This Entry is just to marque a Place on the Map to show where I began my Travels... :)
My Hometown is pretty awesome though, you should go there and see it! :)

Today is the day big day!  Mom, dad, Scott, Justin, Melissa, Missy, Grandpa, Amy, Nana, Aunt Nancy, Kim, Andrew, and two other couples as well as myself will be leaving for our Carnival Cruise.  I'm all packed up and ready to head off on our Western Caribbean adventure.  I must say that the amount of crap I could fit into my small suitcase is rather impressive.  I packed way too much, but I tend to do so on a cruise.  Cruising is completely different than any other travel in the sense that you need clothes, beach/pool clothes, dinner wear and then another set of clothes if you want to hit the clubs at night.  I won't even get into how many pairs of shoes I packed for the week.  It's insane!

This morning I took my mom, dad and my two year old niece Olivia to the beach at Little Talbot Island State Park.  I visited the beach the previous week on a field trip and was told by a park ranger about a spot on the island that is perfect for finding starfish and sanddollars.  The island is located off of A1A and is easily accesible.  Park fees will cost you $3 per vehicle, but it is more than worth it.  Just beyond the ranger station is a parking lot with covered picnic areas, showers, bathrooms, water fountains and a vending machine.  Follow the boardwalk to the beach.  Once you reach the sand, turn left and walk about 1/4 a mile down the beach.  The best place to find the sanddollars is on a sandbar in the water.  Within a 10 minute period we found over 50 full sanddollars on one sandbar.  We filled Olivia's bucket full of them and carried them back to the car to be used as centerpieces for my brother's wedding reception.  The sanddollars are very fragile and we acccidently broke 11 of them in transit.  When we got home we had 43 sanddollars!  That's amazing considering I've only ever found 2 perfectly complete ones at the more popular local beaches.

Along the shore you'll find tons of starfish both dead and alive.  All the live ones I placed back into the ocean.  Within a 5 foot radius I counted 24 starfish.  It was incredible!  Olivia loved it!

These pictures were actually shot Christmas morning at Jacksonville Beach.  Yes, we can go to the beach on Christmas!  My relatives up north always laugh at our pictures from Christmas day because a lot of times we are still in shorts on Christmas.

The shot of the ship was taken at Mayport Naval Station.

Yesterday, my co-workers and I took a group of about 30 kids out to a nearby State Park known as Little Talbot Island.  Although the park is only about 15 minutes from my house and workplace, I've only been here one other time.  We prearranged for a park ranger to talk with the group about the various types of wildlife that live on the island.  Our ranger talked to us about the rattlesnakes, racoons, bobcats, sea turtles and other creatures that live within the park.  After our rather lengthy lesson we had lunch and headed down to the beach to collect shells.  One of the kids found a small sharks tooth and the whole gang got rather excited and they all dug to locate a tooth of their own.  Unfortunately they were unsuccessful.  I overhead a woman telling her husband that there was a sea turtle just down the beach from where we were.  We decided to take the kids down there to see it and allow them to go up 4 at a time to get a closer look.  It sounded like a great plan, until we got there. 

Once we reached the sea turtle we noticed two things.  One, the barnacles and starfish that were on his back, and two the blood oozing out of the sides.   We had just led a group of 30 kids, all under the age of 11 to a dead sea turtle.  Oops!  The kids were fascinated by it nontheless.  We didn't let any of the younger kids approach the dead turtle, however the older kids were allowed to check it out.  I bet they went home with some interesting stories...

There was a tropical system just off the coast so we experienced bands of rain throughout our stay at the park.  It didn't ruin the atmosphere at all though.  The fishermen kept on fishing, the surfers kept on surfing and the sunbathers...well...they just laid there reading, praying that the sun would poke back out soon.

