Lunch on the way in as we arrived in Jacksonville was at
Olive Garden. A few months ago when
Lauryn and I had been out shopping together, I had picked up two gift cards
from the restaurant of her choice for us to use on the last day of vacation;
always a good choice and delicious as usual.
Jacksonville Beach is beautiful! Hard packed and easy to walk
on, much like Daytona Beach, but without the cars on the beach, pristine clean,
white sand; populated, but not crowded- near perfect. We drove to the Hampton Inn and Suites….but
it was not on the beach! Uh-oh, we chose the wrong location when keying into
our GPS. We quickly re-routed and were only 10 minutes away from the correct
Hampton Inn and Suites, Oceanfront. We had a corner room, with a nice ocean view,
right over the gorgeous pool below, complete with water fall.
As soon as we neared Jacksonville this morning, I told the
girls the stories of when Bop and I used to come to Jax every year for the
Pastor’s conferences, and every Sunday afternoon after church and lunch, my
friend Kathy Rainwater and I would head to the beach for a few hours. It was in January and too cold to swim, but
we would sit on the beach and watch the waves, and God’s beautiful handiwork
and enjoy visiting. We both love the beach and no-one else in our group cared
for it, so we made this our yearly tradition.
When we would pass a souvenir shop, or a particular public
beach entrance I would say something about, “ I remember that shop, Kathy and I
shopped there for your gifts one year”
or “ this is where Kathy and I parked to enter the public beach area….” Lauryn and Kelsi love to make fun of me and
this presented the perfect opportunity… “ it’s Kathy again…. It’s all about
Kathy “, they taunted. That became a
running joke while we were at the beach.
We spent some time on the beach and the water was so clear
and warm. Waves were a little strong and
I had a hard time standing on my injured leg (Achilles tendon) in the shifting
sand for long periods of time, so Dennis and took turns holding the camera and
splashing in the water with the girls.
Up to the pool for a few minutes, and the water was just as warm and
inviting. This pool, complete with waterfalls and Jacuzzi was beautiful.
We all took quick showers and while Dennis waited on the rest
of us to get ready, he used my new laptop to cruise through restaurants in the
area. He found a couple of interesting
places and Kelsi went over to the computer to look at one and for some reason,
touched the screen – it moved! “Nana,
look – here, put your finger here and move!
You have a touch screen!” “A
what? Really?” We called Dennis over there and asked him
to touch the screen and he was as shocked as were - my laptop doubles as a tablet! We had no idea we were getting that feature
when we bought it last Saturday! What a
prize!
We settled on Salt Life for Dinner. Again, the girls made fun of me because I
said I had never heard of “Salt Life”.
Well, I have now, and their food was delicious! On the way to dinner, we saw the funniest advertisement
sign on a restaurant that specializes in Pita sandwiches:
“Don’t
drink and drive, eat and Pita to stay alive”!
Lauryn and Kelsi loved
that and kept saying it over and over.
Lauryn snap- chatted it and changed it to “don’t text and drive, eat a
Pita to stay alive”. Hilarious - every time
we passed the sign, we all began chanting the rhyme…. Guess you had to be there
to appreciate the real humor.
At Salt Life Café, Kelsi and Lauryn had:
BEACH BOIL
shrimp, snow crab legs, sausage, corn, onions and potatoes
served in our seasoned boil.
Bop had
SOUTHERN FRIED SHRIMP 14.99
seasoned hand-breaded shrimp, fried to perfection served with
fries and our famous shack sauce.
And I had this wonderful dish:
SHRIMP BRO CHETTE• 15.99
large shrimp wrapped in applewood-smoked bacon, grilled with pineapples
and brushed with hawaiian teriyaki glaze. served with tropical fried rice.
garnished with sesame seeds.
Yum – O : ‘nuff said
We shopped quickly after dinner at a nearby store (yes, the
one Kathy and I had been to in year’s past) but didn’t find anything of
interest except we did pick up a crab net.
We went back to the beach for a while to try crabbing, and Lauryn did
find a crab fossil and some interesting shells in-tact. We swam in the pool
until about 9:20 (told Dennis we would be back by 9:00 – oops, didn’t mean to run
a little late – he was a little worried).
Girls tried to make hot tea in the complementary drink area in the
lobby, but the water was cold, so skip that – time for bed!
The next morning, we all grabbed a quick bite for breakfast
from the complimentary offerings at Hampton, and made a quick visit back to the
ocean and finished up at the pool. I
grabbed a quick nap while drying off, then upstairs to pack and out by 10:30
a.m.
We stopped by the Salt Life store in town to pick up a gift
for Lauryn’s friend, Wade, and she bought a strap for her glasses. Homeward bound!
Arriving home about 6:45 p.m. we met Kristi and family at
Rodney’s BBQ for dinner and swapped the girls, for my mom (she had been
visiting Kristi while we were away).
Maybe it wasn’t perfect, maybe it cost a little more that I planned, but
until Jacksonville and the last day, we stayed mostly under budget, so Bop and
I call this trip a rousing success and a whole lot of fun! Traveling with these two girls couldn’t have
been any better.
I’ll end this the way it started with a few of our favorite
things:
Favorite Character Experience:
Kelsi and Lauryn Ariel
Penni Pocahontas
Favorite Ride:
Kelsi and Lauryn Tower
of Terror
Bop Tower
of Terror and Star Tours
Penni Space
Mountain and Star Tours
Favorite Meal:
Penni Salt
Life (Jax Beach) and Hollywood and Vine
Bop Whispering
Canyon Cafe
Lauryn Grand
Floridian Café Steak
Kelsi Hollywood
and Vine or Whispering Canyon Café
Thanks for following along – I love sharing our Disney Family experiences with all of you. Christian has already claimed his turn (probably with Savannah) next, so we’ll be back (2018)?
Until then, have a
magical day!
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