Beacher's Lodge in Crescent Beach, FL

Ryan and I recently took a mini-vacation to Crescent Beach, about an hour away from Jacksonville and about 10-20 minutes south of St. Augustine. We stayed at a condo hotel called Beacher's Lodge where, for just over $100/night plus $50 total for our dog Romeo to join us for the weekend, we were able to wake up to sunrises on our balcony with a nice cup of coffee and cook our own food in the little kitchenette. It's definitely not as big as a real condo, it's hotel room sized but unlike a real condo vacation rental, there are no housekeeping fees or minimum night stays. It was a perfect little getaway for the holiday weekend and we were able to relax on the beach and walk to the nearby restaurants, South Beach Grill (delicious fries but didn't like the veggie burger) and Paula's Beachside (cute dogs visited our table, there was live music and sweet potato tots and clam strips were pretty good).

We are accustomed to busier beaches like Atlantic, Jacksonville, Cocoa and even New Smyrna is busier than Crescent Beach but it was just what we were looking for! The sand is white and smooth and the dunes are amazingly healthy with plenty of wildlife: we saw bunnies, a gopher tortoise and lots of birds and flowers. Make sure to take out any trash you bring with you to keep these dunes beautiful for everybody else :)

The waves weren't awesome but Ryan caught a few small ones and if his bike tire hadn't been leaking, we would have worked in a few bike rides! There is a Publix, a Winn-Dixie and a bike rental place just up the road so you can pick up things when you arrive.

Overall, I liked Beacher's Lodge! It's an older place and depending on the room you choose (they are separated by size and by Bronze, Silver and Gold levels depending on the upgrades, etc) they can be a bit run down, but it was clean and seemed to be fairly well maintained. The only issues we had (curtains fell down and there was a mildew smell from the wall unit a/c in the bedroom) were quickly remedied by the maintenance staff who were very friendly and courteous. In fact, all of the staff that we encountered were so kind and accommodating.

Definitely check out Crescent Beach, if only for a day trip to try out a new beach! You will not be disappointed :)

Little Talbot Island State Park

Little Talbot Island State Park is just a short drive from downtown Jacksonville and it is absolutely stunning. For $5/car, you can enjoy 5 miles of pristine white sand beaches. It isn't nearly as crowded as the beaches from Neptune to Jax Beach and parking is a lot easier to obtain :) Make sure you bring the following: loads of sunscreen, even more water, snacks, and bug spray! I didn't see any mosquitoes on the beach, but when we tried to go to the trail at the entrance of the park, I was quickly bitten by about 7 in 30 seconds....and these ones hurt!! There are a few vending machines and a restroom in the park, but other than a few pavilions it is pure, unadulterated wildnerness! Switch up your normal beach routine and check it out.

***Make sure to pick up any trash you bring with you...there are bins for trash and recycling!  If you're feeling extra nice, you could also pick up a few pieces of trash that inconsiderate past visitors left behind***

St. Marys, Georgia

(Mr. Freezes and parades...yeah summer!)

This 4th of July all that I wanted to do was to see a parade in a small town.  Growing up in the Upper Peninsula (UP) of Michigan (practically Canada), I get nostalgic and misty eyed during the summer months, which were my absolute favorite in the North. Summertime in the UP is amazing for several reasons: 1. No snow!; 2. Many families have cabins or "camps" on lakes and rivers and even if you don't have one, there is no shortage of hospitality in the UP! Sooner or later, an invitation to a BBQ and swimming or jet skiing/boating in the river/lake is sure to come; 3. Each town has their own festival and  they are usually during different times in the summer so you can attend all of them...they usually have fireworks too; 4. and last but certainly not least PARADES. I don't think I appreciated parades until recently but, especially in a small town, they are a shining display of a community's pride and sense of togetherness that can be hard to find elsewhere.

St. Marys, Georgia did not disappoint! We arrived about 20 minutes before the start of the parade, parked along the side of Osborne Street and walked a few blocks to a shaded area along the parade route. They really went all out for their parade and it was awesome! I kept saying "I'm so glad we came here" to Ryan and he just nodded and smiled and kept his thoughts about how crazy I am to himself. After the parade, they had a street festival and if we had stayed until evening, we would have seen the fireworks show after dark.

Swinging on the porch swings by the water

Even though you may not be able to recreate my perfect small town 4th of July parade and experience, you can still visit St. Marys! While they have been hit by the recession just like everybody else, it seems as though efforts have been made to keep the immediate downtown area looking very nice. There are many well kept Victorian style houses and B&B's, restaurants and a charming park near the water with porch swings that overlook the river. We went to Captain Seagle's outdoor patio area and enjoyed a delicious shrimp basket with hush puppies and seasoned fries....the drinks were inexpensive and it was lovely to sit out there and enjoy the view.

