Friday Me-Time ADVENTURE: Morningside Nature Center

So, my schedule at the new job offers me a Friday off. I've never had weekdays off before, so I'm pretty interested in this world of opportunity that has opened up before me. With weekends off, I am usually with my husband and we go on ADVENTUREs together, but there's nothing quite like the ones you have when you're on your own.
My first Friday Me-Time ADVENTURE: Morningside Nature Center in Gainesville.
The drive out to Gville is always nice. I take 301 most of the way, and it's very easy going. Sure, there are those pesky speed traps in Lawtey and Waldo, but they've never bothered me because I actually drive the speed limit (!). I've got a whole day and satellite radio - why hurry?
Leaving at around 11 got me to Morningside at around 12:30. It's relatively simple to find and the sign is large and obvious. I noticed only a couple of other cars in the parking lot, but the heat index being something like 110 degrees, I understood why only the brave or the odd (yours truly) would choose to show up in the middle of the day.
While the map and information for the facility was a little on the sparse side (only 2 waysides and a small brochure/map), it wasn't complicated and I found what I needed with ease. I was mostly interested in their 1870s Cracker homestead recreation, but they also have some lovely trails that I was planning on traipsing until I found that my bugspray bottle had lost all its propellant - and as I blow up like the Michelin Man when I am bitten by yellowflies, I decided to save the trail system for another day.
The Cracker homestead was lovingly rendered, and everything had a real authentic feel to it. It reminded me a bit of Dudley Farm, but Morningside had a sort of underdog charm that I liked. More than likely, I took a shine to it simply because it was completely deserted. There was nary a visitor or park employee to speak of. However, there was a jersey cow, two pigs, chickens, a couple of sheep, and a rather loud ram who was making all sorts of goat-racket.
I took my time meandering around the homestead. It was relatively small, only about an acre or so, but things were well tended and you could tell that if it weren't 4,098 degrees outside on a Friday in late July it would be a-bustle with visitors and park folk. (They do have living history reenactments on Saturdays September-May.) I was really hoping they would have a turkey that I could stare at, but alas they had none. I was very at home in the heat, but the abundant shade was a welcome respite from the glare of the sun. They've left many trees in and around the homestead I assume for just such a purpose.
There is a little Cracker house on the property, and there are two lovely rocking chairs that sit on its porch. Boy-howdy, once I was done looking around and taking pictures I spent about an hour sitting in one of those chairs, soaking up the peace and the heat. The little house (my dream home) smelled sweetly of pine and it was happily settled in its place. I rocked back and forth on that porch, trying to burn the scene into my memory: Junebugs wailing, chickens bok-bokking, sweet pine smelling, rocking chair creaking, no breeze blowing, sweat tickling my back, and the utter peace of it all. To my left, under a piece of wood on a bench, sat a recreated newspaper from 1870. I was quite pleased to pick it up and thumb through it. I will admit to you that I was in la-la land and was quite content pretending that this was my place, and I was just taking a break from working on it in the middle of the day. I think I ended up spending an hour and a halfvon that porch all by my lonesome, not a visitor to speak of, in utter bliss.
Morningside Nature Center is a lovely place. I'm sure a review of it during the cooler months when the living history reenactments are going on and more people are in attendance would be more useful, but I liked it how it was for me. For a small period of time, I had it all to myself, and that means more to me than any of that.

The Jacksonville Arboretum and Gardens: A Tiny Dose of Zen in the Middle of the Workday

     I have had an ongoing relationship with Fort Caroline for a long time. I used to work there and not get paid, then I worked there and got paid, and now I visit more often than a person should really visit a former workplace. Being the totally cool place it is (and containing the people it does) in the warmer months I am moved to sluggishness while visiting. Whereas in the wintertime I take my lunch break run around the trail as fast as possible to avoid too much exposure to the cold, in the summertime I am warm and happy and feel like stayin' a few. So it is not as conducive to concentration when it's nice out.

     Therefore, I've been on the lookout for a nice natural (FREE) place to visit on my lunchbreak, a quiet place that does not distract me (not so much for running - I've taken a break from that to work on this GRE nonsense). Gotta be just the right mix of pretty and boring. Well, my friends, I found all of this and no more at the Jacksonville Arboretum and Gardens.

     Now, it may seem up to this point that I am calling tJAG a pretty boring place, but don't get me wrong. It's a beautiful little plot of land right off of 9A/Monument. It's brandy-new, so no one's really heard of it yet. When I say boring, I mean it endearingly. That is to say, it's quiet and lonely and lovely and perfect for studying words on the flash card app on my iPhoney while taking a constitutional around Lake Ray. (Or, as I'd like to call it, Pond Laser. It's teeny tiny and named after a guy really named Lake Ray, and that's just too obvious.)

     I pulled up around 2ish. There was a light drizzle falling and it was a tad brisk out. There was only one other car in the parking lot, and it was nondescript.

     We'll visit this car later in the adventure.

     I got out and walked through the ridiculously huge parking lot for an arboretum toward the little waysides they had, describing where I was and what they were hoping for it to become in the future. Being on a time constraint, I only glanced over them looking for the trail map. Cool! A .31 mile trail around Pond Laser. That was perfect - I didn't want something to start the ADVENTURE vibration in my innards, distracting me from the tiny flashcard application in my hand. There were other trails too, about the same small length, but I wanted to go in a nice circle and repeat it so as to not get too interested in my surroundings. 

     Live oaks and GREEN green abound at tJAG. It's really a cute place. It smelled like plants and dirt, and was a quiet, soothing space. I'd really hate to see it actually full of people, because that would change the vibe from "sleepy hidden gem" to "mall" in my opinion. So I took my 2 walks around the pond, hating those few words that FOR THE LIFE OF ME I WILL NEVER LEARN. But I was calmed by the stillness. There were no birds, only the wet coolness of a gray April day. Every step I took formed small invisible happy faces that floated over my head like bubbles (you know, the kind you get when the shower temperature is just right? Or when you wake up on Saturday and realize you can just lay there and not go to work?) tJAG was like a tiny dose of zen in the middle of the workday. Realizing my time was growing short, I made my way back to my car, happy faces trailing off into the sky, waiting for my to return. Ahhhh.

     I realized that other car was still in the parking lot, and it was running. I didn't see anyone in it, so I thought maybe someone had gotten out to do something. I paid it no mind as I got in, buckled my seatbelt, and started the car. As I shifted into park, I turned my head slightly to glance back at the car that was- DEAR LORD THERE ARE PEOPLE DOING IT IN THERE.

     So that was my lunchtime journey the the Jacksonville Arboretum and Gardens. It's got a lot of potential to be something adventurous one day, but I really like it where it is, with its wee pond, short trails, and the skanky parking lot. It's definitely worth checking out on your lunchbreak.

Visit the website: The Jacksonville Arboretum and Gardens