Castaway Island

When we were getting Mom's car fixed the other day, we drove past a park called Castaway Island, on the Intracoastal Waterway. It looked pretty interesting, and I loved the name -- very "Gilligan's Island" -- so Mom and I returned there yesterday morning.

The park's main feature is a nature trail and boardwalk that leads through the woods above and over the marshy waterway. We started along the trail, where we saw...

...a white peacock butterfly.

And then the trail abruptly ended at a "caution" ribbon, blocking any further progress. A very tan workman wandered up carrying two bottles of water, and I asked what was going on. Turns out there were tree crews taking down about 30 dead trees along the path, so the nature trail and boardwalk were closed for the day!

I couldn't believe our bad luck.

We went back to the parking lot, and walked out on a little dock over the water. We watched the fiddler crabs zipping in and out of their muddy holes, and around some obvious Fourth of July detritus.

I had heard that roseate spoonbills frequented the park, so I'd been hoping to see some. With the boardwalk closed that possibility seemed remote. And then...

...one flew right overhead, as if on cue! He made a wide circle around the parking area, and -- unlike the last time I saw flying spoonbills -- I had my camera ready and was able to get a few shots.

So at least the day wasn't a total loss! I'd still like to go back when the boardwalk isn't closed, but we left feeling like we'd seen some interesting sights.

Raccoon and Mimosa

This plant, I learned yesterday, is called powderpuff or sunshine mimosa (Mimosa strigillosa). It grows in the grass below Mom's apartment building, and apparently it's a Florida native, though I'm not sure I've ever seen it before.

We spotted it yesterday on our morning walk, and when I took the camera out afterwards to get a photo, my lenses were immediately socked in by condensation. The camera was cold from the air conditioning, and it is so humid outside! I had to walk around for about fifteen minutes and let the camera warm up a bit before I could use it.

We also saw this critter the other morning. It was scrounging around under the dock, where Mom says people feed the local cats. There was even a cat nearby, just hanging out, apparently completely used to the raccoon.

Because of that thick humidity, and the accompanying heat, we spent all day inside yesterday. I worked on setting up Mom's new iPad, her birthday gift from me and my brother. We installed some apps and I got her logged in on Facebook and Flickr and helped her practice using it.

I think she'll really like it. Her old computer, as I have complained before, is ridiculously slow. Using it is a Zen experience -- it forces you to confront your ideas of what a computer should do, and how it should behave, and how quickly it should function, and then abandon all those ideas and face what's really happening instead. And what's really happening is: not much.

I migrated all her old photos to Flickr, so she can see them easily. Hopefully this iPad will ease her access to the Internet overall!

More Savannah, with Forrest Gump

This is Chippewa Square, where the movie "Forrest Gump" was filmed. The "box of chocolates" bench was located along the street on the other side of this statue of Gen. James Oglethorpe, the founder of Georgia. Apparently the bench itself was a movie prop. There's not one there now, but tourists like to trample the flowers and climb up on a garden wall to approximate the perspective in selfies -- or so our catty tour guide from Tuesday said.

The square is named for the Battle of Chippewa in the War of 1812. Allegedly, Oglethorpe is facing south to guard Savannah against the threat posed by Spanish colonists in Florida.

Mom and I were up pretty early yesterday morning, and my agenda for the day was to go back to Chippewa Square, walk around town a bit to take some pictures, and visit the Jepson Center for the Arts, a contemporary art museum. So that's what we did.

This is the sign from the old Savannah movie theater, also on Chippewa Square.

As it turned out, walking around town only took a short time, and we didn't want to walk too much because it was already getting hot. The museum didn't open until 10 a.m. So we ducked into a cafe and then took care of practical matters like checking out of our hotel.

Just as we were about to leave the Hyatt Regency, we saw two women who I swear were Kardashians, or at least Kardashian imitators: skin-tight, wildly revealing clothing, deep cantaloupe tans. They were climbing into a black SUV. One had on a pink halter-top-and-miniskirt outfit that looked at least two sizes too small for her -- it was like two bags of basketballs. People on the hotel steps were stopped in their tracks watching them. One little boy's mouth was actually agape. I couldn't believe my eyes myself.

