Sky Watch Friday

Visit the Skywatch Blog for all the hundreds of great shots each week.

Sky Watch Friday

Mostly clear skies looking up and slightly northeast from the Treaty Oak park on the south bank of downtown Jacksonville, FL.

Visit the Skywatch Blog for all the hundreds of great shots each week.

Haven't Disappeared

Been a few days since I posted anything, but with good reason: my father has been in the hospital and had heart bypass surgery earlier in the week.  I am happy to report that he is doing very well and should be home this weekend.  Needless to say, blogging hasn't been the highest priority in life lately!  

On the bright side he does have a great view of downtown and the river from his current room. :)

Brix

A fairly new bar/pub at Jax Beach named Brix:

ABC Wednesday: "H" is for Hemming Plaza

ABC Wednesday this week brings us a view of downtown Jacksonville and Hemming Plaza, with the Federal Courthouse on the side (with the blue windows).  In the middle we find a fountain and a monument to Jacksonville's soldiers that fought in the American Civil War from 1861-1865.  These shots were taken from the 5th floor of a building on the east side of the plaza that houses the Main Branch of the Jacksonville Public Library and the Museum of Contemporary Art (where a photo of our kitten currently hangs on exhibit!  See previous posts for more about that. :)  )  

Visit the ABC Wednesday blog for all the wonderful Wednesday shots each week.

Sky Watch Friday

If you are ever in downtown Jacksonville, FL look up and search the skies for... a U-Haul moving truck!?  

Yes, they have an office downtown and there is a U-Haul on the roof of the multi-story building...

Visit http://skyley.blogspot.com to see what else in the skies might move you!

Downtown Jacksonville Views: Part 3

More shots from inside the Main Library:

These last two are from the atrium at the center of the building:

Downtown Jacksonville Views: Part 2

Inside the Jacksonville Public Library Main Branch:

Downtown Jacksonville Views: Part 1

Hemming Plaza as seen from the 5th Floor of the Museum of Contemporary Art.  The large blue-windowed building is the Federal Courthouse.

A large sculpture outside the entrance to M.O.C.A.

Looking up Main Street - the tall pointed building is the Bank of America Tower, formerly the Barnett Building, formerly...

Bicycles parked in front of the Main Library.

Main entrance to the Main Library... inside shots coming tomorrow.

ABC Wednesday: "J" is for Jacksonville and Jaguars

This was an easy if obvious choice for me this week - "J" is for Jacksonville:

Downtown Jacksonville as shot from the side window of my moving car at 55 mph...

"J" is also for Jaguar, a member of the big cat family, currently mostly found in South America but at one time also native to North America, including the Jacksonville era (of course, you have to go back to the Pleistocene Epoch...)

One of the beautiful Jaguars at the Jacksonville Zoo.

But of course these days the most well known Jaguars from Jacksonville are the professional football team:

Jacksonville Jaguars NFL team practice from August 2007.

Don't forget to visit Mrs Nesbitt's Place for other ABC Wednesday participants!

President's Day Post

Today in the US is President's Day, a holiday (for some - schools are out but many people still have to work, including myself) in which we celebrate the birthdays of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Well, I don't have pictures of either of them... but I live in a city named after a different president - Andrew Jackson:



(That's me holding a Jacksonville Jaguars NFL team cap in front of a painting of ole Andy from the Hall of Presidents in Disney World - I thought he might like to see what all his hard work earned him after 150 years...)

So while Andrew isn't honored on presidents day, I honor him anyway in my blog with a quartet of photos of the downtown of the city bearing his name, taken out the window of our moving car on the interstate last weekend with the sunlight glinting off the buildings of the northbank of the St. Johns River.

You can read about the history of Jacksonville here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacksonville,_Florida

Terrible lizard king

This "little" guy is an icon of sorts in our part of the city - for many years it stood as part of a putt-putt miniature golf course named "Goony Golf" where each hole had some sort of giant mechanical animal or object that you had to navigate around. This tall, orange T-Rex was one of the most visible of the animals because it was so tall and bright orange. Alas, the golf "course" closed down years ago and recently a developer bought the land and decided to turn it into yet another strip mall of shops. However, due to many sympathetic requests from residents he agreed to save the T-Rex and incorporate it into the new design. And so now it stands by the side of the road with a fresh new paint job, eyes made from bright red lights that shine brightly at night, protected by a fence, and the shopping center now bears its name. One of the shops even went as far as to call itself "T-Rex Food Mart".