Review of 2011**Updated**
Hello everyone on the Jacksonville’s Northside Area we have been going through our pictures and videos for our blog and are deciding on what we can do in the coming months for new and exciting articles on this blog. First of all, we hope you and your family have had a safe and happy holiday seasons. Now a little bit of review. There are literally hundreds of things to do and see on Jacksonville Florida’s Northside Area. One of the main things that happened is the Riverside Arts Market. The Market is closed for the season but will open again on March 3, 2012. ****Update**** Riverside Arts Market is Open From January 7th to February 25th Every Saturday for a Farmer’s RAM – The are offering fresh fruits, vegetables and more from our local farmers. They are open from 10am – 1pm******* You can go to their website and sign-up for their newsletter. I received one a week last year and it is very informative. They are always looking for volunteers and artist vendors. http://www.riversideartsmarket.com/ We know a local videography, Michael Walter, that created a short film of the Arts Market that we thought you might like to review and pass along to your friends and family:
Riverside Arts Market from Michael Walter on Vimeo.
Every weekend, a free arts market is held under the Fuller Warren bridge in Jacksonville, Florida. This is a quick look at what to expect there.
Michael works locally with a group of artists and has done several short films that have won contests. He also can do weddings, music videos and other events or festivals. You can contact him directly: michael.c.walter@gmail.com Give him a try for your next project.
Another local business is offering a cash prize for anyone over 18 who comes up with the best and funniest, family oriented, limericks. That’s right Jolene’s Books and More is a local small business that has an online store selling electronic books and handcrafted goods. They have created a blog that is dedicated to the limerick form of poetry. You can create your own limericks about your friends, family, neighborhood or even about Jacksonville itself. The cost is only $5 per person and you can submit 1 to 5 limericks for consideration in the contest. The website is called All About Limericks and you can go to the Contest Page to read the rules and fill out an application. http://all-about-limericks.jolenesbooksandmore.com. Tell all your friends and family!
Good luck and we hope you will come back throughout the year.
Little Talbot Island State Park
Little Talbot Island State Park area is located on Jacksonville, Florida’s Northside area. It is a great park to visit for the day or even camp for a weekend or a week. The beachside of the park offers visitors picniking, shelling, hiking, biking, surfing and swimming. The south part of the park on the beach side discourages swimming due to the sudden drop offs and rip-tides. This is the area where the ocean meets the river and can cause some problems for swimmers. Walking along the beach at any time of the year is a great way to get some exercise, find some interesting shells and enjoy the peace that the crashing waves can give you.
There is camping across A1A under the canopy of oak trees and some of the sites are along the creek. You can put in a canoe, kayak or small boat, fish from the little dock or just watch the sunset. The campground sites each have water, electricity, a picnic table and a clothesline. There is also a bathhouse with bathrooms, showers, changing rooms and sinks. There is also a nice little playground for the kids.
In the surrounding area you can visit the Kingsley Plantation and Ribault Historic Club on Ft George Island. Down the road north of Little Talbot is Big Talbot Island with the Grady Fishing Bridge, Kayak Rentals and a picnic area above the bluffs on Nassau Sound. For a full review of the area check out our new website: http://our-great-adventure.whatthehellblog.com/florida-state-parks/little-talbot-island-state-park/ with a movie of the park.
Pictures From Big Talbot, Kingsley Plantation and Ribault Club below:
Save Our Libraries
We keep reading about the various facilities and services that are being closed due to budget problems. You really need to contact your local councilman, the major and anyone else you can to keep our public libraries open and free to the public. You can donate material to your local library. Each branch has information about these closings that are coming up and what we can do to keep them from happening. If you haven’t visited a local library then take a little time to check out what is currently being offered there.
Not only can you check out books to read, you can check out DVD movies, get a book on DVD to listen to in your car, use their computers to research on the web, type a letter, send emails or utilize one of their study rooms for homeschooling or tutoring. They also have meeting rooms that you can use for your local club meetings. They offer free wireless internet access for those with laptops. You can ask for help in researching a variety of different subjects or just sit in a chair and read a good book. Each of our libraries have a variety of different events each month and posts them on the web. Yes, they are now offering a lot of services online for their patrons but there is nothing like going to the local library and talking to a librarian about all the things you are trying to find out or getting a suggestion on something need to read about.