Anyway, back to the museum! My mission at the Jepson was to see "Bird Girl," the cemetery sculpture photographed for the book cover of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." It became so famous that it's now one of the best-known symbols of the city, and it was moved indoors to protect it from vandalism.

We also saw an exhibit by the photographer William Wegman, who's known for creative portraits of his Weimaraner dogs. There were dog photos in the show, of course, but also other works where Wegman would use an old postcard (or several old postcards) and contextualize them into a larger painting. It was interesting to see some different stuff from him.

After that, we had lunch and hit the road. We got back to Jacksonville in late afternoon, and then went to my brother's for a little 80th birthday dinner for Mom. We gave her an iPad, which ought to be heaven for her to use compared to her decade-old, gerbil-driven netbook computer.

I think the day wore her out. She's still asleep now, as I write!

Savannah

This is the view from our hotel room in Savannah. Isn't that crazy? We're right on the river, and I asked for a river view, but I had no idea we were going to get such dramatic action! Gigantic container ships like this one passed several times yesterday afternoon.

My mom keeps expressing fear that they're going to hit the building. I told her I was pretty sure that's not a realistic danger.

The bridge in the background carries U.S. 17 over the river and into South Carolina.

We got here yesterday just before lunch. The view of the industrial riverfront isn't typical of most of the central city, which looks more like the picture above -- the elaborate 1858 fountain in Forsyth Park. Central Savannah is dotted with 22 "squares," or small parks, so it's very green, and many of the parks are surrounded by 19th-century mansions and contain historic statuary.

When we drove into town, we dropped the car at our hotel (the Hyatt Regency) and walked a few blocks to a local cafe for sandwiches. Then we caught a trolley tour to get the lay of the land.

Apparently dolphin downspouts, like this one, are a Savannah thing. Or so our tour operator said.

We had two trolley guides. We weren't thrilled with the first one, but then we disembarked for a walk through Forsyth Park, and when we got on another trolley we had a much better guide. He kept up a steady stream of information and every once in a while he'd interject a comment about other drivers and pedestrians, like, "A turn signal would be nice. Bless your heart."

It's a good thing we weren't walking around, because it was pretty hot and Mom, who turns 80 today (!), much preferred riding. She would really have preferred air conditioning, but you can't have everything.

Anyway, after the tour we rested a bit, and then went to dinner at The Grey, a sleek art deco restaurant housed in an old Greyhound bus terminal. We had an excellent meal -- mom had foie gras with grits and I had tilefish.

Everyone associates Savannah with the book (or maybe movie) "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." I loved that book. This is the Mercer mansion, where "the incident" (as our second tour guide put it, with typical Southern discretion) occurred in the left front room downstairs.

Today we have plans in the morning, and then we'll get back on the road in the afternoon for the two-hour drive back to Jacksonville.

The Beach, and Mrs. Stowe

We had to take Mom's car in for servicing yesterday, so we made an afternoon of it. My brother met us at the Acura dealer, where we dropped the car, and the three of us drove in his truck to Jacksonville Beach. We had lunch at a trendy Mexican place, with flashy margaritas and tacos that no true Mexican person would recognize. (I had one made with blackened shrimp and a pseudo-Southern one with black-eyed peas and fried green tomatoes. I also had a refreshing margarita made with ginger beer -- maybe Reed's?!)

Then we walked out to the searing, white-hot beach, where I lingered just long enough to take a picture of the water. The red flag on the lifeguard's stand means "strong currents" -- in case you were thinking of joining us for a swim.

We got back into the air-conditioned comfort of my brother's truck and drove up through Atlantic Beach, exploring the neighborhoods, and just as we were considering what to do next, the dealer called and the car was ready. Back to Acura we went. Now there is no foreseeable reason that Mom and I should have mechanical difficulties driving to Savannah today. Knock on wood.

Someone near my brother's house has turned several of the street signs into bats! Gotta love the creativity.

And speaking of creativity, remember the groovy painted rock I found several days ago on a table at Mom's retirement center? When we walked by the same table yesterday morning, it was still there. Clearly it was meant to be adopted -- by me. So I did.

