Cool lunch outing with a friend and spring delights

Yesterday I had a fun, productive and busy day on a great weather day.  I had made lunch plans with Nancy, formerly of s/v Silver Seas, to have a picnic lunch in a riverside park.  Nancy is familiar with this part of Jacksonville, an old stately section called Ortega.  Beautiful!  We hit the weather just right and it was very obvious that Spring had sprung! Every azalea, tulip tree, and redbud tree was in bloom and much of the grasses were bright with springtime color.

Before these shots were taken, we had each picked up some fast food and met at a local used book store called Chamblin's Bookmine which has around 23,000 sq ft of retail space. I love this place and have long since completed my personal collections of book series that I read and reread by searching these stacks. They have another huge store in the downtown area of Jacksonville, FL.  Here is a collage of shots from there  plus one more.

Check out the gorgeous pencil drawing, looks like 
a book cover in the making, tons of books to peruse.

This shot is indicative of how slap full of books this place is.

After lunch I had an appointment to get the final fitting of my new orthotics and pick out some new sneakers as well.  I have had plantar fasciitis off and on for many years.  I think it started after going barefoot for so many years aboard our sailboat.  

I need to have a couple of good pairs of athletic shoes for walking and hiking this summer so I bought some Kuru's (thanks Marlene, we'll see how they do) and some New Balance Fresh Foam's to go with the new inserts.

Anyway, while I was waiting I stepped across the street looking for a Bead shop that I had found some interesting beads at in the past. Drat, it wasn't there anymore, but in it's place was a very fun mineral shop cum headshop type place called Midnight Sun. Really fun to have a look-see! (I could have spent hours there, lol). It's a case of "what goes around comes around" - or welcome to the 70's, haha.

Just barely scratches the surface, everything from
tie-dye and batik clothes, incense, jewelry, hand-carved
Balinese wooden wall hangings and mineral stones.
  

Finally, I took a few shots of local flowering shrubs and all, (sorry about this all you snowbound folks) hope you enjoy them!

One of the many azalea banks within my neighborhood!

Azaleas, unusual in their pale pinkness.

Tulip tree in full bloom in someone's front yard.

Azalea hedge in someone's front yard.

Well, thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoyed.