Once we got to Jacksonville, we only had a few more days to spend with Scout’s mom and niece. Everyone was pretty tired from the trip to Orlando, so we mainly just rested and hung out around my mom’s house. We did head down to an area called “The Corner,” which is the corner that connects Atlantic Beach with Neptune Beach and is full of cute shops and restaurants, for a nice dinner at a local favorite, RagTime. After stuffing ourselves with Cajun delights (including beignets!) we took a quick walk to the ocean. The area was all decorated for Christmas, and we enjoyed seeing the lights.
She's a Happy Kid!
That Saturday, my sister, her husband and their children came over and Scout spoiled us all with a veritable second Thanksgiving dinner of ham, smashed cauliflower, brussel sprouts, corn bread stuffing, and all the fixin's. It was delicious.
Scout and Her Mom Cooking Up a Storm!
The Kids Help Nana Decorate the Christmas Tree
Thank Goodness Matt Was Tall Enough to Put Up the Angel!
New Friends and Family!
After Scout’s family left, we settled into life in Jacksonville. We kept pretty busy the entire time we were there, mainly helping my family and working. My sister, April, is an overnight nurse at a local hospital, and she needs babysitting help on the days when she comes home from work and her husband isn’t home. So, Scout and I headed over to her house a few mornings to watch her 3 children while April got her beauty sleep.
April and Her Fabulous Husband, Matt
It’s an interesting experience babysitting 3 children when you aren’t used to it. They are really well behaved, while also complete handfuls at the same time. Babysitting can really be exhausting work. But it was a labor of love because I thoroughly enjoyed spending the time with my nieces and nephew. There is one boy (‘J’) who is 5 (already!) and as sweet as can be. He can be a bit timid and is scared of a lot of things, but at the same time, he is gentle and loving and full of energy. He is the oldest nephew/grandchild on my side of the family, and so you can imagine the level of spoiled. 
Super Happy to be Helping!
Conquering the Jaguar, as well as the Town Center Mall
‘H’ just turned 3 and she is a character. She has a fantastically-quirky voice and she is always dancing and singing. She already knows that she wants to be a singer, and her favorite performer went from Britney Spears to Adele to Lady Gaga in a matter of days. Did I mention she is only 3?
The Proud Sister Listening to Her Brother's Christmas Program at School
Smile!
The newest (and sweetest) addition is ‘L’. She is a bundle of love. What a smile. She melted my heart, and made me long for a baby of my own. But why go through all that craziness when one day I will just steal her? That seems easier and makes much more sense. Heck, there are 3 of them anyway. Will anyone even notice? (Just kidding, April!)
Such a Happy Baby
Can You See Why I Am So in Love?
When not babysitting, we helped out around my mom’s house. Before we came to visit, she innocently asked, “Would you and Scout mind helping me paint around the house?” I am actually a pretty good painter, and Scout is always up for home renovation, so we said, “Of course!” What we didn’t know was when she said “around the house,” she was being literal. She just recently had the house re-sided and the whole thing needed to be painted. Being from New England, my mom has nostalgia for all things Massachusetts, so we chose a fantastic Nantucket Gray color. Turns out, painting the outside of a house is a lot more fun than painting the inside. Plus, it was nice to be in the sunshine and fresh air. There is nothing like Florida during December!
New Yellow Siding
Now It's the Cutest House on the Street
During our ‘free’ time, Scout and I also explored the area and shopped for Christmas. No visit home for me is complete without a stop in St. Augustine. St. Augustine is the US’ oldest city, and it boasts beautiful coastline, an incredible historic center with fabulous shops and restaurants, an outlet mall, and the Castillo de San Marcos (now called Fort Matanzas National Monument), which is an original fort that was built to defend Spain’s claim to its new territory. The famed “Fountain of Youth” can be found here, hidden under the Live Oak tree canopy covered in Spanish Moss on my favorite street in the world, the breathtaking Magnolia Street. St. Augustine is a magical place, and I really enjoyed showing Scout the sights (which included quite a bit of a time in a pretty swanky martini bar).
