Things to Do in Bellair-Meadowbrook Terrace

After the tidal surge, 5 feet of water settled over the main office. Splintered fragments from 22 yachts floated by the docks and lay strewn across the highway. Investment advisor and maritime aficionado Don Shapray gazed toward the now-tame seas, surveying his crippled fleet. Though he and his business weathered 1983's Hurricane Alicia, he knew he couldn't stay in Houston. Memories of weather reports touting calm waters and seasonable heat called him to Jacksonville, where he rebuilt his sailing academy from the ground up. Nearly 30 years later, he's instructed more than 15,000 students in the art of sailing keelboats and sailboats. A team of certified captains helps him train students aboard a fleet of Sonar 23 and Precision 15 boats, each lightweight enough to allow for drag races against other boat gangs with names such as The US Coast Guard.

Southern Sailing's experienced captains sail year-round, but conduct their summertime lessons and cruises at night to avoid the brunt of the day's heat and seasonal storms. They teach sailors to navigate the St. Johns River's calmer waters, drifting up or downstream as the evening wind permits past trees, docks, and riverfront homes. Though they guide novice sailors through basic sailing overviews, instructors can also certify them through a 12-hour bareboat sailing program that begins with an educational DVD starring Don Shapray himself. In each on-water lesson, instructors coach students one-on-one, allowing for personal attention and hands-on instruction. When not teaching, captains ferry visitors through the waterways on chartered cruises, or help customers find their sea legs among a fleet of small yachts.

High-profile destinations often cite their high ratings on TripAdvisor, which named e2ride bike tours Jacksonville’s No. 1 attraction. However, few boast that they were highly rated by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Her iconic novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, is credited with helping to ignite the Civil War, but most of her opinions on travel have been lost to the ages—except on the company’s historical bike tour of Olde Mandarin. As the tour group winds past the lush area’s museums and public parks, the tour guide notes that Stowe dubbed the area “a tropical paradise.”

On the company’s other tours, guides offer equally juicy historical tidbits, such as that Riverside-Avondale was originally only occupied by just two homeowners or that Truman Capote vacationed in Springfield. As they learn about the past, groups cycle down present-day roads lined with homes in styles ranging from Tudor and Georgian to Star Warsian.

Staring at a blank piece of paper can be intimidating, but browsing the blank, premade pottery at Doing Dishes draws hibernating creativity from its den, enticing the brain with shape, size, and bisque meat. Pieces range between $7 and $60, and all merry potters are assessed a modest studio fee of $6, which covers everything required to design and fire a project, including time. Grab a blank plate and paint a meal upon it, stencil a cup with springtime flowers, or decorate a picture frame worthy of being hung inside itself.

Originally built in 1927, 5 Points Theatre has undergone a transformation throughout the years from "talkie" palace to neo-modern nightclub to contemporary art-house cinema, earning accolades from the Florida Times-Union for its eclectic and offbeat lineup of films. The upcoming calendar hosts a variety of exclusives and special showings in addition to popcorn-popping Hollywood releases. Stop in for cult-classic midnight screenings, during which the theater transforms into a pumpkin carriage piloted by the delicate dreams of cinematic fans. The eclectic mix of motion pics ensures you'll still be able to catch Blue Valentine between viewings of foreign flicks, such as the Best Picture–nominated British historical drama The King's Speech.

Kristin Hendrix teaches students to create functional and decorative ceramics during Morning Glory Fire Arts' classes, field trips, and other hand-crafting adventures. All materials are included in the two-hour clay classes ($24/child, $30/adult) where students can sculpt a bowl, vase, or replacement sock before returning a week later to glaze the fired piece. Clay players can also put together a pottery-to-go kit ($7+ depending on selected item) packed with a custom set of brushes, glazes, and other materials to create and fire ceramics at their own pace. Hendrix will tote glazes, tools, and clay or bisque to a location of the customer’s choice for a reverse field trip ($5/person for groups of 12 or more), sparing supervisors the trouble of collecting notarized permission slips.

Even though Perry Farrell coined the phrase “Alternative Nation,” invented the Lollapalooza concert series, and played midwife to the genre of modern rock in the 1990s, his musical powers are even more attuned in 2012. Jane’s Addiction, composed of frontman Farrell, guitar wizard Dave Navarro, drummer Stephen Perkins, and Chris Chaney on bass, could be Florida retirees betting on games of shuffleboard and coasting off the success of seminal albums such as Nothing’s Shocking and Ritual De Lo Habitual. Instead, the band lets its freak flag fly with its latest album, The Great Escape Artist and its subsequent Theatre of the Escapists tour.