..and then there was Saturday

After that 3 hr adventure from Friday, including a nice bruise on my side from the cow train ride, Saturday was even more packed. I started the day at about 8:30am at Jax Beach for the Out of the Darkness walk for suicide awareness and prevention. I was there to support a former co-worker who lost a brother to suicide a few months ago. It was a beautiful day at the beach, and at about 9:30 (after coffee & a donut) we set off for a 3 mile walk on the beach. Thank goodness it was low tide! :)

After the walk, I had enough time to shoot over to the Arts Market for just a bit. This weekend there was some chalk art going on, and the Salvation Army was kicking off the "Bell Ringing" season. Bonus: A couple local restaurants got together and started a food truck! Mossfire Grill & O'Brothers are the restaurants, and they call the truck "busin' your chops". I didn't get a pic of the menu board, but I did grab a corned beef and cabbage "taco" and enjoyed it at a nearby park.

Last, but certainly not least, I headed home to change, feed the cat and head up to church. From there a bunch of us car-pooled to a favorite restaurant in Fernandina, FL called Barbara Jean's. Very down home, southern cooking. I had my shrimp n grits for dinner and for dessert a few of us split a big bowl of "Chocolate stuff" Kinda like a cross between warm pudding and raw brownie batter....sooooo good!!

It was almost 8:30pm by the time I got home..it was a wonderful day, full of good friends, and good food!

Weekend Update

Saturday was our breakfast day for the Ladies group from Church. We meet at a local restaurant once a month, arriving at 9 and usually we don't leave til almost 11. Lots of chatting, and making plans for future outings and discussing various other endeavors. Coming up soon we have A banquet at a local women's resource center, and lunch at a restaurant we went to last year that we'd all been looking forward to doing again. They have the BEST Shrimp and Grits!! :)

Instead of hitting RAM for saturday morning, I decided to go to Barnes & Noble to get in a little quality magazine time, and a big cup of coffee since it is Pumpkin Spice time of the year.

During the fall the RAM has free movies on saturday evenings, and last night it was The Wizard Of Oz, what a great movie! It was a tradition for us to watch it when it came on TV every year, and I honestly can't remember the last time I watched it from start to finish.

Today I went to Church, then to lunch at the Olive Garden. I needed a long walk through one of my favorite nature preserves to work off that dinner. I did manage to see 3 Pileated Woodpeckers! They are huge! I tried to get all 3 in one picture but the best I could do was 2, as they kept flying from tree to tree. They weren't too happy that I was bugging them.

It was actually kind of buggy out there, so I didn't linger around after the birds flew off for the last time.

Tomorrow is Scrap Your Day, so hopefully I remember to take pics throughout the day, and not just starting when I leave work, *that* never happens!

Downtown Jax

Last week I went to the arts market, and decided to take the trolley to the Jazz Festival that was going on a couple miles away. I would have walked the riverwalk, but not in the heat. The air conditioned trolley ride was well worth the dollar! Here are a few pictures of the Jazz Festival and the downtown area in general.

This first one is from The Arts Market and a church jazz band that played there. Being under the bridge is great, even in the summer. There is always a nice breeze coming off the river to cool us off.

Downtown isn't usually where I venture, as the parking situation is pretty horrible. The garages are expensive, especially during special events, so the trolley was perfect for this. I got a few shots of this sculpture in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art, or MOCA, as most cities are calling them. I definitely should make it a point to go in there sometime! There is a good mix of old and new buildings, plus a few that are empty and in dire need of demolishing. The new main library is beautiful, 4 floors of pretty much everything, including a neat little courtyard with a fountain and shaded tables and benches to sit and relax. It had a very open feel to it, with desks set up in several different areas for people to work on a library computer or your own with the free wifi.

This is a large sculpture on the outside of the library set on a shelf into a corner. In my walking around downtown I found the building that housed the previous main library, and an even older one, where you could just read "jacksonville Public Library over the door, along with the slogan they continue to use "open to all". Hopefully this new library is big enough to last a few years more than the previous 2!

I found a goldmine in Chamblin's Uptown. Bookstore and cafe, I could have spent all day in there. I picked out a few books, and purchased a large coffee. They brew Green Mountain there, so that was a nice taste of home! In addition to this location, there is another one a bit further away, so I'm sure I'll make my way to that one eventually!

