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Categories: Florida, Jacksonville Addresses, Museums, Travels

Merrill Museum House

When leaving the Veterans memorial wall on the way to the supermarket, we came across this house by chance.

It’s actually a museum. It belonged to James E. Merrill who did a lot for Jacksonville’s economy when he started an iron works there in 1875.
You have to book a tour and you only make a donation in the end. The ladies who take care of the tour saw us outside and had no one that day so we had a private visit. This museum has just reopened and is still pretty unknown. Unfortunately I didn’t take one picture of the inside but it is worth seeing (and listening to the ladies’ story about the Merrill family)!
All info & booking: http://www.jaxhistory.org/merrill-museum-house-tours/

Categories: Florida, Travels

Veterans Memorial Wall

[Wikipedia] The Veterans Memorial Wall is located at 1145 East Adams Street, adjacent to the Jacksonville Municipal Stadium in downtown Jacksonville, Florida. The quarter-million dollar monument was dedicated in November, 1995 and serves as a tribute to more than 1,500 Jacksonville area American war heroes. The outdoor memorial was promoted as “the largest of its kind” and “the only wall that honors veterans from all six [service] branches” (Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine). The 65 foot-long black granite monument contains the names of servicemen and women from World War I through Operation Desert Storm and the current war on terrorism. In front of the wall stands a torch with an eternal flame.




We went on a very hot day and it took us over 40 minutes to finally reach the wall. There was absolutely nothing around, not a single place to drink something (yes, we did forget to bring a drink with us – three days there and you’ll understand why they always have a drink in their hands) or even find a bit of shade. Just the stadium.

Categories: Florida, Jacksonville Addresses, Restaurants, Travels

Jacksonville Beach – Seafood restaurants

Like last time, a tiny list of restaurants to try if you, this time in Jacksonville Beach.

Joe’s Crab Shack
The advantage is that it is SUPER well placed, closer to the beach would be ON the beach, so it’s convenient + super nice view.
Order a Shark Bite cocktail and enjoy the great atmosphere, the servers even do a small dance from time to time, hard not to be cheerful after that.

I recommend their crab buckets. In addition you will get a personalized bib, check out the hashtag #letsgetcrackin on Instagram, it’s fun 😉
Here are ours:


We went back, this time I took a place and there was at least 3 meals in it (don’t forget to ask for a box to take your leftovers home) !

 

Billy’s Boathouse Grill
The best salmon I’ve ever eaten O_o – and nice view too 😉

Categories: Florida, Travels

Pogopalooza

When I was in Jacksonville looking for something to do to occupy my Friday afternoon before my last two visits, I heard of the Pogopalooza festival.
Pogo, or Xpogo, is an extreme sport one practices on pogo sticks. I know, not very clear so far but you’ll see ^.^ and Pogopalooza is their annual competition with 3 categories, Freestyle, High Jump and Best Trick.
A little “official” video for you to see some of that weekend’s events:

With my mother, we witnessed, among other things, the world record highest jump on a pogo stick, 10 feet .5 inches, tied by 2 riders: Dmitry Arsenyev et Biff Hutchison.

 

It was quite nice, we quickly get into it (I admit at first I thought it was a bit stupid, I went out of curiosity) and it is in fact a real sport.
For example, in the morning at 6 o’clock, Casie Merza started jumping on her stick to beat the world record for most consecutive jumps on a pogo stick to raise funds for the Children’s Hospital in Tampa, she broke that record nearly 9 hours later! If you want to beat her now, you will have to do more than 75005 jumps!
The next day my mother went back to see the Freestyle competition while I was on visitation with A.

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