Winter 2017 Florida Trip–Post #14

We arrived back in Jacksonville on Friday morning, and got set up in the Flamingo Lake RV Resort, north of town.

This resort is large, and we had visited it a week ago with the Woods, and made a reservation for this weekend.  We got a site on the lake, and here are some pictures from our site….

We drove around the lake (the resort surrounds it with campsites) and got some pictures of our coach from the other side where the resort had constructed a small beach area……..

Before we came back to Jacksonville, I did a little searching on the internet, but just could not find a lot of tourist stuff to do here.  Since this is a resting weekend before our two-day trip back to Texas and to have a good place to watch the Super Bowl, a lack of things for us to feel like we need to do, is not a bad thing!

However, on Friday afternoon, we did get into the car and drove to the center of town, and a place called Jacksonville Landing.  Here’s a couple of pictures…….

To us, it looked more like a place tor downtown working folks to gather at lunch.  For a Friday evening, it was pretty much ‘dead’.  We drove more of the town, and then headed back to the RV resort to begin our restful weekend.

On Saturday morning, we decided to visit a couple of large flea/farm markets around town.  It provided us something relaxing to do, but when we woke up, it was very cold.  After the flea markets, we decided to visit the beach areas, and check out a couple of seafood restaurants recommended to Patsy by the resort person.

One was called the Safe Harbor Seafood Restaurant, which I had already put on a list from the internet, and the other was Singleton’s Seafood Shack. The guy told Patsy that the latter was a bit of a dive, but he thought it was the best in the area.  He said it had been filmed for Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives!  Here are some pictures that we took as we drove by them on our tour………..

It was an easy choice for me…….. I wasn’t crazy to eat at a place called a shack, and looked like the name!!  It was early in the afternoon, so we decided that we would drive up the coast and think it over later.  That meant that I was going to lose my vote……….. and I knew it!!

From the restaurant locations (they were only about 1/8 mile apart), there was a ferry to continue the Hwy A1A scenic road trip.  We decided to take it and cross toward Amelia Island.  We found out from the guy on the ferry that this was the first day of operation, since Hurricane Matthew hit the area a few weeks earlier!!

While we waited for the single ferry to return, we took some more pictures…….

The Ferry landing when closed, the ‘ambassador lady’, and the landing open for unloading and loading……

Departing the ferry………

We took Hwy A1A along the coast for awhile, and then doubled back to I-95 and back to the RV resort.  The day was cold and the sea water was rough……..

We returned to the Bus, and rested a couple of hours, then we headed back to the beach for dinner.  We decided to go to Singleton’s Shack!!!

I put the address into the GPS, and did not pay much attention, but the GPS route took us toward Amelia Island, and, therefore, we had to cross the ferry again, but in the opposite direction.  We did not have to wait long for the ferry, but did see a lot of pelicans near the ferry landing.

We got to the Restaurant at about 5:45, and got right in.  The meal was really pretty good.  Here are some inside pictures……

The restaurant was opened by a Captain Singleton, and there was a room with model ships that he had built.  They were on display, and here are some photos…….

The Super Bowl just ended……… but not the way I had hoped, this blog is a wrap, and this is our final night in Florida.  Tomorrow morning, we will crank up the Bus, hook up the car, and head west for home in Texas.

This will probably be the last post for our Winter 2017 Vacation………. unless we have some excitement to report on the way home!!!

That’s it, Folks!!

Winter 2017 Florida Trip–Post #13

We left the Red Gate campground in Savannah on Thursday morning, and drove about 85 miles to the Golden Isles Vacation Park at Brunswick, GA.

Our intent was to visit Jekyll Island and then drive over to Saint Simon Island.  We left the park shortly after noon, and arrived on Jekyll Island about 30 minutes later.

The history of Jekyll Island is interesting.  In short, a group of rich people bought the island around the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, and tried to keep it a private island, even using force.  A part of the story can be found here.

The island has nice beaches and a lot of history……. in the form of old homes.  It also has the single entrance road shown above with a fee to enter the island.

The Beaches………..

The old preserved homes were beautiful and well kept.  Here are a few examples………

Ever since we started this current trip to the east coast, Patsy has been fascinated with the large trees covered in moss.  They are really abundant on these islands.  Here are some examples……….

After touring Jekyll Island, we drove across a rather large bridge to Saint Simon Island.  The bridge resembled the one that we took in Savannah from the Riverfront area.  In fact, both were on State Hwy 17, and were over marshlands that were navigable. 

The bridge was one of the highlights of the visit to Saint Simon Island.  A lighthouse was the other…….

In the downtown area, there was a nice pier, from which we were able to photograph the lighthouse……..

In the above photo, the land mass in the background is Jekyll Island as seen from the Saint Simons Island Pier.

Tomorrow, we leave for Jacksonville for three days at a resort to tour the city, watch the Super Bowl on Sunday, and to rest up for the 1000 mile drive back to Texas!!