Alicia and Mel invited us to join them for a long weekend in Jacksonville, since they had some free rooms banked up at any Hyatt and we were able to get a really good Friends and Family rate. The city was on my list of places to go in Florida, but since it was their idea and invite to go there, I let them pretty much plan the weekend for us. Mel wanted to go to the Friendship Fountain, Kingsley Plantation, and the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens. We did all those things and a couple others as well. |
Long weekend in Jacksonville: 07/29/16-07/31/16 |
We arrived on Friday afternoon and walked over the Main Street Bridge to the Friendship Fountain. We took a picture of Mel with the Hyatt in the background. |
Who knew that there was a National Barbie Doll Collectors Conference? Well, evidently the Hyatt knew, and now I know, too. The people there for the large convention were very nice, but suffice it to say they were a bit… um, off. |
We went to the beach, because guess what? Jacksonville isn’t on the shore. It’s on the St. John River about 15 miles from the shore. We went to Neptune Beach, but since we were in our street clothes, we just basically checked it out and left. |
We went out to Fort George Island just off the Atlantic. The island contains the delta of the St. Johns River, so it was full of water and lush trees. On the northern tip of the island is Kingsley Plantation. The site was less about the plantation itself and more about the workings of the plantation by slaves. The plantation is to the far left. The ruins that you see below and on both sides of this text are where the slaves lived. The walls were basically made of cemented shells. |
We saw a turtle in its home. |
The Cummer Museum included indoor exhibits of all types, an outdoor set of gardens, and even infused the two together by the use of statues. I truly wish that I had a bigger yard and could find similar statues, so that I could recreate something similar. |
We created our own art, like Mel taking a selfie of Alicia’s selfie of me taking a picture of Madeline. We also took a couple of nice shots of the engaged couple and Mel and I tried to pose like one of the lawn statues. |
Speaking of art, some of the food that we had was like eating art. Also, the view out our room at the Main Street Bridge was beautiful at night, particularly on Saturday night when they had fireworks for the summer celebration. |