Bring Your Beach Towel

By: Will Vandervort

JACKSONVILLE - I've been to a lot of bowl games over the years.

From the Chick-Fil-A Bowl to the Champs Sports Bowl to the Music City Bowl- they all have their own share of good and bad traits. Some are in warm weather, others are in what feels like the frozen tundra and still others are played indoors. But this is the first time in a while I've been to the Gator Bowl, which is now sponsored by Konica Minolta, and I have to say, boy am I impressed.

Keep in mind I haven't had the chance to actually too much with bowl officials just yet, as the Tigers just arrived two days ago and have only gone through one practice as of this blog update, but all in all, Jacksonville isn't a bad place to spend a week in late December.

Saturday afternoon, it was 83 degrees and breezy.

Sunday, it was just as nice.

Adding to the whole bowl experience is the fact that the Jacksonville area is only a short drive to the beach- actually, it's only 16 miles from the media hotel (Hyatt Regency) to Atlantic Beach (AND there happens to be a WhataBurger along the way, which happens to be one of my all-time favorite fast food establishments not named BoJangles.)

Furthermore, Gator Bowl officials have already prepared for your arrival, posting "Official Gator Bowl Gathering Site" banners up leading up to the entrance of the beach!

You would have thought it was late May ... with people jumping in the ocean in their bathing suites and little kids running around like they were on summer break.  What more can you ask for?

Again, the Jacksonville area certainly is not a bad place to be in December, especially when it's cold and dreary back in upstate South Carolina.

So if you are headed down to Florida's First Coast later on this week, don't forget your beach towel. There's plenty of sunshine, the beach isn't too far away and you'll feel like it's late-Spring instead of the middle of the winter.

Boy I love my job.

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