Tour of Mayport, FL

ship carrying reefers

Navy Ship with sailors on board
Helicopter in training

Ship in dry dock being repaired
Ships awaiting time to return to sea
Looking at RV Park from across St. John's River
The Gettysburg going down the St. John's River
Old Lighthouse in Mayport
Very Old House in Mayport

Ship going down St. John's River tonight at dinnertime

January 24th - Tuesday 70 degrees

I have to tell you about out dinner out last evening first. We went to The Fish Company Restaurant which actually is located in Atlantic Beach, Fl and what a delightful place it was. The food was wonderful. Susie and Noell, it was almost as good as The Sanitary. Lou and I chose an assortment and two plates. The personnel in the kitchen divided the food in the kitchen and presented it to us on two plates, which was a surprise to us. We had a delightful white fish, crab cake, and shrimp and as my sides I chose rice and red beans and cole slaw and of course hush puppies came with it. We enjoyed a glass of wine and smoked fish and crackers for an appetizer. It was a very enjoyable evening. The nice thing about all of this is we get to do this all over again on the third of February for June's birthday.

Today after we had lunch and did up our lunch dishes, we took off for a tour of Mayport and the base. You can see from the sign Mayport was settled in the 1562.

I have tried to label the pictures that I have posted so you will know what they are. The water way that is in from of our camp site is The St. John's River it is hard to believe that it is a river, but it is, it is dredged to be 40 to 50 feet deep to allow these ships to come in and out, they have small boats with pilots that go out to meet them and bring them in and guide them out, so we usually have warning that they are coming in and going out. They even bring cruise ships in here.

It is a very busy base, with ships and plane going all of the time. Tonight we have heard fighter planes going, so that is a different noise, which Lou and I had been used to hearing at MacDill.

Tomorrow we are getting up early and heading out to St. Augustine. There are many things there we would like to see, but as usual time runs out, so we will see what time allows and there is always another day, God willing.

Thank you one and all of all of the birthday greetings, my e-mail box was very full and I tried to get back to everyone, and if I didn't I promise to do so very soon.

Mayport Naval Station - FL

January 22 - Sunday 76 Degrees

We left King's Bay today at 11:00 this morning and drove about two hours to Mayport to our new location here at Mayport. We have a lovely site and you can see from the pictures we have great views no matter what way we look. A great club house, free laundry again and great internet service. We are booked for two weeks and we are in hopes we can stay for at least a month before moving on further south.

We are in hopes to be able to do lots of sightseeing from here. Today we have spent the day just getting settled in and taking care of answering some e-mail that we were behind in and Lou has spent lots of time on the telephone catching up on news from his family.

You can see in the pictures some of the ships that we can watch come in and leave. That is one of the reasons I love being here, there is always some type of activity either ship or troops in training. It is a very busy base so I should be able to have lots interesting pictures.

Hopefully, we will get out tomorrow and do a little sightseeing, find out where the NEX and the commissary are although both of them will be closed on Monday. We will be going out for dinner tomorrow night to celebrate my birthday. The years seem to roll on along don't they. Krista fixed me my favorite dinner the night before we left and that was very much appreciated for many reasons, the biggest, I didn't have to think about cooking when we were so busy packing and she goes all out when she fixes my favorite meal. It was hard for Lou and I to say goodbye to Matthew knowing he wouldn't know us when we return at Easter time in April. Kristy, you have to keep posting pictures of him on your blog so we can see how he changes and Noell and Maegan you have to keep e-mailing pictures of the kids also.

King's Bag - Day Three

January 21st - 78 degrees

We really feel sorry for you poor folks at home in Pennsylvania with the cold and the snow, it has been a beautiful day here, it was down to 53 degrees this morning and as of now at 4:30 it is 78 degrees.

Lou and I took advantage of the day and took a walk around the lake. We can't take Estee with us, she just can't take the long walks, so Lou takes her for a short walk first while I do us the dishes and then we are ready to take off. We kept it down to a mile and a half for the first walk. This year I was prepared and brought along my sneakers so hopefully no blisters to hamper the walking.

I was able to get the bed stripped and even got my ironing done, so we will be ready to move on tomorrow. The place where we will be staying for the, at least next two weeks is close to Jacksonville, FL on the Ocean side and we will be able to watch the ocean liners come and go. Lou and I were there last year for one night and really loved it, so we are anxious to go back there. June and Steve wintered there last year so they know many spots to visit and we will see the sights while we are there.

Tonight we have a hot game of Sequence scheduled for after dinner. I want to cook some fresh parsnips to go with our roast of beef. Today for lunch I made a fresh tossed salad and it was wonderful, all with fresh veggies that we picked up here. We are both in hopes to get our bodies in better shape while we are away this winter. Hope we can stick to it.

The pictures that I posted are pictures that I took yesterday in St. Mary's. I tried to get them to load last evening and they would not load, so am adding them today. The trolley was very interesting as were the other pictures of building that I took. It was a quaint little town.

DayTwo King's Bay - Georgia

January 20th - Kings Bay, Georgia 78 degrees

We took advantage of our three days here and sorta settled in here. It is a lovely camping area. Lou and I visited here last year on our way home and were anxious to return; however, last year when we were here we didn’t have time to do any sight seeing. So this time we decided to take advantage of the situation and take a look around.

Last evening all of us went out to dinner, our host suggested Angelo’s in Kingsland which was a delightful Italian Restaurant. I just can’t get enough of spaghetti, so I ordered that with meatballs, as did June and Steve, although they got theirs with sausage and Lou not a lover of spaghetti ordered a Greek Salad, all of it was just wonderful. These folks had been in business for 38 years with the same recipe and it wasn’t hard to see why.

Today Lou and slept in until 8:00 and it really seemed good, as we had been getting up early so we could get an early start and from the weather reports up north, it looks like we left at the right time. It was a wonderful day here, bright sunshine with clear blue skies and a gentle wind blowing. The temperature climbed to 78 this afternoon.

After we got finished up with our morning work Lou and ventured into Saint Mary’s for a look around. We knew it was a old city and knew we would have to see some old architecture and we certainly did. We walked along the bay and decided to have lunch at a outside café and we dined on fish and chips and Lou ordered sweetened tea, southern style. What a delight to sit outside in the sun and the breeze and watch the birds and boats on the bay. All of a sudden we realized we were on vacation and it was wonderful. We did a walking tour of the quaint little town and then drove back towards our Sub Base and Lou remembered a camp ground at Crooked River that he and Edna had camped so we drove out there and it was also a wonderful area, which was located out in the Georgia pines, rather primitive and Lou decided he would prefer where we are.

We stopped at the car wash and washed the Pennsylvania dirt off of the car and back to our camp site where I finished the job and cleaned the windows, tires, etc. Now it looks pretty spiffy. Want to do the inside tomorrow. I ventured down to the laundry just before dinner tonight and had the lovely surprise of eight HE washer and dryers and a beautiful laundry room and it is all FREE! So I did all of our laundry. Tomorrow I will do our bedding. I could get used to this place very easily. While I was doing laundry my darling husband warmed up left overs for our dinner and we enjoyed a nice glass of wine with our dinner. Tonight is my favorite night for television.

Tomorrow we hope to do some hiking around the lake here at the Sub Base. There is a beautiful lake and all kinds of beautiful birds then Sunday we will be on our way to May Port, FL and we are in hopes we can stay there for longer than the 11 days we have reservations for.

We have very limited internet coverage here, so may have to post this in the middle of the night!!