I went down to Florida to visit with my cousins.  It was more of a Family Meeting type of trip than a "lets have fun", but we managed to have some fun, anyway.

I took the red-eye, and didn't take any pictures on the flight from Seattle to DC, but as we were leaving DC, it was morning, and I'd gotten some sleep, and I started taking pictures... by the time I was back home, I'd taken about 310 or so.

By the time we loaded the plane in DC, it was covered in a layer of ice... so we had to make a detour to the deicing station, which took forever, but was interesting to watch... 

The flight down to Jacksonville was uneventful... there was a thick cloud cover, and there weren't any opportunities for a picture... although I found it interesting that they let us out of the plane outside... I haven't done that in quite some time.

I've been to JAX a couple of times, so its a bit familiar.

 
Driving into Jacksonville... you definitely know you're not in Washington anymore -- it was hot out!

Lower to mid 80's, with lots of humidity... not my thing, especially for February!

First on my list was to visit with Paul, who had the morning and early afternoon off -- everyone was at work -- so we ate at "Captain D's", then went bowling.

 
I haven't bowled in a long time, but I had a good time.

Paul took two out of three, but I fared pretty well, I think.

I was supposed to have gotten a SUV, but they were gone when I got there, so they "upgraded" me to a minivan. 

It ended up that it was pretty nice, and it drove fairly nice, so I was happy with it.

I stayed with my cousin Terry, and met my cousin Jimmy's two little ones finally... cute kids!

 
The next morning, we packed into Terry's van, and headed out to a state park, where we could all talk, visit, and have fun.

The road in the park took us under old Oaks covered in Spanish Moss... it was a nice drive!

We set up the picnic tables, got the rocks going, and started catching up with each other...  We had a good time!

 
The park surrounds a partially restored Union Army Fort, which is open for tours... it was too good an opportunity to pass up!

 
We walked through the fort, checking out the walls, various tunnels, the jail... it was pretty interesting.

They had a cannon emplacement set up... one can only imagine just how loud that must have been when it went off! 

 
It was a pretty big complex... it took us a bit to get through the ground works, and then we headed up to the big guns on the forward battery.

Manning these big guns would have been dangerous... the gun crews would have been exposed to gunfire.  It seemed to me that some of the gangways were missing, as there wasn't really anywhere for the crews to move around the guns...  

Up on top provided several great opportunities for pictures...  

You have to wonder... how loud were those things when they went off?

Everyone seemed to have a fun time there... there was a lot to see and do, and it really helped show how life in the fort must have been for the folks stationed there in 1864.

 
After the fort, we swung by the beach for a bit...

 
Being winter, the beach was littered with shells...

The Beach was nearly deserted, and several Pelicans took advantage of the emptiness, and were feeding on fish along the shore... it was pretty interesting to watch.

 
The next day, Sunday, began with a trip to Trinity Baptist Church, where my Cousin Terry attends... its a significantly larger church than the one I normally attend, that's for sure!

After church, we took our cousin Jimmy home to visit with his kids for a while. 

I haven't seen him since they lived in Maine, back in the late 80's... back when he was still a young boy...

He's in a mission run by Trinity, lining things back up closer to the way they're supposed to be. 

 
After that, we went to another state park that was supposed to have ties to the Civil War, but it was an "encampment", and there was nothing to see, really, so we went out on the sands of the beach...

 
It was a really nice day, so we just made the best of it...

The kids were doing ok staying largely dry, until they fell, and got soaked!  :)

 
We talked, looked for shells and the like, watched the birds feeding in the water -- they'd dive from about 50-100 feet up, and plummet into the water, usually coming up with a fish.

We built a sand 'castle' of sorts, which lasted pretty good, until paul-zilla showed up... :)

 
On the way back, we turned the wrong way, and we were forced to drive over the really cool bridge...

It wasn't planned, as hard as that is to believe... I'm innocent until proven guilty!  :) 

 
We went to my cousin Ray's place, and talked until way too late into the night, catching up on old times, and telling the kids about Biddeford, our home town, and things we'd do for fun "back in the day".

We took the traditional "Trio" picture, and then called it a night.

The next morning, I used my phone's GPS and Telenav system, and drove back to JAX.

I got there WAY early, but it wasn't a bad wait - they had free wireless throughout the airport, and everyone had to work anyway, so it worked out pretty nicely.

We walked out to the plane again...

No matter how many times I fly, I enjoy looking down... you never know what interesting things you might see there... I thought the canal-work in this river valley was quite odd...

The bridge was near Savanna Georgia, according to the couple behind me (I heard them talking pretty much the whole trip).  I couldn't tell what the plant-looking structure was... but it sure shows how good the zoom is in the camera, that's for sure!

 
In DC, my primary concern was making it for the next leg of my  flight... I had to take a shuttle to another terminal, which I thought was pretty interesting.

 
Not long after I got to the next gate, we loaded in the plane, and headed out across the country.  The sunset was pretty nice, although most of the pictures I took of it came out badly, because the sun really made the scratches on the window stand out, and the camera had trouble focusing through them...

I had a fun trip, but it was really nice to see the familiar lights of home...

Added in 2008

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