The next day we pulled into Mayport Naval Station on the eastern side of Jacksonville, FL. The base is located right on the Atlantic Ocean, at the mouth of the St Johns River. The base is home to several US Navy Destroyer Squadrons (called DESRONs). Turns out that the on base RV park is within walking distance to the Atlantic Ocean.
http://www.nsmayport.navy.mil/
https://www.cnic.navy.mil/Mayport/index.htm
The next day, Saturday, we toured the recreated Fort de la Caroline (aka Fort Caroline) on bluffs of the St Johns River. The fort is part of the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve run by the National Park service. The fort is the site of the first French settlement in the New World. Unfortunately the settlers were Huguenots (ie Protestants) surrounded by Spanish Catholics. Needless to say there were several bloody conflicts, and since the French were outnumbered on all sides, they soon gave up on establishing settlements in the Carolinas or Florida.
We also took time to walk around the dedicated nature walk next to the fort. Dan couldn’t help noticing the educational plaques often described how the native Timucua Indians showed the Europeans how to use native plants for medicinal purposes. For their kindness, the Timucua were decimated by European diseases or killed outright until they disappeared into extinction. And with their extinction went the rest of their knowledge about medicinal uses of the local plants and fauna, which supposedly included a natural way to treat rattlesnake bites.
http://www.nps.gov/foca/
We then headed to Singleton’s Seafood Shack for lunch. Singleton’s is a typical Florida seafood shack, not much to look at, but great fresh seafood. Dan had the Minorcan clam chowder, a red chowder made with the local Datil peppers. The restaurant also had a room filled with wooden boat models made by original owner. From there it was off to downtown Jacksonville for a walkabout. We have to say that for a weekend Jacksonville was pretty dead. The city even has built a shopping area called Jacksonville Landing to bring shoppers downtown, but it looks like half the stores are out of business.
We then headed to Singleton’s Seafood Shack for lunch. Singleton’s is a typical Florida seafood shack, not much to look at, but great fresh seafood. Dan had the Minorcan clam chowder, a red chowder made with the local Datil peppers. The restaurant also had a room filled with wooden boat models made by original owner. From there it was off to downtown Jacksonville for a walkabout. We have to say that for a weekend Jacksonville was pretty dead. The city even has built a shopping area called Jacksonville Landing to bring shoppers downtown, but it looks like half the stores are out of business.
Trivia: The last spot of conflict between the French and Spanish was at Matanzas, why is this name appropriate?
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