The other day I created an account with Postcrossing, a postcard exchange website.  I thought the principle behind the website was pretty cool and really, I had nothing better to do.  Since I had some free time on my hands today, I decided I'd run out and pick up a few postcards.  I suppose I could have gone to Wal*Mart or a drug store to grab them but I decided to head downtown to The Landing instead.  I noticed something rather interesting as I made my way from my parking spot on Julia to The Landing...tourists.  Real live, fanny pack wearing, socks and sandals, camera-toting tourists.   It struck me as odd because nobody comes to Jacksonville as a toursit.  There are two reasons to visit Jacksonville, football and golf.  That's it.  Don't get me wrong, it's a great place to live but there are far more interesting places nearby and people typically just keep driving through Jax without stopping. 

The Landing was rather dead.  The proverbial live band was doing their sound check in the center of the complex.  The words "Check one, two" resounded off of the walls of the neighboring restaurants.  Several boats were docked at the pier paralleling the landmark and a few couples strolled by holding hands.  Just another day at The Landing.  It was hot outside so I didn't spend time wandering through the corridors.  I went inside and immediately found the postcards I was looking for.  .25 a piece, easy-peasy.  I next grabbed a delicously cool Frappucino from Starbucks and walked a few blocks to Hemming Plaza.

Hemming Plaza is a booming place, even during the day.  It's full of homeless people (aka outdoorsmen) seeking refuges from the hot Florida sun.  They spend their days out-witting each other on the outdoor chess tables and peoplewatching from the surrounding benches.  Just off Hemming Plaza is the Main Library, the other reason for my visit to downtown.  The library is magnificent.  There are floors and floors of books, cds and dvds as well as countless computers and alcoves.  There's a theatre, a map room, and galleries featuring pieces beautifully created by local artisans.  The Library blew my mind.  I didn't have a camera on me so I used the one of my iPhone (which sucks btw).

The last public auto Ferry in Florida is part of the scenic route A1A on the east coast of Florida. A1A is a must see when you are in Florida! The St John’s or Mayport Ferry transports cars, pedestrians & of course Old School motorcycles across the St. Johns River between the coastal Jacksonville neighborhoods of Mayport Village and Ft. George Island. I was headed home on A1A & not looking forward to going into Jacksonville to get across the St John’s. I saw the green A1A Ferry sign, I have been here before, stopped at the convince store across the street for a drink. Finished my drink went to get in line as I heard the very loud whistle of the Jean Ribault, built in 1996, 40 vehicles, 206 passengers, went & got in line. There seemed to be a mix of locals who said they use the Jean Ribault all the time as a time saver & tourists who say the sign & decided to give it a try. If you find yourself on A1A around Jacksonville and are looking for a scenic shortcut or just a break from driving try the St John’s or Mayport Ferry Cars-$5.00 Motorcycles-$3.00.

This past weekend, my friend Chuck from Texas came down to visit and sail around with me. Since my last post, I had been tied up in the marina just getting to know the boat. So I was really glad to have someone visit and help me sail. Chuck is a great sailor and we both learned some new things about the boat. Hopefully our little weekend adventure was enough to inspire him to get his boat out of the lake and into the ocean! Come on Chuck, we'll sail over to the Bahamas together.

On Saturday, we left around 11:00am and headed north up the St. Johns River. The wind was pretty nice, blowing probably 8-10. The trip from my marina to downtown Jacksonville is about 20 to 25 miles and we made it in 4 hours, putting us there right at 3:00pm. Plenty of time to eat a late lunch and take a siesta before going out for the night.
The area downtown is called the Jacksonville Landing. Not a bad little place hang out for a night. There's plenty of room to tie up to the docks and you can stay for up to 72 hours for free. So we found our spot and secured the boat. The area is sort of a horseshoe-shape with a stage in the middle and surrounded by restaurants, bars and shops. A couple of bands played that night and we pretty much just people-watched and listened to the music - at least that's all I'm willing to share.
The next morning we got up and headed back up the river (yes, up the river is actually south in this case). Quite a bit more wind this time,probably 12-15 knots and coming across the beam (that's directly sideways to the boat for you landlubbers). I didn't think she would do it, but we actually sailed around 6.5 knots and even hit 7.3 a few times. That may not sound too fast, but I was surprised that a full keel boat with a 24.5 foot waterline would get up like that.
We found a little river to sail up into for the afternoon. Fueled up at a marina there and walked about a mile up to a shopping center for lunch and browsed around a boat store. After that, just headed back to the marina for the night.

