Aly and I are slowly getting acclimated to Florida. I'm still glad we chose Jacksonville. It is a somewhat smaller city and it has been pretty easy to navigate even though I've made some wrong turns here and there (as Aly will attest to) it is easy to find your way back. We have been starting to explore the area and are looking forward to doing more. On the first Wednesday of each month they have what is called an Art Walk in downtown Jacksonville. I guess there are several art galleries downtown that open their doors as well as live entertainment like jugglers, musicians, etc. that perform. We are looking forward to checking that out tomorrow. Just a mile away from us is the huge shopping area I mentioned already. Tom called it Arbor Lakes on steriods (for those of you not in MN, that is a shopping complex in Maple Grove not far from our home). I need to go back and at least window shop. They have a Gucci store and many other designer names as well as the typical big stores like Target, Costco, Joann's, and groceries.
Our "home" here is a 2 bedroom apartment condo. It has an open area as you walk in the door which includes an eating area, living area and kitchen. The bedrooms are on opposite sides of the unit and each has its own bathroom. I have a little built in desk area in my bedroom. We are on the 2nd floor of a 3 story building. We had a struggle finding a place available with such short notice. We looked at VRBO.com, sublet.com, corporatesuiteshoppe.com not to mention pages and pages of individual renters which the hospital here gave us. We kept coming up empty handed as most places were rented out for September and October. We had a few places set to tour last Saturday and Sunday. Another obstacle was the holiday weekend! On Friday though, the corporate suite shoppe called us and said they had something available. We had called them several times but they kept telling us they had nothing in our price range. Well, I guess things change when the 1st of the month comes around and you have an apartment sitting empty! Of course, that same day we received 2 or 3 other calls from people telling us they have something available. Funny how that works! I had even talked with a nice guy who wanted to be sure we had found a place. I had called him earlier in the week and his place had been rented already. He had left me a message saying how he has 3 little girls and he wanted to be sure we had a place to stay. He invited Aly and I to join his family when they go to the beaches on the weekends! That reminds me, I need to call him back and thank him.
Anyways, the development here is gated, although I have yet to see the gates closed! There are 8 or nine apartment buildings that surround a small pond. We have a nice pool, a club house and a dog park. I miss my dog! There are many dogs here. There is a sign by the pond that says watch for alligators! We were told that a water mocasin snake lives in it! A walking path circles the pond. As we walk down the path, geckos scurry across the cement. It is kind of creepy yet cool at the same time. Also, at one point the path gets close to the pond. There are small fish in the pond. They have gotten used to being feed by people who live here. As you walk down the path, the fish actually follow you, waiting for you to throw them food. Aly and I fed them some bread today. They look like little piranhas going after the bread!
Aly and I are doing pretty good at keeping busy. The challenge is that there is so much to do, but at the same time we have to keep our expenses low so I am trying to find free activities like the art walk! We've been visiting the pool area almost every day. I'm hoping we'll get to the beaches more now that we are settled. We have figured out how to get the Skype working so Aly now has contact with friends and family and even her homeroom at school. We are planning to Skype into the homeroom when we can and then do some other schoolwork in the mornings. Hopefully that will leave the afternoons for other things. We are still waiting to get her treatment schedule to see what else we will be able to fit in. Today we located a movie theater and saw The Smurfs. It was cute, not my favorite kids movie, but Aly enjoyed it and that is all that matters. My parents are coming for a visit on Thursday. They have some friends they are planning to visit in Orlando, so we are going to go down there with them for the weekend and visit Sea World. I am hoping also, that we will find some kids in this complex that Aly could play with. We saw a couple of girls out playing one day, but we didn't make it out to introduce ourselves. It may be tricky now that school is in session, but that's another reason to keep visiting the pool!
So far things are going smoothly. We did have one minor crisis when I did a big shop at Target for essentials. My check card and credit card were denied. It turns out that our bank put a block my cards as well as Kevin's because we were spending money down here. Apparently, we should've notified the bank that we were traveling to Florida. They told us a lot of fraud takes place in Florida. After wanting to strangle someone for putting us through a lengthy automated system and then ultimately getting disconnected on the phone, we finally cleared it up and they removed the block so I could make my purchase. That is a scary feeling though!