7-29-09 Wednesday (Collision – Part 2)

It’s a Happy Birthday Jim Day! Yay! Last year we stayed at the Groves RV Resort while we got our shit together to hit the road. We made reservations for the same park for our return. Recently, Jim found other related communities (all part of Sun Communities) and today we moved our reservation to a different park for the same price but with a lot more amenities, such as a hot tub. We’ll be calling Indian Creek RV Resort our home for a month or two.

Alix picked us up once again and continued as our fabulous hostess/tour guide. She made several lunch suggestions, but once she mentioned Gypsy Cab Company, Jim chose it. Jim remembered hearing the name (positively) years ago while in college. Off we went… The verdict? Great food! We’d go back if we were in the area again.

On a side note, it was so fitting to go to a restaurant with “gypsy” in it’s name. This word is what brought Alix and I together. The short story is she “offended” a cakewrecks.com reader and I was one of the people who defended her choice of words. It blew up into a big internet blogging commenting battle of sorts. The long story is here on Alix’s blog from December 8th, 2008. Thanks Cakewrecks!

Recently having had our bellies full, it was time to walk it off. We tried to get Alix’s sister Lisa back out for a day’s adventure, but she “had” to work. We were bummed that she didn’t come out to play. Alix texted her the photo below.

“Please Lisa… C’mon.”

We walked to Castillo de San Marcos, the old Fort Matanzas National Monument. Sure it was rich in history. Sure it offered good views. Sure it was damn hot out and I was tired of sweating. We didn’t even do the self guided tour. Did I mention it was hot out? We took some photos, so just be happy with these:

Above: Drama Queen?

Above/Below: XXX

Above: Hard to believe she’s almost twice my age. Well, maybe not that much.

Above: We called him “dude”.

Above: Of course I have a stupid look on my face. This was the dumb doorway to one of the rooms.

Above: We were going for a “strong look” but I think it may look like we’re a little constipated.

Above: I resisted pushing her off and into the water.

We left the fort, walking along the sea wall. Check out the sea turtle below!

Alix showed us around Flagler College… her Alma Mater.

Below: The afternoon rains began.

We spotted some old cars parked at the Casa Monica Hotel. We took several photos, and had some fun.

The best part? The bell hops who helped us with our photos told us the inside of the hotel was cool and we should go inside. We did. We decided to have a few drinks, and indulge in the free fruit, cheese and crackers. Yum.

Where has the day gone? We went back to the RV, walked the dog and planned out dinner. It’s Jim’s birthday! Where does he want to go? The Columbia for a repeat of last night. Well, not exactly a repeat. Lisa was still missing in action, and we decided to have bread, soup (a bowl instead of a cup this time) and salad only. Again, it was delicious.

Above: Time to embarrass Jim with a happy birthday song from the staff. Check out the woman clapping in the air. I love this trapped in time type photo. Can you imagine your face freezing like that?

Right next to the Columbia is a Ghost walking tour place.

We started this GPS walking tour pretty late. The battery didn’t seem like it would make it the full time. We swapped it with another unit. It started raining again. Lightning was fairly heavy. We gave up, returned the unit and got a refund. No big deal, we discovered we would have been doing this tour after midnight, and then would still need to drive back to the RV, exchange photos, goodbyes and then Alix would have another 20 minute drive to get home. It was for the best that we skipped it.

It’s been an awesome couple of days, Thanks for the memories Alix! We had a blast. Eventually, we’ll be back to harass you.