Hello there! I had the pleasure of traveling to Jacksonville, Florida this week and I have really been looking forward to it. I love Florida, more specifically I love Orlando. But was excited to visit a new part of the state that I haven’t been to before. So far, the experience here has been wonderful despite the rain and lack of Florida sunshine. However, getting here was a different story.
My journey to Jacksonville began early with my alarm set for 4:30AM. I had a 7:20AM Flight. I wanted to get ready, double check to make sure I had everything packed, and get to the airport in plenty of time. Travel has been crazy and crowded for several months now, so I am always allowing for that extra buffer time just in case.
I have to be honest that I think the DFW airport is probably one of the worst in the U.S. and I try to avoid it when I can by flying Southwest through Lovefield. I also will mention that I had not flown American Airlines in over a month, but this travel morning reminded me why I hadn’t. After switching our gates to THREE different terminals that morning, the delays began. Since I had to get to Jacksonville for work I asked the gate agent if they thought we would actually take off or if we were being prepared for a cancellation. The answer was they didn’t have a plane and didn’t know where they were going to get one. I’ll keep my sarcastic remarks to myself on that one.
The airport was way overcrowded so I found an open spot on the floor where I could work on my computer, drink my coffee and eat breakfast. I grabbed a snack pack from the 7-Eleven with apple slices, cheese, and pretzels.
We finally took off about three hours after our scheduled departure time, but I was just happy to actually be on my way to Florida. I had some fun stops I wanted to make before checking into my hotel. After landing, I collected my luggage and got my rental car. I headed straight for a coffee shop I had found online for a late lunch and a caffeine boost.
Southern Grounds has a few locations throughout the Jacksonville area and I picked the one that was most closely located to other stops I wanted to make. It was a beautiful coffee shop and so spacious. I feel like most trendy coffee locations are usually small and are hard to get a seat at, but that was not the case here, There was so much room to spread out. They also had so many coffee and food options.
I opted for a drip coffee with almond milk and a breakfast bagel complete with egg, cheese, and bacon. It really hit the spot and the bacon was cooked to perfection, which Is sometimes hard to find. I enjoyed a little reading while I leisurely enjoyed my coffee and lunch.
Just a few shops down was a Macaron shop. I haven’t had this treat in a long time so I couldn’t stop myself from dropping in.
Macarons are always a little pricey in my opinion, so I just got a box of six and picked the flavors that seemed the most unique. I have only eaten of couple of them so far, but they are delicious! So far I have tried a birthday cake flavor and a basil white chocolate. That seemed like an odd combination to me, but it really worked!
I then headed towards my new weakness, which was a bad idea. One of the best thrift stores in the DFW area has a sister store in Jacksonville, so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity for a little treasure hunt. I ended up finding so many things, some with the tags still on them. They were also have a 50% off sale which meant many of the items I walked away with cost less that $3. I’m telling you, I can’t shop retail the same anymore.
I walked away with about 12 items in total for a little under $50. I am not sure how I’m going to fit everything in my luggage and stay under the weight limit, so getting home with everything should be interesting. Here are a few of the dresses that I found.
After wrapping up thrift shopping, I headed to the grocery store to pick up some food and water for the week. Eating out for every meal gets old very quickly, so I try to eat the hotel breakfast when available, pack a lunch and healthy snacks, and then eat out for my dinners. It seems to work well for me and I don’t get burnt out on dining out as often anymore.
Some storms rolled in while I was at Sprouts, so after I finished picking up my groceries I decided to call it a day and head to my hotel. That is until I went to go check and realized I was at the wrong one when they couldn’t find my reservation. So after a 20 minute drive back in the opposite direction I arrived, checked in, and got settled. I DoorDashed dinner for convenience. I found a health restaurant where I was able to customize a bowl of brown rice, lemon garlic kale, ancho pulled chicken, corn salsa, and sautéed peppers.
It hit the spot and I rounded out dinner with some frozen dark chocolate covered bananas I picked up at Sprouts.
The day started out stressful, but it ended up being really enjoyable. I’m looking forward to some other fun things I have planned for my time in Jacksonville this week!
Question of the Day: Do you like to thrift shop?
Traveling by Nature 