Monday morning, we got up pretty early and decided to take her out one more time before he left that afternoon. The wind was light and I have a spinnaker that the previous owner had never used, so we decided to try to figure it out. A spinnaker is that big, colorful, ballon-looking sail that you sometimes see on a sailboat - used in light air to get a lot of extra power. Chuck had no problem figuring out how to hoist it and we had a great time with it. The wind picked up a little while later so we decided to drop it so we didn't get overpowered. We probably could have kept it going but didn't want to chance it. Here are a couple of pics of the spinnaker in action.
So we went back into the slip and Chuck went to the airport. I'll probably be going back to Texas in a few days to pack up the house and move everything on up to Oklahoma for storage. If anyone needs anything for their house, just ask because I'm probably selling it!

Brandon
s/v Sirius
__/)_
~~~~~

When I was 6 years old my aunt Petra moved from Greece to America. She stopped off in England on the way to say goodbye to everyone, she met and married an American Thai in the US navy and settled in Jacksonville, Florida. They divorced a few years ago and my aunt moved up to West Virginia for work but hated living there so moved back down to Jax. I also couldnt spend 6 weeks in the country where she now lives and not spend some time with her. My memories of her are very vague, i remember her being quite tall thats about it! So i booked a return flight from NYC with Delta, damn curse Delta everytime i fly with them something seems to go wrong you'd think I would have learnt but nope I decided one last try with them, i was due to leave the airport at 4pm and i arrived just before 2pm and checked in and my flight had been delayed to 4.50pm so i didnt really mind as the weather was bad. From the time it took me to go through security until the time it took to reach my gate (5 mins max) my flight had been pushed back to 6pm! I asked the counter staff who dealt with the customers only when they'd stopped talking about their lives to one another, this one woman's flight had been delayed hours and she was obviously stressed and he whipped his finger and said in the gayest voice 'RIGHT! she is not going at all now iv decided' i just thought 'tosser' but anyway I cosied up and he put me onto the earlier flight which was due to leave at 12.15pm but had been pushed back to 3pm, so its now 2.30pm and the screen changes to 3.15 then 3.30. At about 3.45 we finally board a little bus which takes us out to a tiny regional jet and we board and its seriously the smallest plane iv ever been on !! and im kinda scared as its rainy and foggy and im in a toy plane! haha. So we all sit down and i have this lady with a baby next to me who is the cutest baby iv ever seen and he dribbles on me the whole flight and its funny because she just plops him down on the floor and when we hit some turbulence he pulls these really funny faces!. We sit on the plane about an hour and they have the airconditioning on and i swear im gonna get frostbite it is so cold. Finally we take off but we cant get any hot drinks as the coffee machine is broken. Take off was smooth but we had turbulence most of the flight down but everyone arrives safe in Florida where it is pouring with rain!  The later flight which i was meant to be on was very late, i dont blame Delta at all for the weather and i realise safety is obviously very important but the airport was chaos and the communication between the staff just broke down and they really looked like idiots. Delta, you need to train your staff better, the way some of them spoke to passengers is not acceptable. Of course people are going to be upset if their flight is over 5hours late so do something about it! I cant fly them anymore, i seemed to be cursed with them. If you see me on a Delta flight dammit just run!! I met my aunt ok at the airport, we both walked round for ages looking for one another before finding each other and it took an age to drive home as she kept missing the turns which was pretty funny. Florida was very humid, it felt nice to be warm late at night, something im not used as it rains or is cold at least 5/7 days a week where im from We got some fast food and stayed up til 2.30am talking and looking at old photos and my aunt told me lots of stories about my family.

