Jacksonville

Today we awoke to the sun rising over palm trees, warm ocean breezes and Hank squirming around inside the tent.

After making breakfast, coffee, and more smores over the campfire we cleaned up the tent site and headed into the city of Jacksonville to meet up with my old high school friend, Becky. She has lived here for over a year now as a nurse at the Mayo Clinic. We are jealous that she gets to enjoy fantastic weather year round and a beach about two blocks from, her boyfriend, Judd's town home. When we got into town we headed over to Becky's to check out her apartment and then we dropped off the Prius to get an oil change and get the brakes cleaned(we originally thought we would have to replace the brake pads so we were happy to hear they just needed a cleaning). The folks at the Toyota dealer informed us that the car is running great, especially for having nearly 300,000 miles on it. Next we dropped Hank off to enjoy Judd's backyard while we walked over to a delicious Mexican restaurant. There we enjoyed Ahi Tuna tacos, $2.50 margaritas, coronas, and great conversation. Then, being the worried parents we are, we headed back to check on the dog. Luckily he was just fine, even though he had tied himself up between the three trees in the backyard.

We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out on the beach, picking up the car from the mechanic, and hanging out at Becky's place. After trying to decide whether or not we had the energy to hit the road and head towards Alabama we decided we'd just stay another night.

Becky, Judd, and Judd's brother, Josh, took us out to a delicious pizza place called Mellow(if you live in Minnesota, think Pizza Luce pizza, but possibly even better). Morgan and I split a Hawaiian pizza done vegetarian style with BBQ tofu and jalapenos. After dinner we decided dessert was needed and walked on down to Yoga Berry Frozen Yogurt. Frozen yogurt is the new trend in the frozen treat world and is the healthier alternative to say... Coldstone Creamery. It has a very neat set up. You get to pour your own and then add all the toppings you'd like. After dinner and dessert we were ready for bed and also felt we needed to give our dog a little attention, so we climbed into the Pr(RV)ius with Hank for the night.