We woke up early to catch the beautiful sunrise on River Street in Savannah before heading to Jacksonville Beach, FL.

On the way, we stopped at Perkins to get my free Magnificent 7 birthday meal [Yep, the birthday rewards continue] — pancakes, bacon, & eggs — & we ordered coffee, all for $6 & all of which was definitely enough to fill both of us up for that morning.

After breakfast, we continued the drive to our beach destination. Although we’ve both been to Jacksonville before, we thought that it would be a nice stop on the way to Matthew’s brother’s house in Lakeland.

It was.

Even though I almost lost my wallet at a gas station and we mistakenly took a way-too-long walk on the beach and both got a little sunburnt, we ended our day in Jacksonville with a visit to yet another Joe’s Crab Shack right on the beach to use my other free appetizer coupon! — Classic Sampler: crab dip, calamari & great balls of fire. It’s funny how we had never been to Joe’s Crab Shack before this week, and now we’ve gone twice in two days – Thanks for the birthday and e-club rewards, Joe!

After spending most of our day on the beach in Jacksonville, we made our way to Lakeland, Florida.

On the way, of course we stopped at Dunkin Donuts for our free donuts on National Donut Day. We got super lucky, as we arrived at Dunkin Donuts 2 minutes before happy hour ended — We got buy 1 get 1 free Coolattas (mocha and caramel) AND 2 free donuts (blueberry and Bavarian Kreme) – all for just $2.97. Thanks for keeping us awake on our ride to Lakeland, Dunkin!

We arrived in Lakeland at around 9:30PM, literally driving into a storm with crazy lightning (turns out Tropical Storm Colin was right around the corner).

Despite the rain, we were happily welcomed by Matthew’s brother, Anthony, and so excited to have a comfortable, free place to stay for the next few nights.

Expenses of our Jacksonville Trip:
Gas: $27
Breakfast @ Perkins: $6
Drinks & Ice @ Gas Station: $8
Joe’s Crab Shack: $16
Dunkin’ Donuts: $3
Total: $60