This past weekend we went to the mounted cowboy shooting competition at the Jacksonville Equestrian Center and it was pretty cool. Definitely recommend it.

Sunday we went to the Palencia park that has the wooden ship playground. I vote this the best park in Jacksonville.... although do not recommend spinning your kids on the tire swing until they both throw up.

This past weekend we headed to Washington Oak Garden State Park, which has a neat coquina shell beach instead of sand. However, the drive is a bit far and I'm not sure if we would go back.

The pictures of the pier were taken at sunrise in Jacksonville Beach.

I've finally decided what I'm going to do with this blog. It is going to be a place where I jot down fun, inexpensive things to do in Jacksonville. With the economy in a recession the kids and I have embraced the idea of getting out and doing things that are cheap and largely outdoors. Last week we went to Treaty Oak Park and Friendship Fountain in downtown Jax. This week we went to the Ravines in Palatka. This park has great walking trails for kids with cool bridges and rock walls.

So we are continuing with our 'this is a bad economy what can we do for free' kick and we decided to go explore downtown Jacksonville. We visited Treaty Oak Park, Friendship Fountain, had ice cream at the landing (so that part wasn't free..) and we were going to ride the skyway but ran out of time. Here are some pics. of our adventures.