Northern Florida brings back Happy Memories

For those of you who know any of Russell’s and my story, you know we met on line. It wasn’t anything like Match.com, Eharmony.com or even Tinder.

I had only been divorced a few short weeks when I stumbled across a website (thanks to Facebook) called Single Parents Meet. I wasn’t serious about finding someone, but was curious to see what (who) was out there since I had been married for the previous 19 years to my kids’ dad. That’s a LONG time and it doesn’t hurt to look, right?

Well, needless to say, Russell’s profile kept popping into my “you might like this person” list. Now, here was the problem. I was in Sparks, Nevada. He was in Louisville, Georgia. We chatted online back and forth for a few days. Then one evening as we were talking online, he asked when my birthday was. It just happened to have been THAT day. He didn’t believe that it really was that day. Then he asked me for my phone number. I hesitated to give it to him at first, but I finally did. I figured, “What’s the worst that could happen?” My phone immediately rang and I thought “Here is the worst that could happen! He’s a stalker!” When I answered my phone, his sweet voice was on the other end and he said he just wanted to make sure I hadn’t given him a bogus number.

About a month later of chatting online, over the phone and through text, I did the most spontaneous and crazy thing I have EVER done! I boarded a plane to go meet Russell in Jacksonville, Florida for a weekend! (You’ll be glad to know that I did do a background check on him before I left though, so I knew I would be coming home to my kids at the end of the weekend.) Russell and I spent an amazing time in and around Jacksonville – primarily in St. Augustine – getting to know one another and seeing the sights. We went to the Jacksonville Landing, the St. Augustine Lighthouse, took a haunted tour, went to Castillo de San Marcos and a host of other places during our stay. To this day, St. Augustine and the lighthouse there hold a special place in our hearts and we were so glad to be able to go back there together on this journey.

On this trip, we spent a full day in St. Augustine reminiscing and didn’t do a single thing we had done previously, which was nice. It was great to see things we hadn’t seen before. We went to the Fountain of Youth – Yes, we drank the water! – We went wine tasting (one of our favorite things to do, no matter where we go) and we took a “FREE” tour of the St. Augustine Distillery, which was so much fun! I love taking tours of places and learning how they make things... When you think about it, it is a type of craft!  Now, while the tour was free, the rum which we purchased was not… $45 a bottle, but so delicious and perfect for fruity drinks while we are here in Florida!

We also went to dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack one evening while we were in Jacksonville… on both trips. Nothing overly special about that, right?  The Joe’s in Jacksonville is literally on the beach. I have an adorable selfie of the two of us together while at Joe’s, taken during our first trip. I took it the night before I left to go back to Reno in 2010. That photo is both in the scrapbook album I made after our initial trip and in a frame I had hanging in our bedroom in our house, both of which are currently in storage back in Reno. This time, I have these 2 lovely pictures of us individually. I’ll have to compare them when we get back. 7 years in between…

Well now we are off to spend time in Southern Florida… kind of a bucket list trip. I have always wanted to go the The Keys, and now is my chance to do so, along with the Everglades. We are going to drive down Alligator Alley, so say a prayer for us that we come back intact. 😉

Do you know of somewhere we need to go or something we need to see while in Florida? Share your thoughts. We’d love to hear them!

Until next time,
Roberta
The Traveling Crafter