Monthly Archives: June 2012

Thanks to some heavy rains the last few days and a complete downpour around 6pm today, we got to experience one more flood in Riverside. Luckily the tide was outgoing, so it drained quickly after the rain let up. Been some crazy weather the last month or so. Never seen extended rains like this before in my 15 years in florida. Its been raining 3 days straight this time… As usual, the houses in this part of town were built high enough to withstand any damage. Put on our water shoes and rain gear to help push out a few stranded cars who tried to drive thru riverside ave, including the community officer 🙂

Our moving sale went well yesterday. People started showing up bright and early around 7am. Cindy’s efforts the prior day to hang signs around the area really helped, with some folks commenting how they found our sale. The action stayed consistent til around 2pm, but we were quite tired by that point anyways. The rain held off as well which was nice. Only major items that remain are the pool table and washer/dryer, so keep trying craigslist this week to sell those. We’ll make a donation to goodwill later this week with our remaining clothes and smaller items.

Had been recently looking at a flight deal thru Air Tahiti Nui, which was the airline we took to Tahiti back in 2006.  Deal is for a roundtrip flight from Los Angeles to Auckland, New Zealand along with a 3-night stopover in Tahiti on the return trip.  Cindy and I had been talking about the possibility, but had not booked anything.

Guess today’s thoughts about Tahiti from looking thru our 2006 trip notes got me motivated!

Looking forward to this New Zealand trip from November 6th – December 6th. Will be the first time spending a holiday overseas…  Currently plan on renting an RV to explore NZ.  More details to work out in the coming months 🙂

Also updated our destination and trip list recently with the latest plans thru the end of the year and into early 2013..

While organizing and consolidating our stuff this week, I came across our Tahiti memorabilia from the 2006 honeymoon trip.  Took some time today to type up our handwritten notes and add in some pictures.  Hope to keep up this type of writing during this career break to various destinations.  This is great stuff to read years later and bring back fantastic memories.

Click the link at the top of the page or here:  “Travel Notes from 2006 Honeymoon trip in Tahiti“

We had a great time this past weekend.  My parents were able to make it in from Chicago, so they got a chance to see our place in Riverside and enjoy the neighborhood with some great weather all weekend.

On Saturday evening, we loaded up a shuttle bus of 14 friends and family members on for a great night on the town.  Hit a few of our favorite places such as Bold City for tasty brews, Sliders at the beach for dinner, Lemon Bar for more beverages and wrapped up the night back in Riverside at a dance club on King Street.  A bittersweet evening as expected, happy to see everyone and reminisce but sad to say goodbye.

Thanks to the numerous drinks and multiple shots of tequila, a severe hangover ensued on Sunday.  Sleeping, eating and watching golf were the main highlights during our recovery.

Living in Riverside has been a real pleasure the last 7 months.  Being able to walk to work, shopping, restaurants and bars has been great.  If we do come back to Jacksonville, Riverside will definitely be on the short list of neighborhoods to reside, especially if we work near downtown.

The sale of most of our stuff continues with some good progress lately.  Making our final push to sell everything with a yard sale this Saturday.  A Riverside yard sale usually does well, especially with all the road traffic we get on Riverside Ave. and Stockton St.  My parents were able to take a good share of our personal stuff down to Cape Coral for safe keeping.

Still amazes me how much stuff is accumulated over the years when you actually lay it out for categorizing what’s important to keep.

Added some new updates to our destination list.  A deal popped up for flights to New Zealand  with Tahiti stop-over, so hopefully gonna book that today for a November departure, which is late spring in NZ.  Tentatively plan on renting an RV to sightsee in NZ.  A benefit of not planning to far ahead, then we can take advantage of travel deals that pop up!

Got the tacoma all fixed up today for our upcoming road trip and was able to pick it up and still make out for some afternoon surfing. Storms held off and the onshores stayed light. A small wave day, but no crowds and caught some fun rides. Amazing how much nicer huegenot is during the week…

Woke up around 5am to get ready, grab a light breakfast and head out to Jax Beach. Dropped Cindy off near the registration booth at the beach and it’s already blowing pretty fierce. So much for glassy AM conditions 🙂
We got signed in and setup down at the beach around 7, then the rain showers start up and last til about 10 minutes before the 7:30am start.
Due to the heavy seas, the swim portion of the event was cancelled and a longer run was added instead. Guess we’ll have to participate again next year for the full experience. Temperature for the event ended up being really nice, so that was a plus. Also was able to body surf in on a nice wave, which probably helped me pass about 4-5 people!

Cindy did awesome, completing the event in 47:22 and came in fourth overall in the Women’s division. She was 4 seconds away from a third place trophy!
I made it, completing the event in 48:06, which was 46th overall in the Men’s division. I could have pushed harder, but being my first event was unsure of my endurance thru all the events, so a lesson learned for next time..

Full stats on the event: http://1stplacesports.com/tridentseries12res.htm

Carb loading for the race tomorrow…spaghetti and meatball for both of us tonight at a favorite restaurant near our house.

It’s Cindy’s last day at the hospital today!  She is still gonna work at the surgeon’s office until the end of june.

Completed our last day of training yesterday for the trident challenge at jax beach, which is a run, swim and surboard paddle event.  Cindy’s second time and my first.

Headed for carb loading with a pasta dinner tonight!  Likely stay away from the alfredo sauce (see michael/dwight carbo load on youtube if you don’t know the reference)

Since we are continuing to sell stuff, we are getting creative with our remaining items. Cooked a nice dinner last night; redfish i caught last week with tabbouli accompanied by a bottle of cakebread chardonnay from our Napa trip. Ended up using our camping gear box as a table!