6 Days 945 Miles

We are back home again after 6 days in Jacksonville. The primary purpose was to see the Broadway show Spamalot on Wednesday evening.

Spamalot describes itself as “Lovingly ripped off from the classic film comedy Monty Python and the Holy Grail, telling the legendary tale of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, and featuring a bevy of beautiful showgirls, not to mention killer rabbits, cows and French people that raises silliness to an art form.” The show lives up to the description. If you don’t know Monty Python you would not understand any description I give of the plot. I will instead say that the theater was comfortable, the orchestra terrific and the quality of the show top-notch. I should know, this being the first show I’ve seen in 38 years. Penny was with me for that show, too. Actually there was a couple that sat behind us who had seen Spamalot on Broadway and they believed that the Jacksonville production was just as good.

The set-up in downtown Jacksonville is nice too. Parking was easy and not outrageously priced. The parking lot is very close to the theater. It was relatively simple to get in and out of downtown. It takes fewer than 15 minutes to get there from Karen and Tim’s place. I did enjoy the show and Penny, who went to watch me enjoy it (not a Python fan) laughed out loud in places. Thank-you, Karen, for an enjoyable Christmas present.

The secondary purpose for the trip was to help out Karen and Tim (K&T) in their preparation for their annual Oscar party. On Thursday we shopped for them for a good portion of the fixin’s they needed.

The tertiary purpose of the visit was to see Christy and Christian (C&C) and deliver some goodies to them. We did that Friday night – more on that later.

The quaternary purpose for the visit was to go see Kerry and John and Jack and Annie. We always want to go see them when in Jax but don’t always make it. We went there Friday afternoon before going to see C&C. Kerry was planning Jacks off-date birthday party for Saturday and invited us. We had originally planned to return home on Saturday so we said if we were in town we would come. Sister Kathy and Bro-in law Joe were at Kerry’s, arriving earlier than planned just to see us. My sister is sweet.

Friday eve we drove to High Springs and went to dinner with C&C in a restaurant named the Ivy House. It’s an old house converted into a restaurant. The food was delicious and the company outstanding. C&C always treat us great and I always like to see Christy smile the way she does now. I also got several of her patented hugs. The evening ended all too soon and we drove back to Jax to find K&T still awake and caring for Sophie. Sophie had a bad day. She had thrown up and was having diarrhea. Penny and I offered to stay longer to help with Sophie and allow K&T to get some things done without her. (Like river run training) So we ended up being in town for Jack’s Party.

The quinary reason for our visit – and a part of every visit to Jax is to shop at places we don’t have at home. Penny like to go to The Olde Green Cupboard – a fabric/craft store with good stuff for her embroidery hobby.

Since we stayed on Saturday, Jack’s Party became our senary reason for being in Jax. Lots of kids, parents and a volcano cake with a racetrack through it.

We finally headed home after church on Sunday. It was a gorgeous day and a smooth drive back.

KITTY UPDATE—The feeder once again worked OK and kept the cats fed all week. So far only Meredith and Marmalade have shown up for the evening feeding. It’s only 7 o’clock. Last time we were out of town they all showed up around 9.

K&T’s Oscar party should be in full swing now. I hope they are having fun.

Maybe our next trip will have septenary, octonary, nonary, and denary purposes.