Bethesda Park
We took a little day trip over the the Bethesda Park and Lodge. This is the only park in Jacksonville that has actual cabins you can rent and at a very reasonable rate. The Lodge part of the name is not what you think it means. They have about 3 double cabins with screened porches and air conditioning. The “Lodge” part is this large building you can rent out that has kitchen and bathroom facilities as well as air conditioning and heat. There are picnic tables outside of the lodge and a barbeque grill. The park is a sanctioned fish management area that allows fishing as well as small boats and canoes on the pond. They have wooden walks and 3 or 4 covered decks that you can fish from. There are limits to what you can fish and there is sign before the walkway area that tells you what they are. Remember this is a fresh spring pond and has catfish, trout and pan fish in stock. Florida requires anyone over 16 to have a fishing license. To find out what the costs are you can go to the Florida State Fish and Wildlife Commissions website.
Sadly, we didn’t catch anything last week. I guess we got a late start. We did enjoy some peace and quiet for a couple of hours. You can still hear the cars rushing by on I-295 though. If you have the time check out this park with you kids.
We took some pictures while we were there. Hope you enjoy them!
Pope Duval Fish Management
I know that I keep posting about parks in the Jacksonville Area but that is probably the only FREE thing still available to the general public. And these parks are a resource for us to use to spend time with our family and friends located close to home. The State of Florida has another park on the Northside called the Pope Duval Fish Management Area located at 13500 Beaver Street Jacksonville FL
My family and I ran across this park while we were cruising around on the Northside looking for new places to picnic and go fishing. This 400 acre park is well worth the drive for those who like to do a quiet spot of fishing or just relaxing in the woods. As with any park the best times to go is during the week if you want to stay out of the crowd. There are several little ponds to fish in with picnic tables, Bar B Q grills, and hiking trails with elevated wooden walkways. We didn’t get a chance to explore the whole area as they haven’t grated most of the dirt roads yet and it started to rain while we were there. We have included some pictures below for you to see what the park looks like and some of the things available for you and your family to enjoy.
Cary State Forest
If you would like to get away from it all to a nice little place that is not frequented by a lot of people you should take a little ride out to Bryceville on the Northwest side of North Jacksonville. The Cary State Forest has primitive Campsites, a shower room and restroom facilities for campers. There is also a Nature Teaching House if you Boy or Girl Scout Troop want to have a learning session. There are trails throughout the park as well as horseback riding trails. You can see what is available on the State of Florida website here: http://www.fl-dof.com/state_Forests/cary.html#rec We enjoyed our time there and look forward to going once again. There wasn’t anyone else there on the day that we went. It was very quiet. The campsites looked to be well maintained but the Shower Room was in the process of being renovated. Hopefully by now they will have finished fixing them. You can contact them to find out the current prices and status of the park at:
Primary Contact
* Devon McFall, Forester
Cary State Forest
Florida Division of Forestry
7465 Pavilion Drive
Bryceville, Florida 32009
Telephone: 904/ 266-5021 (weekends: 904/ 266-5020)
Email Cary State Forest
Secondary Contact
* Todd Knapp, Resource Administrator
Division of Forestry
7247 Big Oaks Road
Bryceville, Florida 32009
Telephone: 904/ 266-5011
Our family took a ride out there a couple of months ago and took some pictures of the area to share with our readers. Check out our photo gallery below:
Code Red
The City of Jacksonville is offering a free service to residents to alert them about severe weather coming to your neighborhood. It is free to register and you just fill out the online form. Should there be a weather warning issued for your particular neighbor you will receive a record phone call. If you register with 2 numbers say a land-line and a cellphone then both of them will be called. Now that more and more people are using cellphones and replacing their land-lines with cellphone services it is a great way to stay informed about bad weather coming to your neighborhood. This service is automatic and is computer generated. Some examples include: evacuation notices, bio-terrorism alerts, boil water notices, and missing child reports. For this service to be effective you must make sure you have minutes on your plan! Now there is an argument for keeping a land-line in service. Remember that in the event of an emergency such as extreme bad weather cellphones may not work. Depending on the type of emergency your cellphone service may experience extreme overload, atmospheric interference that causes satellite disruption or a wide variety of things. It is a good idea to have a “REGULAR” phone hooked up to a basic land-line because the old phone service has an independent power source and the wires are underground! Regular phones are powered by the phone company lines not the power in your house or battery power. So go out to Walmarts, Lowes, Home Depot or even the Bellsouth store and get yourself a basic phone for a few bucks to keep in an emergency.
