Good weekend

We had a great weekend just knocking about. We explored our new city a bit, and find it to be a nice place to live. It will be fine for the relatively short time we are here. Full time cruising is our goal.

We stopped by a market downtown for crafts and produce, which runs every weekend. The Riverside Arts Market sits right under I-95 downtown Jacksonville. They have bands performing, crafts, artwork, clothing and plenty of food cooking, though the food mostly comes from deep fryers. Plenty of other snacks and coffee as well. A very good use of space that's mostly unused in other city's.

There were plenty of powerboats docked nearby, but I do not know what the depth is for sailboats. There were a number of sailors traversing the St Johns river that day, and some were docked downtown on the other bank. We have to explore this river by boat, and maybe pick up a slip downtown for an evening of fun. I see the currents sometimes while driving along it's banks and it kind of freaks me out, so I'm a little hesitant. Seems so long ago now, that we spent some quality time in currents like that.

If you are cruising near Jacksonville I would make it a stop. There are plenty of things to do and see while you are here. Some day soon I'll check out the number of slips available to sailors and post it here. Hopefully our trip upriver happens soon. We need to move this barge before it turns into a floating cottage.

We finished up the weekend in St. Augustine. We checked out Anastasia State Park, and drove around a little to check out the non-tourist area. Not much to report. Seems all of the city is geared toward tourists, unless we missed something. The park was nice, but the nature trail, just one, was rather short in length. We hit up the beach which was very nice, then grabbed a late lunch at Stir It Up.

Cool place, but busy. Same with the road next to it, where we sat on a picnic bench watching surfer dudes and ladies walk by with lean bodies, making us feel like Manatees. If you like people watching, grab a couple smoothies, a comfy chair and enjoy the show.

We made it back to the boat for some basketball action, despite the Dish cable getting snagged on the dock, then being ripped out by low tide. I dug out our HD antenna we used while cruising down here, so we didn't miss any action. I recently went through all my hardware, tossing things I really didn't need anymore. Among the tossed was a coax crimper, and connectors. Doh!
Hope Y'all had a nice weekend.

Go Syracuse!
P