I highly recommend taking the short (45 min-1 hr) drive from Jacksonville to St. Marys, GA to take a break and get a taste of small town life!

Walking the pier in the only red, white and blue shirt I own...thanks Bex :)

Day/weekend trip from Jacksonville: Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios

This weekend Ryan and I made the trek to Orlando to join his mom and sisters at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. We've all been to these parks before but Ryan and I haven't been back since they added the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (which was pretty awesome).

If you live in Florida, chances are that you can obtain free or reduced price tickets to the theme parks. Florida resident tickets save you about $10-20 off admission. If you work just one day at Universal, you get a certain amount of free tickets to give to family and friends (Employees get in for free). Lucky for us, my sister in law is an employee of Universal Studios and so, between her free tickets and some from another family member, we all got in for free and enjoyed discounted prices in the stores and on food! Good thing too, because even with the discounted Florida Resident rate, tickets are $76.50 for one park and $106.50 to go from park to park. When you factor in $15 for parking, food, drinks and any souvenirs you might like to pick up (wizard wands anyone?) it can add up pretty quickly!

Universal offers a few options to save money such as all you can eat deals for $20.99/day/person for one park or $24.99 for both parks, and refillable soda for $8.99/day. Depending on how much you can eat, this could be a great deal for you. At the 3 Broomsticks in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, where we had lunch, you can get a "Great Feast Platter" for around $50 which includes chicken, ribs, potatoes, vegetables, corn on the cob and a big salad (I didn't really eat the meat and I was pretty satisfied with the salad, corn and potatoes!) It says it feeds four but with 5of us eating, we still had a ton of food left over. Add in Butterbeers for everyone for about $3/person and you have a delicious lunch! When you realize that fish and chips at the same place cost about $13, for less food, you understand exactly how much money larger groups can save with this!

We were pretty lucky that we went on a day that was predicted to be full of severe thunderstorms (but they didn't materialize until we left, after 6 pm) because the park was not nearly as busy as it usually is. Instead of waiting 1-2 hours for a ride, most of the rides only had 15 minute waits. If you're not so lucky, you could always purchase the Express Plus Passes for $20-25 to skip the regular lines. On busy days, those passes are well worth the money! A fun day quickly turns to a super irritating day when you're waiting for 2 hours, in the heat, for a ride that last 2 minutes. Apparently, if you stay at one of the on-site hotels, you get these passes for free...nice!

A few observations:

-The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is pretty cool, even with the super commercialization of everything from plastic golden snitches and broomsticks to ceramic (?) wizarding wands.

-I think the next thing they could mass produce is Harry Potter transition lenses...think about it Universal.

-Butterbeer is super delicious. Very sweet but you must try it!

-The Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit rollercoaster is a lot of fun! You get to choose a song to listen to while you're on it. I chose "Can't Touch This" and was soothed by MC Hammer while I thought I was going to die.

-It's time for the ET ride to be put to rest....just like the Jaws ride. I love ET as much as the next 80's kid, but it's time.

Kingsley Plantation, Amelia Island, Fernandina Beach, Pumpkin Hill State Park

(Sea Island Cotton)

Remember how I mentioned that we were supposed to spend Labor Day weekend on the sailboat, sailing to Cumberland Island? Well, since that was not the safest option without a powerful engine (we have since obtained a 6 HP engine, hooray for Craigslist!) we decided to just get in the car and drive. I had read about the Kingsley Plantation a while ago when I was looking for interesting things to do in Jacksonville and since it was only about 30 minutes away, this seemed like a good start. (Tip for those who don't want to end up in somebody's crab shop in their front yard: don't type "Kingsley Plantation" into Google maps on your phone, instead, google it on the internet, and follow the link from there or else you'll end up buying crab from some backwoods shack.)

Kingsley Plantation is open every day from 9a-5p and there are limited tours of the plantation house, but even if you show up 25 minutes before they close, like we did, you'll still be able to see quite a bit before the park ranger makes you leave. Things like the crops that were grown by Zephaniah Kingsley and his slaves. If you go to this website you can read more about the history of the plantation and the Kingsley's. Interesting fact: Zephaniah's wife and children were his slaves until he "gave" them their freedom. It is sad to think of the lives that slaves had (especially the ones who worked turning indigo into blue dye, they had about a 5-7 year life expectancy) but it is important for us to learn from this period in history, so that we don't make similar mistakes in the future. Even if you have absolutely no interest in history, it is a pretty cool place to walk around and maybe have a picnic, the house sits right on the water and boaters pass by it constantly.