Here's the modest Harriet Beecher Stowe Community Center, which is near my mom's apartment. Stowe, the abolitionist author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," bought land near the St. John's River the year after the end of the Civil War and helped launch a school here, among other things. She used to sit out on the riverfront and wave at passing steamers, or so I've been told.

We did some reading about Stowe yesterday, thinking we could go see her house. Sadly, it's apparently no longer standing. But we did run across an interesting account by Mark Twain, who lived next to Stowe in Connecticut at the end of her life. Apparently she got a bit dotty in her old age:

"Among the colonists of our neighborhood the doors always stood open in pleasant weather. Mrs. Stowe entered them at her own free will, and as she was always softly slippered and generally full of animal spirits, she was able to deal in surprises, and she liked to do it. She would slip up behind a person who was deep in dreams and musings and fetch a war whoop that would jump that person out of his clothes."

I know it's not exactly a happy image -- dementia and all -- but it's kind of endearing to think that Stowe had so much fun shaking up her neighbors. Never one to shy away from controversy!

More Dramatic Skies

We're in that rainy time of year. Every afternoon the skies darken and open up, and we get a toad-strangling rainstorm followed by a temperature drop of ten or fifteen degrees. Yesterday we had a couple of them, and in the evening my mom and I went out on the dock to check out the dramatic clouds over the river.

There wasn't much color in the sunset, but it was still impressive. It's hard to not be impressed by a Florida sky.

Yesterday morning I hung out with my nieces. We watched the animated movie "Trolls," and I thought I was going to have to suffer through a tedious, shallow, juvenile film, but no -- it was good! It was visually fascinating, with colorful, glittery characters and sets that looked as though they were made out of felt and colorful fabrics -- even though I'm sure they were all digital -- and it used a lot of great pop songs from the early '80s. And Christine Baranski, who I love, did some of the voice work. I'd watch it again.

Then we went to lunch with my stepsister and her husband, who drove up from Tampa. We went to a restaurant that calls itself a "fish camp" on the other side of this stretch of river, even though it is quite swanky and air-conditioned and nothing at all like a real fish camp. Fish tacos!

I got a text from Dave, back in England, saying that Olga "took a bite out of a fox"! Which scared me to death, but then he said neither were hurt, so maybe it wasn't a bite so much as a snarl. She chased the fox down the side of our house and the fox hopped the fence. Dave said he was in the kitchen and the commotion scared him. I'm glad I missed that!

Oh, one of you asked which river I photographed from the air on my approach to Jacksonville the other day. It's the St. Mary's River, which forms the border between Florida and Georgia. Took me a while to figure that out.

Real Florida Wildlife and Artificial Frogs

Yesterday we braved the heat and went to Alpine Groves Park, a historic site and scenic park along the St. John's River. It's in the small community of Switzerland, named for a plantation owned in the 1700s by a Swiss businessman. (I'm sure that's where the "Alpine" name comes from, too, since there's not a mountain around for miles!) We strolled the shady boardwalk and my nieces went to the playground. We saw butterflies and a striped skink and some interesting flowers, but most of the wildlife seemed to be hidden somewhere, staying cool. Afterwards we went out for tacos -- or in my case, taco salad. It was good to get out and see something new.

While walking with my mom at her retirement center the day before, I found this groovy rock lying on an outdoor table. It was signed on the bottom. Someone's art project, I guess!

And this was my find while walking the dog with my brother yesterday morning. How apropos!

When I visited Jacksonville over Christmas, I took some pictures of some colorful frog statues I found sitting on a bridge abutment, out in the middle of nowhere. I thought it odd, and on this trip I've seen even more frogs spread around my brother's neighborhood -- on bridges, mailboxes and these two on a tree stump near his house. Turns out there's a story behind them -- a retired guy called the Frog Man of Mandarin makes and distributes the amphibians. He apparently even maintains his frogs, replacing missing ones and repairing those that get damaged.

Finally, here's a picture of Queens, my loving tormentor, who also went to the park with us yesterday. She's still very puppyish, as you can see. My oldest niece loves her, but the younger one is a little unsure. She pets Queens but the minute the dog moves, especially if its mouth is open, she backs right up. I guess a dog mouth must look pretty scary to a four-year-old!