This week..

It has been crazy at work this week. So many different projects and things all going on at the same time. I'm so glad next week is a short work week. The whole crew will be in tomorrow, too, so I have to be in for 6am. meh.

Tonight I stopped by Panera Bread to grab supper since I heard one of their new soups is Mac & Cheese. Sure, It's not like mom makes, but hey, comfort food is comfort food. Especially when someone else makes it!

 And in keeping with that comfort theme, I stopped by Starbucks to get a yummy peppermint mocha. It was all delicious. All that was missing was my friend and some cushy chairs. :)

On Saturday I was able to hit the Arts market, and since the weather was so nice, I walked down to the Landing. There were local artists/students/kids doing chalk drawings along the mall. The Andrew Jackson Portrait was awesome, as were the others. In the bottom right you'll see a statue of Mr. Jackson, "for whom Jacksonville is named".

 

There was a man at the market who makes, sells and plays the didgeridoo. He makes them out of PVC.

A few weeks ago I came across this cutest camera. It's perfect for sneaking into concerts. It has a carabiner clip, and a decent enough resolution.

And well, it's orange. It's pretty much a known fact that if it's orange, I will probably buy it. I've tried it out a little bit in stores, and it works well enough, as long as it's held very still. I don't plan to make it my primary camera, but it's nice and easy to keep with me.

I'll leave you with tonight's sunset after I left work

and a quote:

“Know what you want to do, hold the thought firmly, and do every day what should be done, and every sunset will see you that much nearer the goal.”

~Elbert Hubbard

Something Like Normalcy..

Hooray! I actually managed to visit the Riverside Arts Market yesterday. Parking was a challenge due to Toyota and their awesome Farm to Table promotion. They paired local farms with local restaurants and in addition to offering (delicious) foodie samples, and promoting the Hybrid models in their automotive line, you could also take a test drive. They handed out passports at the entrance to the market and as you got samples, they stamped it. Once you got at least 3 stamps (I had 7) you could get a free herb. I waited until I was ready to leave so I didn't have to carry it, and chose a nice basil.

Due to the heavy traffic and hard time I had parking, I stopped at one of the little parks nearby to see what was hanging out in the "pond", and kill some time. I saw a roseate spoonbill, among other water fowl types. There was also a "Pet Blessing" going on, seen in the photo in the lower left. Lots of furry pets about.

Out in the St John's River the fish were really jumping. Several boats stopped to watch, and there was a few people at the rails watching as well, probably wishing they were out fishing. :)

After all those healthy samples, I had what I'd been craving for a couple weeks, a beignet and an iced coffee. Yum!

At left is my dessert, the plant wagon and the stamped passport. The dish is pickled beets with goat cheese. And like all the other samples before it, it was delicious.

Red Hats & stormy skies

During a recent Saturday at the Riverside Arts Market, there were many ladies belonging to the Red Hat Society wandering as well. Here is a collage of the ones I managed to get photos of. They all looked to be having such a good time!

I decided to skip out on the market this weekend, and instead listed a few unneeded items on Ebay and Swap A CD.

Maybe tomorrow I will head down to St. Augustine for the morning. It's usually pretty quiet there on Sunday mornings, but with enough people out for some good people watching, and photographing.

I couldn't resist getting a shot of this last week. If you look closely you can see downtown jacksonville. Obviously, I was driving, so wasn't going to attempt making sure it was composed. The sunlight is what I was after.

Around Jacksonville..

Last Saturday (the 15th) I made my way downtown for the weekly Riverside Arts Market for probably the last time, til fall anyway. I'm trying to save a little cash for vacation, just to make sure the credit card isn't used more than it needs to be.

I got to watch an escape artist get out of a straightjacket, twice. I missed part of the first show, so made sure I caught the whole second performance.

This time I walked only to the train bridge, and then turned back. More rain was threatening after an already good storm plowed thru. Dare I say it was actually *chilly* under the bridge. I had a yummy pulled pork sammy and fries for lunch and a beignet (pronounced ben-yay) with cinnamon on it and some chickory iced coffee from the new orleans vendor for dessert.

On the 17th as I was leaving work I noticed lots of flyovers going on over the airport, so I took a short detour to find a good spot to park on the side of the road and try to get a few photos.

As always click on the photos for a bigger view.

Have a great week!