2020: Jax Park Tour Day 2

14 November 2020

No boat travel.

This morning we picked up a rental car, which gave us an opportunity to explore parks a little further afield than yesterday. Clark mapped out a route that took us to three different parks where we whipped out our bicycles for a quick tour of the area. 

Our first stop was Tillie K. Fowler Regional Park where we found an historic marker commemorating the areas contribution to World War I. Our exploration here took us on boardwalks built over swamp land and ended at a lookout tower unfortunately boarded up due to its unsafe condition. 

We followed the Blue Trail to the
lookout tower.

World War I Historical Marker
explaining part of Jacksonville's contribution 
to the war effort.

Slippery, Wooden Walkway over Wetlands 

Bit swampy out there

Lookout Tower  - closed off to 
public access, sigh!

End of the trail, time to turn back!

In the very, very short time we took pictures at the lookout tower, someone had come along the trail and moved logs into the path. It confused me a bit since they were not there no more than 10 minutes ago (if that). For someone with a trail bike, they probably made great "jumps". For us on collapsible road bikes, they made the trail impassable. Too bad for the jumper because Clark and I moved them back off the trail. 

After arriving back at the rental car, we set off in search of Riverside Park. Here we found a pool of water with lovely fountains and lots of birds - some more attractive in appearance than others.

Fountains at Riverside Park in
Jacksonville, FL

Two guys with a loaf of bread clearly
ignoring the sign on the fence saying
"Please do not feed the birds."

Now I know where there expression "ugly duck" 
comes from (and this was one of the better 
looking ones).

An island in the pool for all the 
appreciative water fowl and Ibis.

Rainbow fountain

Clark had one more park on his list, so we headed there next - Memorial Park.

World War I Memorial

A pair of eagles were added to the memorial in 1926.

This park with nicely paved walkways contained lots of folks that were taking advantage of the nice day. Given the size of the park staying physically distant was not an issue.

Clark and Ev at Memorial Park in Jacksonville, FL

Very quickly we had seen all that Memorial Park had to offer. Before leaving the area we had a bit of a look around since the park was on the St. Johns River.

Jacksonville, FL

Private Property / Parking along the St Johns River

When we parked our car by the park, we saw an antique vehicle parking nearby. Before we left, I had Clark grab a couple of pictures for the blog.

Custom Convertible Comet circa 1963

After a fun day at the parks, we returned to the marina. Walking down our dock back to our boat, we felt eyes on us as we walked by one of the boats a few slips away from ours.

Boat Cat!

After dinner, I spent the whole night transferring pictures from cameras and phones to my laptop and working on the Blog.