Chamblin Bookmine

Posted on April 11, 2013 by mlwattsupp

When my friend came to visit a couple weeks ago, we also took a field trip to the Chamblin Bookmine. The Chamblin Bookmine is a new and used book store. It’s not necessarily the best place to find cheap books (all of their used books are half off the cover price), but if you are looking for an old or unique title, or 30 copies of Amy Tan’s Joy Luck Club, you’ll be sure to find it at Chamblin. It is also a great place to “get lost” in books. There are nooks and crannies filled with titles including a closet without a door containing every Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew novel ever written. I found about 40 copies of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gastby in the classics section. They also have new books and books for every school list in the area displayed prominently near the registers.

Chamblin also functions as a book exchange. They will accept used books in exchange for a small amount of store credit. They also have numerous rare books that can be viewed on their website.

Wandering through Chamblin reminded me of my first week on campus at UC Santa Barbara so long ago. I went to the campus library several times during my first week. I never went to do actual work (that came later in my college career). I went to “get lost” in the stacks. I found copies of the journal Science dating back to the early 1900’s just sitting there on the shelves, I found a reading room on the top floor with a view of the ocean, I found maps of strange places. It was an eye-opening experience that I could have so many books at my fingertips, and near limitless knowledge within my grasp. I got that same feeling at Chamblin, like I could pick up any title and it would make me smarter in some way.

I would definitely recommend a trip to the Chamblin Bookmine if you are in the Jacksonville area and like books. They definitely have something for everyone!

Jacksonville Zoo

Posted on April 8, 2013 by mlwattsupp

I had a friend come and visit a couple weeks ago and we took a trip to the Jacksonville Zoo. When I first got to Jacksonville, my mom and I went to the Zoo and were both pleasantly surprised about it’s size, the activity of the animals, the set up, and the quality of the enclosures. They also have a great collection and diversity of animals. The next time I went with Asa and the rest of my family when they were here for the holidays. I picked up a yearly pass with a +1 visitor who can be anyone. It is a pretty fantastic deal.

Anyway, my friend and I wandered over to the zoo during the only non-rainy part of the weekend. The animals, as always, were happy and active (except for those warthogs, they are always asleep). We high-tailed it out of there when it started to rain, but not before I got some good pictures of the animals.

Back for 2013, Just a Little Late

Posted on March 12, 2013 by mlwattsupp

So I think the last place we left you was with Matt in Thailand and Asa and I in some kind of crazy limbo living situation.

Well, I am happy to report that we moved into a nice two bedroom apartment near the beach in Jacksonville. We are planning on being here until August when I will surely have a job. Regardless of the job situation, we will find ourselves seeking a new abode somewhere.

Being near the beach is great and we are within biking distance of the grocery store, the gym, the bank, restaurants, the beach, and a dog park. Riding our bikes has been great and we hope to keep up the habit regardless of where we end up.

In other news, Asa will be trying out for Team USA (Ultimate Frisbee) in a couple weeks. This year’s competition is called the World Games and it will be held in August in Cali, Colombia. The USA is taking a 13 person mixed gender squad to compete. We’ll keep you posted on any news we hear.

With that, I think I’ve caught you up on the major events of the past couple months (yeah, not a lot going on). I will try to be better with posting fun stuff we do around Jacksonville. I even pulled out and charged my camera in anticipation!

I’ll just leave you with some nice pics of the St. Augustine Turtle Trot (5K) that Asa’s mom and I ran together a couple weeks ago. I won third place in my age group and got an awesome hand-carved wooden turtle medal (that the cat promptly knocked of our table and the dog promptly ate!).

Us after the race!

The beach at St. Augustine. Flat, warm, and sandy!

Cars are allowed to drive/park on the beach as long as they have 4-wheel drive and pay the parking fee. I had to laugh at the little sedan that we saw driving down there. Hope they didn’t get stuck!

Jacksonville Light Parade

Posted on December 5, 2012 by mlwattsupp

This year Asa and I were privileged to be a part of the Light Parade here in Jacksonville. It is a festival of sorts where local boat owners decorate their boats with lights and parade them around the St. Johns River in downtown JAX. The parade of boats is then followed by one of the best fireworks shows of the year. There are competitions for a variety of boat classes to see who will take home the prize. Rumor has it that in past years the prizes consisted of boat motor oil. While not a very glamorous prize, it certainly is practical!

Anyway, Asa and I were commandeered to help out in the boat of a family friend. She ingeniously decorated her boat in lights shaped like an octopus and needed help moving legs (yes a lot of legs!) and changing colors of the remarkably large octopus body.

It was certainly a site to behold from the dock and close up on the boat, but was even more astounding in videos taken from the shore.

“Octopus’s Garden” by the Beatles was also on repeat and blaring from speakers on the deck of the boat, hopefully loud enough for those on the shore to enjoy.

Check out this awesome video of the light parade on youtube!

After we made our two mandatory loops around the downtown area, we settled in at a local dock nestled between two of the downtown bridges to enjoy the fireworks. We had the perfect spot to enjoy the “waterfalls” of fireworks set off from both bridges during the firework finale.

It was a fantastic night out on the water! Oh yeah, the octopus won first place in the sailboat category!

