Last Big Trip of the Year….

Well C and I got back last Monday night from our final big trip of the year.  We had $150 each left in flight credit on Southwest airlines and C was missing the ocean, so we chose to go the cheap destination of Jacksonville, Florida. We also took a mini road trip and went to Tampa (where C lived before I met him) for a couple of days. Best of all, we got to check off yet another stadium on our bucket list item of visiting every NFL stadium to see a game!

It pretty much rained the entire time, so I was bummed.  I was dreaming of sunny skies, beautiful beaches and 80 degree weather before we left Arizona. When we got off the plane at the Jacksonville airport, it was 51 degrees. Needless to say, it wasn’t what I had imagined.

My obligatory feet in the sand picture

In Tampa he showed me some of his old haunts, like where he used to live and the arena he used to play in.  He wanted to take me to his favorite restaurant but when I researched it we found out it had gone bankrupt and closed.  He also took me too his favorite pier in Saint Petersburg that has a restaurant on the end of it to have lunch...and it was closed too! They are going to demolish the pier pretty soon. He was so bummed. 

On the pier they are about to blast away

Since it was raining almost the whole time, our beach time consisted of us under a big umbrella on the beach playing Rumikube. We also went out for dinner one of the evenings with an old friend of his.  It rained then too. Boo. 

We leisurely drove back to Jacksonville from Tampa in the rain, stopping whenever and wherever we wanted. I love that C will do that with me.  Sometimes I see a sign on the highway for some random historical site or whatnot and I want to go look at it.  He is always totally game to check it out.  It’s awesome. Granted, it took us a few more hours to take the 4 hour trip, but I really like doing that when I can.

That evening we went out to dinner with another of C’s old friends.  We planned to meet at a pretty popular outdoor mall area and when we got there we found out they were having their annual tree lighting ceremony.  There was real snow all over the ground for kids to play in and Kellie Pickler was signing autographs. It was a bit magical.

The next morning we got up a little early and hit the beach for an hour before the game since it was a finally a little sunny.  We, of course, played more games on the beach (Skip Bo, my fav). It was so peaceful just relaxing out there.

After we got ready, we headed out to Everbank Stadium where the Jacksonville Jaguars play.  We were about to hit another stadium on our NFL list!  Even better….the Jags were playing my favorite team, the Arizona Cardinals!  I found tickets on Stubhub for the 25 yard line and 10^th row for $30! I guess that’s one good thing about the team you are seeing being not so great….cheap seats! We were a little worried about it raining in the open stadium, but thankfully it was just overcast the whole game. That was especially nice because otherwise it would have been way too hot outside for the jeans I was wearing!

Normally, I’d be worried about wearing the opposing teams gear in a stadium, but I have to say, with C around I don’t worry one bit!  There were even a few Cardinals fans sitting around us which was nice.

You know what was even better though?  The Cardinals won!

That night we moved to our final hotel (we stayed in 4 different hotels over the course of our 6 day trip….exhausting) which I decided to upgrade a bit.  We had a room on the 3^rdfloor facing the ocean with a balcony. Boy was it pretty!

Even though it was getting dark, we headed out to the beach for one last hour of playing games.  Pretty soon it was too dark to see anything and we had to give up.

The next morning it was time to go :(   Thankfully it wasn’t raining yet so we walked the beach for a few more minutes before we had to wash up and check out of our room to head home.

So that’s it, our final trip of the year!  I really wish that it hadn’t rained so much.  I was really looking forward to some major beach time!