is for so long that people and their recreation have just learned to co-exist with it.  Very surreal to me. 

Both of these places were right on the waterway



Not a great picture, but you get the idea



This is the view from Fort George Island State Park

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Last but not least- FOOD!

I think my need to research everything is starting to drive my mom nuts.  However, after our fabulous dinner, I think she is beginning to see the light!!

Dinner was at Barbara Jean's, where we ate the most amazing breads (corn, pumpkin and a roll). 

Sadly, I didn't take a single picture of the food because I was too busy taking in the view. Oh wait, we should step back a few minutes first. This is where I locked the keys in the car. Yes sir, I just said that I locked the keys in the car. Thankfully mom has AAA and thankfully we were just arriving to have dinner. So, by the time we were done, Jimmy had arrived, worked his magic and we were on our way again. Where did I leave the key you ask? On the front seat, right where I could see it. As soon as that door closed, I knew there was a problem. Boo!

So here is the view from Barbara Jean's:

Beautiful porch with hanging ferns and the natural landscape beyond

Beautiful

View, from another angle

Amazing

Seashells as part of the siding...interesting

Next up: stalking the houses of Historic Fernandina Beach, Florida.....



Mobile or bust!!- Day 1

We left DuPont at 4:40am and then departed Sea-Tac at 7:10am.  Our flight to St. Paul-Minneapolis, MN was FULL! However, our seatmates were pleasant.  After a layover and lunch in MN, we boarded our flight to Jacksonville, Florida.  Talk about the flight.from.HELL.  I don't know where the family filling the seats directly behind ours were from, but I pity their neighbors.  I'm not sure where to lash out first; the bratty, bratty kids who behaved like beasts; or their parents who obviously never raised their little beasts to behave....anywhere!!  I wish I could say I was kidding, but they really were worse than you could ever imagine.  Case in point- four days after our flight, my mom saw a souvenir in a store with the name McKenna on it and physically flinched upon reading it.  Seriously!

So our first night was in Jacksonville.  Apparently northern Florida is going through a bit of a heat spell right now.....uh, yeah!  It was upper 80's when we went downtown to take in the sights and sounds of the Jazz Festival. 

Downtown Jacksonville had streets closed for the four different Jazz Festival stages.  It was still a happening place when we arrived after 8pm. 

And this one if for my USDC/BK friends

Pictures of the blue bridge.  All of their bridges were lit up at night and looked beautiful

Mom

Me

And the last bit of info- our hotel room.  Hilton Garden

Homewood Suites and Hilton Garden hooked together....weird.  It was also annoying because my wifi kept crossing over to the Homewood Suites homepage and wouldn't recognize my.  grrrrrr

The room was nice.  The beds were nice.  The bathroom was nice.  All of which became very significant when we stayed in Fernandina Beach the next night.