How very sad.
The Landing, a fancy complex of shops and restaurants, was shut down for the rest of the night. The bridge crossing the river, which came in right by the Landing, was closed down for hours. The SWAT team, firefighters (first on the scene because they happened to be doing drills nearby and one of the wounded ran to them asking for help), helicopters, and lots of police were all over the area, closing streets and looking for the shooter. Eventually, it was announced that the shooter had killed himself.
People in our hotel were asked to stay in all night and not go out anywhere. We were going to go out to buy some groceries for breakfast and eat dinner out somewhere, but we bought some breakfast stuff in the hotel shop and had a very late dinner with five friends from NARFE Florida at Morton's, which is in the hotel. Because everyone had to stay in the hotel, all of the food venues were crowded due to the conference attendees. We were able to get a reservation for 8 pm;, but it was 9:20 before our entrees arrived and an hour after that before we left the restaurant. We had never been to a Morton's Steakhouse before. Mark got halibut and I got sea bass. They were both excellent, but the dinner was close to $200! Not what Mark and I had planned to do last night. We were going to go out and find a Denny's! lol
We had a busy morning yesterday cleaning out the condo, and when we got here, it appeared that I left a nightgown behind. Geez. I could have sworn that I looked in every drawer and closet five times, but that nightgown is definitely not here. Oh, well...it was old and of no value. Better than losing jewelry!
We had a pleasant, easy drive to the hotel. The room was ready at 11:45 when we arrived, which was wonderful. We had flatbread pizzas in the Starbucks/Marketplace shop before Mark went to his 1 p.m. session. I hung out in the room on the fifth floor with a view of the river. If I leaned out of the balcony to the right, I could see the Landing and all the commotion going on over there. I also watched a dolphin playing in the river for hours!
The first general session was 5 p.m. It was Redskins quarterback Joe Theisman, who is now a motivational speaker. He was excellent, very funny and also motivational. NARFE is undergoing a lot of changes right now in structure and organization, so Theisman's main theme was about dealing with change. Very timely.
Today we have a 9 a.m general session, so I have to go get ready.
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| View from our fifth floor room. |
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| That big Blue Heron sat on that platform for HOURS. Once I saw him almost catch a fish from there. I also spent hours watching a dolphin swim up and down the river, probably feeding on fish. I was never able to take a photo of him, but he amused me for a long time! |
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| Later the bridge was closed to traffic since it came down right next to The Landing. It's hard to see in the photo, but I could see the police cars flashing over there blocking the bridge entrance. Two helicopters were hovering over the river near the bridge for a long time through the afternoon and into the evening. |
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| Our room at the Hyatt Regency is nice, but there are very few drawers, not even one in the desk, and no microwave. |
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| This morning I leaned out of our balcony (really just a big window with a railing but the sliders open up) and took this shot. The orange roof is the Jacksonville Landing, the site of the shooting. It's almost due west, so yesterday the sun was over there and I could not get a shot. You can see how close it is to us and to the base of that bridge over the St. John's River. |
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