St. Augustine Textiles
Anyone Have a Cool Million I Can Have to Buy This Property in Historic St. Augustine?
I also showed her what I think are the really cute areas of Jacksonville, which include Riverside/Five Points, San Marcos, and Avondale. But our favorite visit was to a little park on the banks of the Intracoastal Waterway.
I'm a Lucky Girl!
Boat Ramp
Alligators, Where Are You?
Beautiful Waterway
The time flew by so quickly, especially with Christmas, but we were lucky enough to spend a really fun night with two of my favorite friends from high school, Geoff and Gina. We met up for a terrific dinner at a super yummy restaurant called Brick, and then headed across town for some dancing. The dance club we went to was called Incahoots, and the people there were all really friendly and fun. We even stayed for a pretty fabulous drag show. I wish I looked that good in a dress…that’s all I can say.
Christmas brought another family dinner cooked by my very own personal chef, Scout. Poor thing – I had her to work for most of the 3 weeks we were home. But she is the best in the kitchen, and when you compare what she can do to anything my mom or I could make, there just is no better alternative. That will soon change, however, because for Christmas, I got Scout a series of cooking lessons from The Floating Chef School in San Diego, and when I told her about it, she wanted me to sign up as well. Who knows…maybe cooking will be just like chemistry after all (which is what my college chem professor said when I told her I couldn’t cook. Almost immediately after saying it, however, she followed up with – “you aren’t that great with chemistry though either, so maybe you should just stay out of the kitchen…”). Anyway, hopefully the classes will be fun, Scout will enjoy her present, and maybe I’ll pick up a thing or two.
While we have been here, we have been staying in the guest bedroom at my mother's house. Jacksonville has laws against parking an RV in the street for too many nights in a row, and her driveway was not long enough for us to park there, so a friend of hers let us park Loretta in their driveway and we slept in my mom's house. When we left Pennsylvania, it was clear to us that there were a few things wrong with Loretta that would need to be repaired. It was pretty disappointing to already have so many problems to deal with, but since we purchased such a special warrantly based on the guidance of Southwest Coaches, we felt comfortable dropping Loretta off at the local Camping World service center. Let's see, here is a list of what was wrong: the tank monitor/sensor was flashing and seemed faulty; the ceiling was leaking from the skylight and fan; the thermostat was overworking; the propane gauge was showing empty tanks when they were still full; the kitchen faucet was leaking; a cabinet door latch broke; the deadbolt was slipping shut when you closed the door (bad news for us when we didn't have the deadbolt keys on hand and had to call a locksmith for $120 - only to find the key 30 minutes later in the truck...); and the shower door completely fell down. Well, after about 5 days with the trailer, Camping World called us and said that the total estimate for repairs was nearly $1300, and that the warranty company said that nothing was covered. When we bought Loretta, it was an As-Is sale, but they had her in the shop for several weeks before we picked her up and they said they would go through her top to bottom and fix anything they found. Apparently, they didn't look very hard...Anyway, we paid about a quarter of that for some very easy repairs, and we plan to bring Loretta back to Southwest Coaches when we get home and have them repair our list. Since then, we have also discovered that the water pipes underneath the trailer leak when the pressure is too high. We will just add that to the list...
Then just before we left Jacksonville, we ran over a nail and got a flat tire. This was an excellent learning opportunity for us for a few reasons. First, Scout immediately decided to change the tire, while I thought we should call our insurance company and get a service out to do it. I'm thankful we were actually at my mom's when this all happened rather than out on the highway somewhere. We went outside to have a look at the SUV, and realized that it's a lot bigger than the cars we have had before, and the tires are huge. Further, neither of us really knew how to access the spare tire. We agreed to call Geico and we decided to pay close attention to how the tire was changed in case we ever need to do it ourselves. It definitely looked a lot more complicated than we had expected, and we were thankful for the insurance because the change to the spare tire was free! The next morning, we took the truck to a Goodyear Tire, thinking that it would be a simple puncture repair. Of course, we weren't that lucky. All 4 tires were really balding and worn so much on the inside that the metal was nearly exposed. It was an expensive replacement ($1000!) of all 4 tires, but again - we are thankful that we found out we needed new tires in such a controlled environment instead of during an emergency situation.