Click on the link to sign-up for this free service: https://login.coderedweb.com/codereddataentry/Default.aspx?groupid=EAn7CUhsxLfCqympNrd82g%3d%3d
Nursing Homes
We have finally updated the Retirement Communities page with a listing of the Nursing Homes located in the Jacksonville Northside area. If you are considering a nursing home for your self or a loved one you can check out the nursing homes in your area by first checking their ratings with the State of Florida and Agency For Healthcare Administration who regulates Nursing homes and reports their status in a report that is available on the web at: http://ahcaxnet.fdhc.state.fl.us/nhcguide/ViewFacilityData.aspx?Region=04
When considering a Nursing Home make sure you check them out online, visit their facilities and ask lots of questions. If, for any reason, the facility will not allow you to turn then you will need to consider some other facility. If you would like a complete listing of all the Nursing Homes in the Jacksonville area we have compiled a listing and put it in an acrobat reader format. You can download it and print it out from here: http://jacksonvillesnorthside.info/wordpress/downloadfiles/jacksonvilleareanursinghomes.pdf
CHEERS and have a safe and happy holiday!
Visit a Museum Today
Two of the Art Museums on the Northside has free days for families to visit. The Cummer Museum on Riverside Avenue has free Tuesday nights from 4pm to 9pm. Roam through the exhibits and enjoy the arts on display.
The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens
829 Riverside Avenue
Jacksonville, Florida 32204
Telephone: (904) 356-6857
Fax: (904) 353-4101
FREE Tuesdays
4:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Sponsored by THE PLAYERS
The Riverside Arts Market on Saturday is ending soon!
Every Saturday through December 19, 2009
10:00AM – 4:00PM
Jacksonville introduces a high-energy free weekly art, food and farmer’s market experience. The Riverside Arts Market (RAM) has food vendors, fresh bread, fresh local produce, plants, flowers, and all forms of art available for purchase. Live entertainment is available on the River Stage. RAM provides a reliable marketplace for artists to sell their work as well as enjoyable family entertainment on the St. Johns River.
The market is located under the canopy of the Fuller Warren Bridge, I-95 at Riverside Avenue on the Northbank Riverwalk and is an easy 15 minute walk from downtown.
Free Admission.
For more information, visit www.riversideartsmarket.com.
Finally, the Museum of Contemporary Art is located in the same building as the Main Library Downtown. They have free visit days on Sundays.
333 North Laura Street
Jacksonville, FL, 32202 USA
Phone: (904) 366-6911
Fax: (904) 366-6901
Free Wednesday evenings for Artwalk (5-9pm)
Sundays – FREE for families. Children under the age of 18 and accompanying adults are free.
Police Athletic League
The Jacksonville Northside Area Police Athletic League is co-sponsoring a event tomorrow. There is to be a motorcycle ride for the Fraternal Order of Police and the Police Athletic League. To participate or sponsor a rider go to the website link below and purchase tickets. The event goes rain or shine. So if you want to sponsor a rider or have sponsors to ride you can drop in at one the locations below or go online and purchase them.
Light The City Charity Motorcycle Ride
When: Friday, October 2, 2009
Check In: 4:30 – 6:30 p.m.
Begins: Ride Starts at 7:00 p.m.
Where: Adamec of Jacksonville
Ride Starts at Adamec of Jacksonville
8909 Baymeadows Road
Check in between 4:30 and 6:30.
Ride leaves at 7:00pm
Tickets are required for admittance.
Helmets are required / no Flashers.
Event is rain or shine & non refundable.
For more information please contact:
Robbie Freitas at 904-251-5934.
Tickets Available at:
FOP 5530 Beach Blvd Jacksonville, FL (904)398-7010
Also at the following Adamec locations:
8909 Baymeadows Road – (904)493-1931
1520 Wells Road – (904)215-1931
10399 Atlantic Blvd – (904)641-3735
The Jacksonville Police Athletic League mission states: In an effort to reduce juvenile crime and instill positive values, character and leadership skills, PAL provides safe activities for the youth of Jacksonville. Our athletic and educational programs emphasize positive interaction with law enforcement officers and other adult role models.
Their motto is: filling playgrounds. not prisons…for more than 35 years.
Check out their websites and their programs online at: www.jaxpal.com
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