Hey all,
As most of you know, the school year has started and we are busy (as everyone else is also). I (Brian) digress.
Anyway...
I will let Staci write the rest.
Well...thank you Brian.
Yes, we have been very busy since school has started. I (Staci) get home in the afternoon but exhausted after teaching all day. My school is pretty tough this year with extremely needy and difficult students. So now I am doing this after I have taken a nap this evening after school. Anywaaaay....School and work is really what we have been up to. Brian is working, teaching, and taking a class. But every weekend we are having fun still and doing something. This blog is about our trip to Jacksonville BEFORE school started....yikes that far behind. Since then we have went to the Natural History Museum here in Gainesville, experienced some Gator Football (not from the inside of the stadium...just outside), Rock the Universe, and Halloween Horror Nights. Plus the next 3 weekends are already spoken for. It is good to be having fun!
As you may know, we also have a new kitten that we got a weekend before school started. Her name is Nymphadora Tonks and she is quite the kitten. She has so much energy, she literally bounces and sprints everywhere and then just lays down and naps. It took Minerva a few days to get used to the new cat, but now they are friends and get into mischief together.
Okay....now on to the actual pictures from a month ago....
Well...thank you Brian.
Yes, we have been very busy since school has started. I (Staci) get home in the afternoon but exhausted after teaching all day. My school is pretty tough this year with extremely needy and difficult students. So now I am doing this after I have taken a nap this evening after school. Anywaaaay....School and work is really what we have been up to. Brian is working, teaching, and taking a class. But every weekend we are having fun still and doing something. This blog is about our trip to Jacksonville BEFORE school started....yikes that far behind. Since then we have went to the Natural History Museum here in Gainesville, experienced some Gator Football (not from the inside of the stadium...just outside), Rock the Universe, and Halloween Horror Nights. Plus the next 3 weekends are already spoken for. It is good to be having fun!
As you may know, we also have a new kitten that we got a weekend before school started. Her name is Nymphadora Tonks and she is quite the kitten. She has so much energy, she literally bounces and sprints everywhere and then just lays down and naps. It took Minerva a few days to get used to the new cat, but now they are friends and get into mischief together.
Okay....now on to the actual pictures from a month ago....
The Friday evening before the first day of school we drove to Jacksonville to stay there for the weekend. We now only live 1 hour and 30 minutes from Jacksonville and decided we needed to explore part of it.
Another HotWire success....Double Tree for cheap. PLUS....cookies!
We ended up exploring several parts of this Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, it is a big chunk of the city.
St. John's River
Outside of Fort Caroline
It is a door for the vertically challenged.
Brian climbing the inside of the walls. I am in the background looking over his shoulder.
The front part of the fort
Brian at the top of the fort and I am walking in the distance. This fort was pretty small and was once used by the French.
We are on a dock with the fort in the background
There is a monument placed by the French after they landed in Jacksonville. This is the name.
And here is the replica of the monument that was there. It was difficult to get this picture because a couple was sitting on the bench behind the monument having a lovely romantic time....
Downtown Jacksonville...thought this was going to be a really cool shopping area.
Not the case.
The best part of the weekend was going to this Catty Shack Ranch.
We found it because it is the #1 thing to do in Jacksonville according to TripAdvisor.
They have tons of tigers, lions, and other big cats that they have rescued from zoo's, circuses, and private dealers.
This tiger is winking at you.
even white tigers!
This lion was lazy! Like a small cat.
It was amazing watching them, and how they interacted with the volunteers that work with them.
This tiger is an albino tiger that has survived cancer (the back has the mark)
This tiger is chilling in his pool.
This was a group of 3 tigers, all family, that was rescued together and they just kept walking in a line.
Waaazzzzuuup.
majestic.
On Saturday nights they open the ranch to the public for their nightly feeding routine. Here are the food dishes before they came out.
They know food is coming soon. They each have their own platform in their cage that they go to, to get their food.
They is a hole in the cage that the worker puts to food through.
These tigers were hungry!
They warned us that the cats like to spray on people....here is one attempting to spray Brian.
The tiger on the left is the biggest tiger they have.
The one of the right is small but growls and paces before her food comes.
yummm (no zoom)
After they had been fed, we went back to look at a few before leaving and one of the main vets/directors of the ranch started playing hide and go seek with this tiger. (who is behind the ball). He would turn his back and the tiger would try to sneak up on him, then when the man turned around the tiger froze and ran and hid. They continued this until the tiger ended up making it to the front of the cage.
The next day we visited Fernandina Beach, it is a cute little old beach town. And got fudge.
very happy with my fudge
the main street
We ate at this pizza place for Brian.
On the way through Jacksonville we found a naval station and this aircraft carrier.
This park was also park of the ecological area from the day before. But this, Fort George Island used to be owned by a plantation owner. The island is surrounded by river and used to be a sea island cotton field. The plantation house and slave quarters are still there.
After we turned off the main round, we had to drive 10+ minutes on this dirt round through forest, which this all used to be sea island cotton fields in the 1800's.
Here is the front of the plantation. It overlooks a river.
gopher tortoise burrows
The river in front of the plantation
inside the barn
We found a gopher tortoise and Brian made a new friend!
about 1/4 of the mile from the house are 25 slave quarters. They all pretty much look like this now, but it was very cool to see them all together.
A huge tree that the slaves used for a cemetery.
First day of school (with Minerva in the background....along with the bathroom....)
First day of school!
The weekend after the first week, we went to this museum. It is on campus at UF.
The traveling exhibit of this dinosaur was here and was about to leave to we went to go see it.
here is some of her info
And here is Sue.
Brian getting his triceratops vision on--looking out for meat eating dinosaurs.
I am a dinosaur...here me roar.
Run?
No...take a selfie first.
This is part of the main museum. It is a mastodon skeleton.
Brian is ready to learn!
Where is Staci????
Showing the height of this plant.
creepy fish in the ocean room
Brian is about to have a crab battle
woah--Megalodon jaw bone
Giant land sloth skeleton.
Did you know these existed?
We didn't.
But they are scary big.
They had an entire lab of insects and butterflies.
Whew...did it!
See ya next time loved ones!
See ya next time loved ones!
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