This marked my 2nd time at a Zoo in less than a fortnight! Im a Zoo fanatic now! Jacksonville Zoo is the largest Zoo between Atlanta and Orlando occupying over 110 acres of land and with many animals on show. The Zoo participates in many conservation projects, notably in Guyana. The Zoo first opened in 1925 and udnerwent a huge redevelopment in 1992. My aunt likes to visit the Zoo every year to see whats changed and she always finds she enjoys it more with every passing year. There is such a variety of wonderful animals to see - over 2,000 rare and exotic animals and over 1,500 plant species so its a nature fanatics haven. The Zoo is currently undergoing some minor building work to make way for its Asian Gardens due to open next yera according to the tour guide. Some of the animals living at the Zoo include many types of primates including Gorillas, Bonobos and even tiny little monkeys no smaller than a hand whos name has escaped me.. There is a small aviary that I really enjoyed, i held out some sugar water in a smal ltub for the Lorikeets to drink and I had 4 of them on my arm and I have some great photos. Other notable animals to look out for include; alligators (very scary!) elephants, cheetahs, panthers, otters (my favourite animal), eagles and koala bears. The entrance fee for the zoo is $12 and its also a good idea to buy the Zoo train ticket which costs $3 and gives you a guided audio tour by fun train of the entire Zoo and its inhabitants. Jacksonville Zoo is well worth a visit and is a great day out for all. Its probably also a good idea to bring along some food and water as the restaurants and shops there are a little pricy.

After visiting Cocoa Beach I went to St. Augustine where I stayed in a B&B.

From there I run back to Daytona to take a tour with Dusty in her Ghost Haunting tour.
The people of Cocoa, Daytona and St. Augustine were teaching me a lot. I got such as quality of information that I can write a book with that.

I learn how important is to have passion for what we do. I learn about respect and although that I-95 is the only part flat and bored in the State of Florida.

I was getting a little be overwhelming with all the new ways of seeing and understand things.

So I keep driving to Kelleys Island and my next stop was Jacksonville, Florida. Men, here I met two girls, I will say: one 24 and the other one 27.

One start doing a research for a book about the subject: “ If you are destroying the world”. After a press conference on UN she got her answer. The other one’s, works in a nonprofit organization to prevent or be ready if another climate disaster hit us or any body else in this World.

After spending almost 36 hours with them my mind shot down. Those 2 girls they are not activist, they are not complaining, they are not against this or that. They are taken action doing something everyday. The power of thinking and their passion about life change a lot inside of me. I don’t understand it yet, but something happened.

I diced to comp in a State Park for two nights. Today, Tuesday, May 5, 2008 I feel so much better and ready to continue with my journey north. Tomorrow I am going to be in Charleston South Carolina, but first I am going to make a small stop in Savanna, GA.

I am going to keep posting pictures and some of my experience through this trip. Know I understand better way I am so attractive to Kelleys Island Ohio.



SECOND PART


In Jacksonville I was a “green guy” for more then 24 hours, I met an illegal family from Sough America.

I met a lot of the greatest mind of United State. I always say the same thing: that is not an accident that this country has the most brilliant entrepreneurs in the world.

Alfredo de la Fuente

Saturday, May 3, 2008 Resume of my trip Start on April 29 Total Days into: 5th day. see my pictures Places: Fort Pierce Cocoa Beach Daytona St. Augustine Jacksonville People: Cathy: I never met her Jude: Charles Sean O’Hare ...........Wayne Coombs Pat O’Hare Jason Tammy Jennifer Molly Dusty Bonnie Attended of a booth selling trolley tours in St. Augustine Owner of a boutique store Owner of vinyl store Jennifer Molly Fred Dylan Bike enthusiast. My world is now ten time more open then when I start this trip, thanks of all those special people that I met through my trip. PHRASE Feel the wind and listen to yourself By Charles Make the life of other better By Sean O’Hare Listen to your heart and find your own timing. By Wayne Coombs Define your own style and build from there. By Pat O’Hare It change our point of view By NASA. Hotels: Vacation Homes B&B Couch: get invited to sleep in some one home. Hotel Activities: Drive: enjoying my time, no rushing Met new friend: Listen to stories Surf Lesson Wayne's Galleria with him as my guide tour. A