Wednesday, July 13, 2016

The Beaches


Mom and I drove out to the beaches east of Jacksonville yesterday morning. I just wanted to see the ocean.


And there it was.

I'm not a huge beach person, so I didn't even dip my toes into the water, much less lie around on the sand. Instead I sprayed on my SPF 75 sunscreen and spent about ten minutes under the broiling sun taking pictures before retreating to the air-conditioned car.


The we went to Hanna Park, north of the beaches near Mayport. We took a very brief walk on one of the trails -- just long enough to get bitten by a few mosquitoes (Zika!), see lots of banana spiders and watch this woodpecker flit among the palms. He liked to hang from the dead fronds, which I've never seen a woodpecker do. We turned around when we came to a large banana spider web strung across the trail, a formidable guard.

From there we drove into town because I had an errand to run -- I wanted to scan an old photo of my great uncle, and it was too large for our home scanner. So I went online and found a local photo shop, but finding it on the ground turned out to be a crazy adventure of wrong turns and deceptive road signage. We finally got there, and my photo is supposed to be ready today.

Finally, last night, my brother and I took my mom to the Julington Creek Fish Camp, a nearby restaurant, for her birthday. Mom had shrimp and grits -- so Florida. I had cod that almost certainly wasn't caught anywhere near Julington Creek, a tributary of the St. John's River -- but it was good!

7 comments:

  1. Cod? You had COD? That's so interesting, Steve. Were they out of mullet?
    Ha!
    Yeah. It's too hot to bear outside. I think we Floridians get cabin fever in the summer. It's just too damn hot to go out.

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  2. I like the beach but I don't go in July and August. just too damn hot, especially if there is not breeze coming off the ocean. love the wall with the surfboards.

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  3. Shrimp and grits sounds good to me. I might I have to see if I can get some around these parts.
    I love Ms. Moon's comment above. The same thing happens to us Phoenicians. I've been a bit stir crazy these last few weekends wanting to get out doors.

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  4. Glad your mom enjoyed her birthday!

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  5. Ooo ... I love that photo of the woodpecker! Not keen to see a banana spider so thank you for not posting that.

    We live near the ocean and I like the look of it but I don't want to be in it. Too salty, too deep, too many critters, and too hot on the beach when the water has warmed up in the summer!

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  6. My daughter would drag me though this no matter what. She dragged me through chicago in July. Ordinarily I wouldn't do things like this in summer. Go to Florida in the winter!

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  7. Hanna Park sounds very different from Hampstead Heath. No banana spiders on Hampstead Heath and no need to shelter from a sweltering summer sun.

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