Downtown Jacksonville Landing – Unusual Drawbridge

(Mayport Naval Station, Jacksonville, FL) Hi 91 Lo 61 - What a wonderful day, but oh is it hot!  I’m not complaining though, it’s a lot better then being cold.

Across the ship channel from our park we can see Ft. George Island Cultural State Park, about a half mile away.  This is our view.


It's a very rustic park, mostly sand. They have a small RV park there, with electric and water hookups, and some boondocking sites with no hookups along the side of the road right on the water. On weekends the park is full of cars all the way to the tip where the jetty starts. We sometimes also see kite flying and sail boats.  (click on the picture to make it larger).


We didn’t have much ship activity at all this morning. There aren't even many cargo ships going in or out.  The base gets quiet on weekends, we learned that the past two times we were here.  So after our morning routine we decided to drive to Jacksonville and check out Jacksonville Landing. Jim bought a Groupon for a a local Mediterranean restaurant called Zaitoon. It's on the way to Jacksonville so we stopped and had lunch. The Groupon cost $15 for $30 worth of food. Talk about good food! About the only Mediterranean food either of us has had in the past is gyro sandwiches, so it was a real treat to experience a full menu of tapas, kebobs, and all kinds of other delights. It was also great to get the check and see a balance of $0. :)

We had a tapa for an appetizer, which is a small pita with a really good filling of some kind. (It tasted "olivey" and "buttery"... sorry, I'll never make it as a food critic.) I had shrimp and fish with rice and roasted beet salad.  Jim had lamb and steak kebob with fries and Greek salad. We topped it off with ice cream and baclava with raspberries.

Baclava with ice cream. The picture turned out darker, I had the wrong setting. I had to include it to show the size. We split it between us.


We love trying out different foods.

We went on to Jacksonville, and headed for one of the five bridges that go over the St. John's river. I’m not fond of bridges and the higher they go the more nervous I get.


It feels good going down the other side and having a look at the downtown skyline.


It’s great visiting large towns on weekends. If you miss a turn it’s easier to find your way without a lot of traffic. There was a road under construction, but with a few turns and after negotiating a lot of one way streets we made it to Jacksonville Landing. It's a complex of shops, restaurants, and a beautiful plaza right on the river at the foot of the Main St. Bridge.



We passed quite a few eateries. There were river Cruises and boats along the river front.
A few shops.


This is the Main St. Bridge. What's really interesting is how they raise the bridge to let boat traffic through. The entire center section raises up instead of swinging our or opening from both sides like most. Here’s a couple of pictures that show how it works. We got to see it open twice to let sailboats go through.



Now we’re ON the bridge, headed home.


Here's a panorama of the riverfront area.


Jacksonville is a beautiful city. It was a very enjoyable visit, but very hot. It was good to get back to our cool home on wheels. We're now settling in to watch our Carolina Hurricanes hockey team's last regular season game... if they win they're in the playoffs, and if they lose their season is over. We also have a NASCAR race to keep our eye on this evening. Just another day in paradise!