manager of a co op market food, show me his establishment and explained to me the philosophy of the business Listen to: Jude and Charles about how the city of Cocoa Beach, Space Program, (NASA), and surf got started. Learn how to surf by Sean O’Hare, (I didn’t learn, I am terrible) Learn from Pat O’Hare how the surf got started from California to Cocoa Beach Get a general view of the past, present and future of the surf through Surf Hall of the Fame. Learn how a Tammy and Jason are making a different helping people in Nicaragua. Ride in a Jeep with out doors through a reserved park to take picture of birds and alligators. Ride through the cost of Indiana River in Cocoa Beach Guide tour: Ghost haunting. Walk through the downtown of St. Augustine. Walk through the river area of Jacksonville

Jacksonville Zoo is the largest Zoo between Atlanta and Orlando occupying over 110 acres of land and with many animals on show. The Zoo participates in many conservation projects, notably in Guyana. The Zoo first opened in 1925 and udnerwent a huge redevelopment in 1992. My aunt likes to visit the Zoo every year to see whats changed and she always finds she enjoys it more with every passing year. There is such a variety of wonderful animals to see - over 2,000 rare and exotic animals and over 1,500 plant species so its a nature fanatics haven. The Zoo is currently undergoing some minor building work to make way for its Asian Gardens due to open next yera according to the tour guide. Some of the animals living at the Zoo include many types of primates including Gorillas, Bonobos and even tiny little monkeys no smaller than a hand whos name has escaped me.. There is a small aviary that I really enjoyed, i held out some sugar water in a smal ltub for the Lorikeets to drink and I had 4 of them on my arm and I have some great photos. Other notable animals to look out for include; alligators (very scary!) elephants, cheetahs, panthers, otters (my favourite animal), eagles and koala bears. The entrance fee for the zoo is $12 and its also a good idea to buy the Zoo train ticket which costs $3 and gives you a guided audio tour by fun train of the entire Zoo and its inhabitants. Jacksonville Zoo is well worth a visit and is a great day out for all. Its probably also a good idea to bring along some food and water as the restaurants and shops there are a little pricy.

What is the first thing that comes to mind when I say 5 in 1. I hope it was the number of clubs inside of Bourbon Street Station. In one room you have some older music which is the first room to your right called Studio 80. They even have bands on certain occasions. The next room is the second room to the right called The Blue Room and they play house music. The have DJ's on Thurs and Sat. One of the bigger rooms is the one straight back which is Crazy Horse Saloon where there is a big square dancing floor and some pool table and a couple of nice bars. Inside Crazy horse to your right is another room called The Varsity Club. This room has karaoke, body shots, and beer bongs. I know the college kids will enjoy that room. As if it weren't enough already there is one more. When you come in to your left is another huge room this my friends is Mardi Gras and it is alwasy a party in this room. I forgot to mention the room you first walk into to find these rooms is designed to look like a brick layed street. So if you have a hankerin for bands, house, country, karaoke or some good ol' fashioned hip-hop. Come on into Burbon Street Station!

Pizza it's one of those things if you have your favorite pizza joint you just do. Well folks i'm here to change all that. If you're reading this and don't know about Moon River let me be the first to welcome you to your new pizza joint. The pizza is consistently amazing. I have never once been disappointed. The perfect combination of flavors between the sauce, dough, cheese, and the toppings (like the awesome sausage a definte must for meat lovers). The crust has that little bit of crispyness that everyone loves. I almost forgot the atmosphere its so energetic with staff being some of the coolest and nicest people I have ever met. The whole scene is very pizza place on college campus kinda feel. It is very family, but at the same time the grown kids can have a beer and relax too. Parking is sometimes a bit of bother and so can the wait in line. Now with that being said i would wait twenty or thirty mins in line and wait for a spot if thats what it takes to eat at my FAV pizza joint and probably one of my fav restaurants in Jax. ENJOY! and Welcome Home!