Day 8 - Brits meet Grits

Our final day in Florida began with a breakfast. And this was no ordinary breakfast. We decided to treat ourselves, and so headed out to the celebrated location that was none other than the 12-year running 'Best Breakfast in Jacksonville' award winner...The Beach Hut Cafe. At first, things were going smoothly. We ordered a couple of hot chocolates to get us started, the waitress was lapping up the accent (no change there then), and we were enjoying the casual local ambience. Then came the grits, and everything took a turn for the worse. Being the adventurous souls that we are, we decided to opt for this intriguing breakfast side-dish instead of fries...error of the century. No words can adequately describe the true taste (if you can call it that..) of 'grits', but we welcome attempts in the comments. To get you started, it is a bizarre substance, looking like a cross between mashed-up rice and custard, with a porridge-like consistency. When John commented that it looked like lunch at your local high-security prison, he was not wrong. Oh, and Joe had the cheese version.


Thankfully, our spirits were raised with the arrival of Josh and Carl to the cafe, who were stopping off for breakfast before a morning out in San Augustine (the oldest city in the US). Needless to say, they found the whole grits situation rather humourous (as has every American we've mentioned it to since), and told us of a few other comical events that had taken place at the cafe in the past. The one about Jeff O'Brien spilling a glass of orange juice all over Dave Murphy's lap was a particular belly-tickler. We intend to ask Dave about his reaction when we see him next.

Moving on from an eventful morning at Beach Hut, we spent a good deal of the day back at the condo/beach. After finishing up packing, we went out for our last Florida jam of the trip with Paul (and were later joined of course by Carl and Josh). To our satisfaction, we both managed to end the session on the move known as a triple-spinning gitis! For those uneducated in Frisbee lingo, this is, er, quite good. We also caught a few good moves on the video that can be seen at the top of this post.





Post-jam, it was time to head over to the airport. We said our farewells to Carl and Josh, who we look forward to keeping in touch with, and will hopefully see again soon. Paul then drove us over to JAX airport, where we said our goodbyes to him. He's been a fantastic and generous host, we were sorry to say bye to him, and look forward to seeing him again. We can't wait to have him over in the UK - he's promised us now! Once in the terminal, we got through a smooth and quick check-in to board the plane.

We had two flights, the first one being a lot shorter (we changed in Atlanta), and both went well. Due to some earlier negotiation at Manchester airport, we were equipped for both flights with emergency exit seats - which do, of course, come with double legroom, but hold the added responsibility of opening the door should a crisis arise. On the second flight, our pilot for the journey was a fine specimen of a man, who can only be described as an 'absolute legend'. One of his best pre-flight jokes was telling all passengers that the kids on board had voted (11 to 2) to fly upside down for the journey. The crew, however, would be going around shortly with grey bags, and if enough was raised for the pilots retirement fund, then he would consider flying the right way up. He also enjoyed some banter with ourselves, including pretending that we were on a flight to Detroit, and almost catching us out.

Then, we arrived in San Francisco, a special moment for John being his first time in California. We were greeted at the airport by Alicia (one of Joe's relatives), who brought us across the bay to her house - our fantastic lodgings here in Orinda. The J's were extremely tired, and so after a kindly provided quick midnight feast, their heads promptly hit the pillows.

Hello the West Coast.

The J's.