After you leave the Kingsley Plantation, it's about 20 minutes to the Amelia Island/Fernandina Beach area. It's a very beautiful and peaceful place to visit and reminded us both of New Smyrna Beach. There are shops and restaurants and, of course, a gorgeous beach with white sand. The drive from Jacksonville is one of the prettiest drives I have taken; you go from heavily wooded areas to rivers to ocean and I think the drive alone is worth the trip! If you bring a bottle of wine disguised in a water bottle (not that we'd ever suggest such a thing) you could enjoy a very romantic picnic or you could head to one of the local restaurants for a bite to eat and a drink. We went to the outside bar at Sliders, mostly for the view, and enjoyed a few drinks and an appetizer without breaking the bank.


I should probably mention that we came out to this area two days in a row. We wanted to stay overnight but we had a few obstacles: 1. Romeo, our dog and 2. There are no affordable places to stay if you wait until the last minute, during Labor Day weekend.
The second day we brought Romeo and a romantic picnic because dogs are allowed on the beach. It was so romantic in my mind, but Romeo wanted to make sure that no birds, dogs, humans or waves hurt us, so he spent the entire time lunging at any moving thing and barking at, well, just everything. This cut our romantic picnic short but we felt ripped off, so on our drive home, we followed the signs to Pumpkin Hill State Park.



We enjoyed a nice hike on a sandy trail for about 10 minutes before Ryan shouts "HOLY CRAP". This instills fear into my heart and I freeze. This instills Ryan's photographer instinct and he closes in on the following creature:


That, my friends, is a dusky pygmy rattlesnake (it's pretty hard to see in the picture). Once Ryan told me that, I decided that this wildlife sighting concluded our nature hike. We spent the rest of our visit on the safety on our car, listening to the wind blow through the trees, a rooster in the distance and....absolutely nothing else. It was pretty cool.

First Overnight Sailing Trip! Doctor's Lake and Green Cove Springs

I have been putting off blogging for a full month and I feel like there is no good reason for this! Just plain old fashioned laziness. We even had an exciting adventure over Memorial Day weekend and what did I write about it? ZIP (Well, I did put captions under the photos I published to Facebook but that hardly counts)

So here we go:

SAILING...and sometimes FAILING (Fake Sailing)

Day 1
Saturday evening, May 28, after a long day at the Riverside Arts Market(I make things out of plastic bags...usually I knit beach bags but I get bored and stray from that from time to time) Ryan, Romeo (dog) and I made our way out of the safety of our slip to the dangerous high seas! Okay, that's not accurate. We made our way into the river-which is not even remotely close to the ocean-where we proceeded to take roughly 5-6 hours to sail to Doctor's Lake...a 25 minute drive from where we keep our boat (I'll get to the benefits of "enjoying the journey" in a bit). It was the most windy (windy-est?) day we have encountered on the sailboat and we were both freaking out a bit. Ryan managed to freak out quietly on the inside while I had a full blown mental breakdown complete with incoherent muttering and hyperventilating (I'm a natural sailor!) After this expedition, we realized that I'm best at putting up and taking down the sails and definitely NOT steering while this is being done. I feel safer nearly being chucked from the boat than I do steering us (potentially) right into being tipped over and dying a horrible death. Lesson learned.

Back to "enjoying the journey"...sailing is slow. REALLY slow. Ryan laughed when I told him that I had previously informed a friend of mine that our sailboat went about 30 miles per hour...that seemed like a very slow speed to me and I couldn't remember exactly what it was. Ryan was happy to educate me, with the most condescending tone imaginable: At TOP SPEED, our boat goes about 5.7 knots or 6.5 mph. Top speed. A great majority of the time, we go about 2-4 mph. And if the wind dies down and we use our motor (fake sailing=failing) we could go even slower. Also, when our boat is going top speed, chances are we will be tilted so far over that the edge of the boat is underwater...this increases our speed! It also increases my likelihood of dying before my 27th birthday but it's all part of the majesty of sailing.

So while I'm all gung ho and ready for adventure, I watch as motor boats, jet skis, jon boats and old ladies in walkers just blast by us. I have been embarrassed many a time as I call to the Ortega Bridge, which has to raise to let our boat through, and watch in horror as they stop traffic for the 13 or so million years it takes for us to actually get to the bridge with our tiny motor (It's too dangerous to sail through it, so we motor until we pass it). I keep reminding myself that this is what I wanted! The silence that comes from being powered by the wind, the gentle rocking of the water, enjoying our surroundings without holding on for dear life as our boat jumps over the waves. Now our boat just kind of makes friends with the waves, hangs out, eats a sandwich, gets real comfy and we get to watch...for 5 hours. It's an adjustment.

