What a great day we had. We rode up to Jacksonville today taking Highway A1A through Ponte Vedra. I can not believe how much has changed in the past 30 years. I remember the stretch between St Augustine and Jax Beach spotted with stilt houses built up on the dune line and then miles and miles of sea oats and palm scrub. There is now a short stretch of pristine beaches between very expensive and very modern multistory homes ranging upwards into the million dollar range I’m sure. Ponte Vedra a once small town just south of Jacksonville Beach has grown into a thriving community with a very high tax base. PSL has nothing on this small town. We stopped at a convenience store that carried a several different flavors of coffee blends, a nice wine collection and a fresh flower cooler.
“Stepford wives” was one quips we heard from the back seat.
As we drove through Jacksonville Beach I was a little upset to find that I recognized very little so many things have changed. There is no more boardwalk. We rode out towards Mayport, I thought it would be nice to take the ferry over to St Georges. Funny thing is that as we were crossing there was a news crew there. Apparently the mayor of Jacksonville is debating closing down the ferry because of high diesel prices and the news crew was there filming. Our Yukon can be seen in several pictures. Okay the bumper front and then back was seen in several frames. Too bad they did not talk to us. What a great story. I took that ferry several times as a child and almost 30 years later here I am taking my children across on the ferry. Now there’s a news story.
We visited the Huguenot Memorial Beach and let both the girls try out their driving skills. They were happy. We sat on the south side of the inlet few a little while letting Fred take pictures of jetty and he took some shots of the ships docked at NAS Mayport. They seem to be under pretty high security a helicopter flew over us on a regular basis. Fred just knew we were going to get stopped and checked. He was using his long range lens on his camera and I have always thought he was very suspicious looking.
We then drove over to the Kingsley Plantation and walked around until we could not stand the cold anymore. We took the ferry back across and then had a very large lunch at Sticky Fingers. We love their ribs. I guess we should be thankful there is not one closer to home. We called it a day and headed back towards St Augustine. Fred took over 200 pictures today. I took a few but it was so cold out; the wind made it worse. My legs still hurt from the lighthouse. I don’t think they will ever be the same. We head back towards home tomorrow. It will be great to sleep in my own bed but there is such a long list of things I have to do I almost regret going home.
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