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Posted on October 30, 2012 by mlwattsupp

I had the opportunity to go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium a couple weeks ago while I was in the area for a wedding. I stayed at a local motel and spent a nice Sunday exploring the animals and new exhibits at the Aquarium. I would definitely recommend a trip to the Aquarium. In my opinion it is the best aquarium in the U.S., with a great mix of animals, good signage, plenty of activities for the kids, interactive displays and touch tanks, and some nice art exhibits. Here are a couple memories from my visit.

These are called Lion’s Head Nudibranchs. I was excited to see a tank full of them at the Aquarium because my family and I saw these in the wild for the first time while kayaking in San Simeon last month.

Wedding Weekend

Posted on October 18, 2012 by mlwattsupp

I went up to the Santa Cruz area this weekend for the wedding of a good friend! Despite the awkwardness of showing up to a wedding alone, and not knowing any of the other guests, I had a wonderful time.

The wedding was set up in the backyard of a close family friend. There was a grassy area for the ceremony, a nice patio with adjacent fish pond, a vegetable garden and storage shed, and terraced walking paths and sitting areas. The day was fabulous, without a cloud in the sky and a perfect 70 degrees F.

There were drinks and snacks before the ceremony. The bride and groom brewed the beer themselves, all six choices! There was a very pleasant blue grass band playing before and after the ceremony and lucky for the guests, the bride and groom’s other friends are fairly musical (i.e. can sing fantastically).

The taco truck was a great addition to the after-ceremony festivities, and the pie was a nice alternative to a traditional wedding cake. All in all, I had a great time and am super excited for my friends and their journey through life together. I can’t wait to see the creativeness coming out of that marriage!

Another Triathlon

Posted on October 17, 2012 by mlwattsupp

Alright, so this one I didn’t do. I was planning on it, but a good friend convinced me to come to her wedding instead. It really didn’t take much convincing, just a one sentence email! But more on that later.

I didn’t do this triathlon, but my dad did. So I went to see him off on the swim before heading to my friend’s wedding. This was the Morro Bay Triathlon, right in our own backyard. In fact, the bike course goes near our house. The swim is a nice out and back course in the bay, the bike heads up Highway 1 towards Cambria, and the run is on the beach near Morro Rock.

Anyway, here are a couple pictures from the morning. And in case you were wondering, my dad got first place in his age group and beat his time from last year!!

Dad on his way to the swim.

Yep, the buoys for the swim were big happy faces!

Here is Dad’s wave in the water, headed out the channel towards Morro Rock.

It was early. Even the seal lions were tired!

Morro Bay

Posted on October 8, 2012 by mlwattsupp

I just thought I would share some scenes from Morro Bay, where my parents live. I am really enjoying my time here. It is great to be close to family and the town gives a lot of opportunities for outdoor fun like walking on the beach, hiking, sailing and kayaking in the bay.

A Trip to Schererville

Posted on October 5, 2012 by mlwattsupp

Earlier in September my mom and I took a trip to Bakersfield to visit my grandmother. While we were there we were coerced to visit “the farm” or “the ranch” as some people call it. No it isn’t actually a farm or a ranch… It is my Uncle and Aunt’s house in East Bakersfield.

I refer to it as a farm or a ranch because they have amassed a great collection of animals and plants which include:

4 horses

1 cow (named “moomers”)

1 goat

10 chickens (3 of which are named Huey, Dewey, and Louey)

Assorted dogs and cats

Various fruit trees (grapefruit, apple, pear, orange)

So my mom and I visited on the condition that she could ride the horses with my uncle. It was a great visit and always nice to see all the animals! Here are a couple pics from our visit!

Bakersfield Triathlon

Posted on October 3, 2012 by mlwattsupp

I know I haven’t posted in a while, but I’ve been busy.

Last weekend we were our usually busy selves and took a trip to Bakersfield for the Bakersfield Triathlon. I know what you’re saying… “Who in their right minds would want to do a triathlon in Bakersfield at the end of the summer?” Well the only answer I have is that we were definitely not in our right minds! We had fun anyway.

My dad has done this triathlon every year for the last 4 years. This was my first triathlon after an 8 year hiatus of playing frisbee. Before that I used to do a couple of triathlons each summer. Lucky for me, the Bakersfield Triathlon has both an olympic distance and a sprint distance. Dad did the olympic and I did the sprint.

For those that aren’t familiar with the sport of triathlon, it is a race that combines swimming, biking and running in that order. An olympic distance consists of a 1.5 K swim, a 40K bike, and a 10 K run. A sprint distance consists of a 0.75 K swim, a 20 K bike, and a 5 K run. Some competitions allow relays where one person does each event and the individual times are added up, but most competitions are a grueling endurance event in which one person does all the events by themselves.

Well the day dawned bright and sultry. The temp was about 75 degrees F when we woke up and above 90 degrees F by the time we finished. The swim took place in Lake Ming on the East side of Bakersfield (despite the swimming prohibited sign!). The water temp was perfect and no wetsuits were necessary.

The bike was a nice out and back course along well-paved and relatively traffic free roads. The olympic course had a couple of good hills before turning around and coming back.

The run was advertised as a little long, more like 6 K and 11 K. It was mostly on trails and bike paths, but was dusty and had little to no shade. This was a bit problematic in the heat and most of the crowd just “survived” the run instead of “racing it”.

In the end, Dad and I both had a great time. Dad came in 2nd in his age group and with a time very close to his last years’ time. I came in 3rd in my age group and 10th out of all the ladies in the sprint race. There will definitely be more races to come!

Halupi

Adventures in an Ever-Changing World

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