Ships, Dolphins, Easter Bunny, and walking on the beach

April 19th, 2014

We had thunder, lightening and rain today and it got very windy later in the day and into the evening but even though the weather wasn't good, the view was still wonderful!!!

We could see the USS Hue City in dock and found out that due to an engine fire it had to return yesterday after being deployed earlier this month. Here is a story about it.  The USS Gettysburg returned home after a long deployment yesterday as well.  I'm sorry we weren't here early enough to see these two ships return that would have been quite a sight.

USS Hue City

View from the motorhome

Bryan did the laundry.  The machines and dryers here are free to use and you can get free ice as well.

The Carnival Fascination went by as it left on a short cruise to the Bahamas.  It cruises out of Jacksonville and so I'm sure we will see it again before we leave.  I felt sorry for the people aboard as it was raining as they departed but the weather is due to get better so I'm sure they'll have a fantastic time.

April 20th, 2014

Today is Easter Sunday and we woke up to find two plastic easter eggs filled with a mint in each one left in our planter.  The Easter Bunny had been busy!!!  

The weather still wasn't brilliant but the wind had died down.  We could see dolphins swimming in the river.  I took this VIDEO, you can see the dolphins surfacing and then going back under several times if you look carefully.  We could see them clearer with the binoculars. 

Bryan braved the weather.

We went for a drive around the base and had a look at the other campground here at Mayport.  Osprey Cove is for long stays of more than two weeks and has more trees than where we are.  It's not on the water but not far from the beach.  It is close to base housing.  There is a bowling alley, fast food places, shops, gas station, golf course, auto center, hospital.  Pretty much all you need.  The commissary and bigger Nex are a very short drive off base.

We drove around by the ships.  This is the view from across the bay of the campground.  Lily is third from the right.

Here are some closer views of the USS Hue City.  In the second and third pictures you can see the damage from the fire.

The people were fishing here and caught a crab but instead of keeping it they were panicking and eventually it got free and jumped back in the water

Fire Damage

The USS New York is stationed here as well, although we didn't get a picture of it today we did see it.  This ship used a symbolic amount of steel salvaged from the World Trade Center after it was destroyed in the September 11th, 2001 attacks.

We had Ham for our Easter dinner and took it easy the rest of the day.  

April 21st, 2014

They were out early this morning doing maintenance work on the barrier into the dock area.

The  USS Vicksburg went out, maybe for a training exercise.

A freighter coming into dock

We had some excitement today and the police showed up.  A man came down to walk his dog and I noticed that the dog wasn't on a leash and the man was striding ahead of it to get to the trash container to throw his rubbish away.  He was in a hurry.  He walked back to his car but the dog wasn't ready to go back.  Once the man realized his dog wasn't with him he got the leash from his car and went to fetch the dog.  He was behind the utility box with the dog for a while and I saw the dog run toward the car pretty sharpish but still not on the leash which the man had in his hand still.  Well, with the dog safely in the car the man returned to clear the dogs mess up.  He was just starting to do this when another camper approached him and a heated argument started.  This was all happening in front of our motorhome so I had a ringside seat.  Bryan was outside doing some maintenance work and could hear everything.  I guess the man had kicked his dog when he was behind the utility box and the other camper had seen him and decided to ask him about it.  I'm not sure if someone called the police or whether he just happened to be driving by as he was there very quickly.  I saw him call on his radio and soon there were another two police cars there.  The two men were still quite heated but there was no fight just verbal.  The police listened to both sides of the story.  They told the camper to go back to his motorhome which was two down from us and they continued to speak to the man with the dog.  Eventually he went back to his car and drove away.  The police spoke to the camper some more before they left.  And here we were just having a peaceful relaxing morning watching the ships and dolphins, ha!! ha!!

We went for a drive to the base at Jacksonville.  There is a campground there as well and the reviews for it are not very good but we had a look.  It didn't seem to bad but nothing exceptional.  We had a drive around base and found the officers quarters.  

You can see the river in the background

These houses were huge and right on the river.  Of course these were for the higher ranking officers but there were some across the street for lieutenants that were also very nice.  

April 22nd, 2014

We stayed in today and watched the ships go sailing by.

and helicopters

 We went for a walk and found the beach which was a short distance away by the Navy Lodge.

 This ship was out at sea and we could see it from the beach.  It may have been the one we saw go out yesterday but we couldn't be sure.

 There weren't many people on the beach, that's the beauty of military bases the beaches aren't usually crowded.

I tried to get a picture of the sunset tonight but was just a couple of minutes too late and just missed the sun go down.

Tomorrow is another day and we are going on a road trip.  Take Care.