By the time we made it to the dock of Whitey's Fish Camp, it was nearly 11 pm and while they serve food until midnight, our server informed us that it will actually only be edible for the next 15 minutes. I don't know what they would have done to our food if we hadn't ordered in that time frame, as it was, the fries were at least 2 hours old. (Having worked in a restaurant for a large portion of my professional career, I know the taste of fries that are too old to be served to paying customers, but not old enough to deter hungry servers)

While we were chatting with our server, we casually asked if "people" ever spent the night moored to their dock and she told us "I wouldn't do that. The docks are completely open to the public and drunk people could mess with you"...we thanked her for her advice for our hypothetical "friends" and after contemplating searching for a place to anchor for the night in the dark, unfamiliar area (with a mast light that apparently decided to stop working) we decided to risk it.

Fun tip: Bring blankets, sheets, pillows or at least some form of bedding with you if you plan on sleeping on your boat. Ryan's idea of beach towels serving 2 purposes because "How cold can it get?" will leave you shivering, wet and uncomfortable for the 5-6 hours of sleep you will be able to get before you just can't take it anymore. Also, it would be nice to have something to protect your head if you have a fear of spiders crawling through the port windows.

Day 2

The next morning, it was absolutely beautiful and quiet. The only other people around were probably still drunk and peacefully passed out in the two boats next to us. I walked Romeo to the shore to do his doggie business and I realized how closely I resembled a hobo as I wandered through the empty outdoor bar area to get to the grass....

Doctor's Lake was a lot more beautiful in the light of day and a lot less terrifying. The previous evening, whenever motor boats would pass us, they seemed to stick close to the shore and we were just hammering through the center of the lake because we didn't really know where we were going. We started to think that maybe they knew something that we didn't know like, for instance, about the giant lake monster that only eats people and boats in the center of the lake or, contrary to everything I've ever learned about bodies of water, it got shallow in the very center of the lake and deep on the sides. When the big light in the sky is giving you a heads up as to your surroundings, you feel a lot safer.
Bla bla bla, we sailed some more and nobody died, bla bla bla, I used an umbrella as a bimini....okay, that actually deserves some more explanation. We ordered a bimini (the thing that goes over your head to provide relief from the sun, like a massive umbrella...if you still have no idea what I'm talking about you can google it) and it didn't arrive in time for our journey, so I brought along 2 black umbrellas for a little extra SPF. For some odd reason Ryan didn't want to use his fancy bimini, so there I was, all by my crazy self with my personal umbrella bimini...sometimes Romeo would join me in my circle of shade, but he only did so after suffering as long as he could in the heat and then only with a look of great shame. Ryan did let me put my blue zebra print bandana on his head under his hat to protect his neck though, so I wasn't the only one looking slightly off balanced.
When we finally made it to Green Cove Springs, about a 30-45 minute drive from where we keep our boat, it was like noon...or maybe it was 2 or 3, I can't really be expected to keep track of time on these trips as part of the point of going on them is to not keep track of time...but we left Doctor's Lake around 6 am or 7 am, so you figure it was a long time. We pulled into the public dock, right next to a big Memorial Day festival and were pointed in the direction of the permit office because it is now $10 to moor your boat at the public dock. We are cheap, so this made our decision for us of whether or not we would spend the night there. (Once you've spent a whopping $10, you sort of feel entitled to 1 night's lodging) We made friends with the neighboring boats and were even invited onto one of them and were amazed at what an extra 6 feet on a sailboat can mean in terms of head room, a real bathroom and shower, a real kitchen and beds aplenty. I guess what they say is true: the minute you get your first sailboat, you're already thinking about what your next boat will be like. We won't upgrade for a few years, but eventually, it would be nice to have a bigger boat that we could live on or at least not hit our heads on the ceiling every 3 minutes or so.
After making some drinks, playing the ukelele and hanging out on our boat until we were hungry and tired of eating Doritos, we made our way onto shore and walked around the festival. There weren't a whole lot of people or a whole lot of vendors, but it was still a really cool experience and not one we would have normally stayed for. Later they had an outdoor concert and fireworks and the whole town seemed to come out of nowhere to take part. Reminded me of the UP and Pioneer Days, which we are going to next month! Romeo had a little doggie panic attack and leapt into the cabin during the fireworks, but we enjoyed them and felt like super old people when we went to bed after the grand finale.
After another moist evening of fitful sleep, we woke to find the vendors already starting to set up for another day of the festival...we were not too upset about missing the second day since we had seen the entire festival in about 15 minutes of walking around the day before :) The sail back to Jacksonville didn't take nearly as long without our pitstop in Doctor's Lake but there were many intervals of FAILING when there was no wind and we didn't feel like floating slowly back towards our slip. All in all, I would say our first overnight trip was a huge success and we learned more about ourselves and about our boat. We have a laundry list of things we want to do to the boat (paint the deck, fix the mast light, wood flooring and possibly walls in the cabin, etc) and we learned more about the order in which we needed to do things in order to be the most comfortable while sailing!