While we have been here, we have been staying in the guest bedroom at my mother's house. Jacksonville has laws against parking an RV in the street for too many nights in a row, and her driveway was not long enough for us to park there, so a friend of hers let us park Loretta in their driveway and we slept in my mom's house. When we left Pennsylvania, it was clear to us that there were a few things wrong with Loretta that would need to be repaired. It was pretty disappointing to already have so many problems to deal with, but since we purchased such a special warrantly based on the guidance of Southwest Coaches, we felt comfortable dropping Loretta off at the local Camping World service center. Let's see, here is a list of what was wrong: the tank monitor/sensor was flashing and seemed faulty; the ceiling was leaking from the skylight and fan; the thermostat was overworking; the propane gauge was showing empty tanks when they were still full; the kitchen faucet was leaking; a cabinet door latch broke; the deadbolt was slipping shut when you closed the door (bad news for us when we didn't have the deadbolt keys on hand and had to call a locksmith for $120 - only to find the key 30 minutes later in the truck...); and the shower door completely fell down. Well, after about 5 days with the trailer, Camping World called us and said that the total estimate for repairs was nearly $1300, and that the warranty company said that nothing was covered. When we bought Loretta, it was an As-Is sale, but they had her in the shop for several weeks before we picked her up and they said they would go through her top to bottom and fix anything they found. Apparently, they didn't look very hard...Anyway, we paid about a quarter of that for some very easy repairs, and we plan to bring Loretta back to Southwest Coaches when we get home and have them repair our list. Since then, we have also discovered that the water pipes underneath the trailer leak when the pressure is too high. We will just add that to the list...
Then just before we left Jacksonville, we ran over a nail and got a flat tire. This was an excellent learning opportunity for us for a few reasons. First, Scout immediately decided to change the tire, while I thought we should call our insurance company and get a service out to do it. I'm thankful we were actually at my mom's when this all happened rather than out on the highway somewhere. We went outside to have a look at the SUV, and realized that it's a lot bigger than the cars we have had before, and the tires are huge. Further, neither of us really knew how to access the spare tire. We agreed to call Geico and we decided to pay close attention to how the tire was changed in case we ever need to do it ourselves. It definitely looked a lot more complicated than we had expected, and we were thankful for the insurance because the change to the spare tire was free! The next morning, we took the truck to a Goodyear Tire, thinking that it would be a simple puncture repair. Of course, we weren't that lucky. All 4 tires were really balding and worn so much on the inside that the metal was nearly exposed. It was an expensive replacement ($1000!) of all 4 tires, but again - we are thankful that we found out we needed new tires in such a controlled environment instead of during an emergency situation.
Leaving was really hard for me. I love my family, and it was such a blessing to be able to spend this time with them. I have always been really thankful for my sense of adventure, but when it comes down to actually saying goodbye to my family, there is a big part of my heart that wishes I was more of a homebody. The exciting thing is, however, that Scout and I hope to repeat the Novembers in Pennsylvania and Decembers in Florida every year. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
Picture of Loretta My Mom Took While We Were Leaving...Very Sad
Here are some other fun photos from our time in Jacksonville!
Jacksonville's Finest Ho-Made Cole Slaw (No, I Didn't Make It)
Santa Came to Our House, but He Didn't Leave
Can You See My Heart Melting?
Haven't You Heard of the New Designer Breed, Tea Cup Pit Bull?
Stay Tuned: Key West or Bust!
