Swim parallel to the beach…

Alright, I’ve found some time to recount my trip to Florida.

We left two Thursdays ago around Carter’s bedtime. The drive was pretty pleasant for the first 5 or 6 hours. I listened to The 40 Year Old Virgin through the auxiliary jack on the Elantra. We stopped somewhere in Tennessee and my wife took over driving for a bit. I had a hard time sleeping since we hadn’t brought a pillow. So I took over again since my wife hadn’t slept either and was getting a bit tired. The 2:30 to 4:00 am shift was rough. I had to stop once so I didn’t fall asleep and kill us all. I did some jumping jacks in a gas station parking lot and splashed water on my face.

Once day broke it was better. We were somewhere in Georgia and decided to stop at a Cracker Barrel. The service was fucking terrible and we were surrounded by Southerners (imagine that).

We hit Atlanta on the tail end of rush hour and it kind of sucked. After that my wife took over and drove us the rest of the way to Fernandina Beach. It took us about 20 hours. It should have only taken about 16.5, but the shitty service at the Cracker Barrel and Atlanta slowed us down. Carter was not happy the last hour or so. He didn’t want to be in the car anymore, none of us really did.

We stayed at a friends place. I took a long nap when we got there.

The next day we went to a park and played and enjoyed the nice weather. It was sunny and about 82 with a cool easterly breeze. It was actually hotter in Illinois the whole time we were there.

Sunday we went to the Jacksonville Zoo. (see the below pictures) It was a really nice zoo. There were kind of elevated walkways in places were you could walk above the animals. Carter had a good time. He would point and say ohhhh or ooooo when he saw an animal he didn’t know. There was also a small water fun area for kids to run around in and get wet. He loved splashing around and climbing on the fake dolphins and stingrays. There were also some goats to pet, which he didn’t smack. (He’s in a bit of a smacky stage.)

The next day we went to the beach. Rip currents were in full effect. A guy died the prior day due to the current. The waves were pretty large too. We stayed about waste high. Carter was more interested in digging in the sand for the most part. He would run into the low surf every once in a while, but was still pretty wary of it. I walked around and looked for fossilized sharks teeth. I ended up finding about 6 of them.

Tuesday we decided to head down to scenic downtown Fernandina Beach. It was kind of cool, but we did go into this massive antique store and found “Answer Me Jesus”, which is basically a Magic Eight Ball in the shape of a giant pink Jesus. It kind of looks like a sex toy of some kind, but it’s super cool.

Me, “Will I go to church next Sunday Jesus?”

Jesus, “Not a chance in Hell”

He’s so benevolent

Wednesday was beach day again. Found a couple more sharks teeth and just playing in the sand with the boy.

That night we had our friends watch Carter and My Wife and I went out for dinner to celebrate our 4-year wedding anniversary, which will be June 14. It was the best seafood dinner I’ve ever had in my life. Started out with some muscles and a vodka stone sour, then an awesome Caesar salad, the wife had shrimp bisque. The main course was seared scallops, asparagus, and sweet potatoes. My wife had swordfish. It was delicious. We walked a bit through downtown Fernandina Beach to an ice cream parlor for desert.

Thursday we planned to head back home at night so we played it low key during the day. One of our friends works at White Oak Conservation Center so late in the afternoon we packed up all our stuff and headed north to check it out. It’s not open to the general public so we got a behind the scenes look at all the animals. We got to feed some giraffes. It’s pretty cool being only a few feet away and this big head comes down and grabs a branch of leaves out of your hands. They’re much taller at that angle, and muscular. We also got to pet a couple rhinos. Their skin is crazy tough, but where their joints are the skin is very silky and smooth. We also got to see some cheetahs, zebras, and all kinds of elk type animals (don’t recall their names).

We said goodbye and started the drive home. I decided to go a different way back since Atlanta sucked so bad last time. We went up through the Carolinas, then over through Tennessee, and up Kentucky to Cincinnati, then over through Indianapolis. It was much better. It was cool driving through the Great Smokey Mountains during a full moon with a bit of fog. It only took about 16 hours. All told the gas only cost me about $160 roundtrip.

It was a good vacation.