Amanda and Graham's Great Pig Adventure

Wednesday 15th April

We arrived here in the early hours and had breakfast in the hotel – the DoubleTree by Hilton on the river St John. A fabulous position and most of us have rooms on the 10th floor with views over the river and the pool. Not bad for a day off! It was a beautiful day with temperatures reaching 30 degrees.

Unfortunately, our day started out with office work which was rather frustrating but it is good to have it done! (Orchestra Companies House admin.)

We could see lots of our lot by the pool from our 10th floor balcony, and also spotted bottlenose dolphins in the river, and two brown pelicans following a small boat.

Then we walked along the river trail. There is a large fountain with numerous jets creating dancing patterns – reminded us of The Bellagio in Las Vegas, which seems a million years ago! Not quite as grand of course! Eventually we came to a boardwalk above a swamp-like inlet. There were little frogs in the mud and lots of birds.

We caught a Skyway automated monorail (like an airport shuttle) to the other side of the river which is the Downton area. It was free which was a bonus. We finally found somewhere for coffee and a light lunch. There is a gap in the market here, it is crying out for somewhere where you can sit with the view and have a drink and something to eat. There is nothing unless you go in two blocks away from the river.

Some more historic buildings here and quite a few murals, which seem to be a feature in several places we have visited. We went to the river side to see the view in the opposite direction. Our theatre for tomorrow’s concert – the Florida Theatre – is on this side and we can see it from our room.

Skyway back and then we joined the remaining few by the pool at about 5.00 when it had cooled down a bit. I had a swim – first of the tour – and we had Margheritas!

For dinner, we set off on another lengthy walk to the St Marco area which has lots of boutique shops and restaurants. We ate at a seafood restaurant which was lovely but we were a bit dismayed when everything arrived deep fried in batter, and everything has parmesan sprinkled or shaved over it, even fish and seafood (the Italians would have a fit!!). It was very filling! We had gator (tastes like chicken!) and calamari to start with (both enormous portions) then ginat shrimp pasta (the prawns were deep fried in batter!) and grouper, with lots of fried accompaniments. All tasty, but we were defeated!

A lovely day, and we are being paid to be here!!!

Thursday 16th April

Concert day here in Jacksonville, but not until 6.00, with a 3.30 soundcheck, so we had a pool day. The buses left at 11.00 so we had to make sure we had put everything on that we didn’t want to carry. It was another really hot day and we saw bottlenose dolphins on the river again.

We caught the Skyway again over the river and walked to the theatre, which is a lovely historic building dating from 1027. It still has the old lifts with dials on the wall showing the floors. We nipped out between soundcheck and the show and saw more dolphins, quite close. It was a good responsive audience and a nice show. Then all out to a nearby bar where we could sit outside and we were drawn into musical bingo which was fun. Buses left at 10.00.