St. Augustine

Kevin and I spent last weekend in the "the nation's oldest city", St. Augustine. The boys were lucky enough to have Grandma down from VA to spoil them rotten without the prying eyes of parents to ruin a good time. We all enjoyed the break. It is amazing how much adult conversation occurs without interruption from the back seat- I forgot I had that much to say!

We started our Saturday with a stop on the way for BBQ. YUM! This place did not disappoint.
We drove the rest of the way to the hotel where we were able to check in early and after a short rest from the long drive, we proceeded into historic St. Augustine. We made a pit stop at the San Sebastian Winery for a tasting and a tour then headed over the Bridge of Lions to the St. Augustine Lighthousewhere we braved all 219 steps to the top. That was some climb! The lookout was amazing, the view breathtaking, and I was a little nervous. I'm not usually afraid of heights but standing on a small balcony with a VERY thin metal barrier between me and the extremely long drop to the ground was intimidating and made me grateful that the kids weren't there. That would have been enough to cause a panic attack in the Dali Lama. Unfortunately (or possible fortunately due to our next adventure), we forgot the camera for this portion of our trip- all the photos were taken on Sunday.

We left the lighthouse and walked around the historic district, which is a hot tourist destination. We didn't go to the fort or any of the museums, as we've seen most of them during previous visits with the kids. Instead, we moseyed over to our favorite pub for an early dinner.

Kevin had fish-n-chips and I ordered a scotch egg- and again... YUM! But what a bummer, the pub's for sale so it might not be there next time.

As we were sitting down enjoying our very British food we were watching the sky grow dark. Before we were able to settle up and get out of there, the bottom dropped. We waited and waited for the rain to stop and once it had slowed significantly, we decided to make a run for the car. Did I mention the car was several blocks away? And we heard the waitress mention how quickly downtown floods? And I didn't plot out our course before we took off running? And the map got wet and fell apart? And ALL the streets look the same when you are drenched and running knee deep through water praying that lightening won't strike you dead? Thankfully, lightening did not strike and we made it to the car safe but wet. We've had quite a "stormy relationship", as many of you already know, so this only adds to our repertoire.

The rest of our trip was less eventful. We browsed outlets and turned in early. Then in the morning we sampled the hotel's continental breakfast and enjoyed frozen cappuccinos during a quick stroll around the city. We didn't stay too long on Sunday and managed to find the car just as the drops of rain from this storm started.

On the way home we decided to stop at The Lone Cabbage for atmosphere and a bite to eat. We did not go out on an air boat because of another pending storm.

What an awesome weekend! Thanks Mom, for watching the boys. I know they had as much fun as we did. In closing, here's a couple of pictures of the boys and Grandma before we left to take her to the airport.

When did Sully get this tall?