Florida Family Time

We took a weekend to do a long-overdue trip down to Jacksonville to see Grandpa Stokes and Shanghai during the weekend of Sept 7-9. The boys did AWESOME on the car ride. You read that right, and no, I'm not being sarcastic. We really, really lucked out with great car riders.

We took a 1/2 day off work and school to start the trek so we were able to make it down at a decent time on Friday evening.

Beautiful sunset on our way in to town

On Saturday, we drove to the beach and attempted to do a little crabbing. This was my dad's first attempt to crab at this location and we realized that we were a little late and our bounty was being caught before it ever made it to us. There were some legit crabbers that got there and got set up way earlier than us and they probably caught all the crabs in that area. So, all in all, we caught a whopping total of zero crabs, but had lots of fun regardless. In all honesty, Shanghai caught about 10 or so hermit crabs, so I think that actually counts. ;)

Ry-guy

Pretty bird

He loves the water

building sand castles

Happy at the shore!

One of Shanghai's hermit crabs

Playtime

getting serious about crabbing -
Thomas took the bait and the net and went a little further out...
no luck.

When we got hungry and tired of waiting on crabs that weren't biting, we went down to St. Augustine. I had never been before so it was cool to see something new. Did you know that it's the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement within the borders of the continental  US? Now you do. We went to Castillo de San Marcos, an old fort, to take a look around.

Sitting on the wall

Castillo de San Marcos

We got there at the perfect time to see a re-enactment of the firing of the canon. It was really loud and I think the boys were impressed!

Family pic in St. Augustine

Close-up

From there we drove back towards Jacksonville and went to this little oceanfront restaurant, Palms Fish Camp. This place was great! There was a nice breeze, live music playing, football on tv, cold beer and fresh seafood - what else could you want?!?! We ended up staying there for a while with my Dad's friends, Scott and Teresa, just hanging out and enjoying a nice afternoon. The kids were entertained by looking for fiddler crabs in the marsh right next to the restaurant and listening (and dancing a little) to the music. We even ended up getting Phyllis and Jerry to come by for a little while to visit with us!

Ryan ready for a late lunch!

My dad asked for an encore, and he got a
personal serenade of "I Shot the Sheriff"!

Stokes, Shanghai and William

The boys loved seeing Jerry!

Cutie boy!

Phyllis held Ryan and they laughed and laughed!

Stokes with Dada

Ryan and me

William loves Shanghai!

The two Stokeses - did I spell that right?!?!?

Cool breeze

We couldn't stay alllllll day though because we had to get back to watch some real football! Clemson was playing Texas A&M that night and we didn't want to miss a second of the action. Everyone got baths and the Clemson gear on and we watched right up until the final seconds. It was a nail biter, but Clemson won!

Go Tigers!

That pretty much ended the weekend. We got up on Sunday, had breakfast, then got back on the road to come back home. It was a fun, although short, trip for us. We got some time on the water and time with family, which is a win-win. Till next time, Jacksonville!