Thursday - Mayport

Got back today from a 3 night stay in Mayport, Florida. We stayed at the Navy Lodge on Naval Station Mayport in a room right on the beach. The beach on the Atlantic side is not nearly as pretty as the gulf coast, but we enjoyed trying something different for a change. There was also lots to do nearby which was fun. We all enjoyed the trip, we experienced a lot of new things, Amelia slept well in the hotel which I had been worried about, the kids behaved as well as can be expected, and we look forward to similar future adventures.

Thursday we drove down to Mayport. It's only a 4 hour 15 minute drive from our house (we did it in 5 hrs with stops). It was a pleasant drive through a bunch of small Georgia towns. Driving into Mayport we crossed the St Johns river via ferry, a first for all of us. Gavin was pretty impressed (ok, so were we). We ate lunch at a seafood restaurant on the river. Good food, but windy and cool where we were sitting outside. Amelia was restless and didn't even eat one french fry. We ate fast to get her out of there. Rookie mistake - should have let her burn off energy after the long car ride. But my clam strips were pretty tasty. After that we checked in, we got a room on the 2nd floor of the Navy Lodge with a great view:

 There are no boats in this picture but almost constantly day and night there were ships passing by coming and going from the ocean into the mouth of the St Johns river just north of the property. We saw all sorts of navy ships, casino cruise ships, cargo ships, coast guard ships, and we saw one Carnival cruise ship. They pass close enough to see them pretty well, and we could also see a bunch of ships docked on base as we drove around. The ships were definitely one of the highlights of the trip.

 The room was nothing fancy but clean and included free breakfast and a kitchenette. I picked it for the price - $80/night with no tax. Can't beat that for beachfront and clean.

Next we headed out to the beach. It was a little cool and very windy. If we hadn't been on vacation we would not have hit the beach, but the kids didn't mind.

 We are not used to a deep, firm beach - it took six pictures to get to the water:

 Amelia loved the water and did not mind the temperature at all. The water was cold but not as bad as I anticipated.

 view of hotel from water's edge - deep beach!

It kind of looks like another planet:

 Walking over to the jetty at the mouth of the river:

 The stone jetty was super cool. Plus it had tide pools around it's base for the kids to play in. It was so fun we would have gone back to play another day but I was scared the kids would get adventurous and maim or kill themselves. Amelia did get a scrape on the top of her foot but no serious wounds.

 Jake is a trooper. He just doesn't like the beach. But he goes for the kids (and me). And he hauls water, digs holes, and builds sandcastles:

 After beach snack:

end of the day: