The Long Way Home

No Fun Friday today.  I know, Who Gives A Shit. I still haz stuff to talk about from my last Florida trip.  Anyway, after having lunch/dinner with our SC crew we hit the road for Saint Augustine.  We got in town a little later than we wanted to, but it didn't matter.  The little lady wanted to see one of her favorite lighthouses at night and I wanted another beer.

We accomplished our goal...

We also had dinner (not pictured) at the best restaurant in the Nation's Oldest City, Sunset Grille.  If you're ever in town I highly recommend it.  After another long day though, we were beat.  We turned in for the night and I hoped to sleep in a little.

That didn't happen though.  The little lady wanted to get up early and go to the beach.  I somehow got out of bed and within minutes we were there to watch the sun come up.

And the beach was very relaxing...

One more stop by the lighthouse and we decided to go somewhere fun.  We took a tour at the Saint Augustine Distillery.

And the tour included drinks, so that was nice.

Not drunk at all, but we somehow ended up at a nearby farmer's market playing with goats.

That was it for Saint Augustine.  We headed out of town and took the scenic route. The little lady once again requested that we stop at the beach, this time in Jacksonville.  And once again I obliged.  No beer this time, but I did feel welcome.

It was cold but that didn't matter.  The little lady was in heaven just walking around looking for shells and shark teeth.

It was getting late at this point and we needed to get home.  We decided to make one final stop at a local grocery store to stock up on Florida beer.  We really should have grabbed a bigger cart, but Little Miss Sunshine found one in her size.

What an awesome trip.  Part work, part vacation, and all fun.  We always manage to cram in a bunch of fun wherever we go and no matter what we're doing.  I wish I could do that with my "real" job.

Have a good weekend and all that.

Tourist Time

So this year instead of going to Washington, D.C., Lunchbox told me he wanted our annual "Mancation" to be in Florida.  He said he missed it a little bit.  That's understandable.  While I do prefer living here in North Carolina now, I'll admit that Florida is still pretty awesome.  I don't want to live there anymore though.  We'll just visit like everyone else, thank you.

We left late after work on a Friday.  It was Labor Day Weekend and a hurricane was rolling up the coast.  I didn't think we would make it.  It was actually smooth sailing, and that next mornign we woke up in Florida.

Saint Augustine to be exact, but from the photo above we could have been anywhere.  In the Nation's Oldest City, we knew where to go and what to do.  But first, we had to get a photo for Little Miss Sunshine.

After that, the city was ours.  We decided to do some touristy stuff, like visiting the Old Jail.

Then, we got a brilliant idea.  We brought bicycles along but we decided that we'd try something else.  We rented some of those tourist scooters and took them out on the town.

I got a regular scooter, but Lunchbox?  Well, he got this thing:

He said it was fun.  We swapped so I didn't have to take his word for it.

Hell yeah, it was fun.  

Saint Augustine wasn't as packed full of people as we thought it would be (for Labor Day an all.)  We goofed around all day and had a great time.  We spent the night, and before we headed down the road the next morning towards our next adventure, we made a little pit stop.

Castillo de San Marco.  Rad

We lucked out and got there just as they were preparing to fire a cannon.  Awesome.

We hung out a while, even getting to visit with some friends/family in the area.  We basically did a week's worth of stuff in a weekend again.  No rest for the weary though.

We hit the road and headed south...

Tomorrow, of course.  Be here.

Getaway Ride

Moar vacation stuff.

After riding from the hotel, passing through the Old Town Saint Augustine, and visiting a winery and distillery, we headed back across town.  We were feeling pretty good.

The next leg of our town would take us across the Bridge of Lions.  In an automobile you can't stop for photos, but we weren’t in one of those contraptions.

It’s not like we could go anywhere anyway…

Pirates were everywhere:

The rain had stopped for a little while, but we were happy to be out riding anyway.  Our journey over the bridge took us to the Saint Augustine Lighthouse, which is one of the little lady’s favorites.

I never really paid much attention to lighthouses until I met Little Miss Sunshine, but as a history buff I’ve grown to like them.  She really loves them though.

They are pretty neat inside.

And the view from the top is always cool.

We hung around the island for a while, grabbing some food to tide us over for a while.  Then is was back across the bridge to see Castillo de San Marco, or “The Old Spanish Fort” as some people call it.

After a short search for coffee, we somehow ended up in the middle of a parade, or as one lady told us, “It’s Pedro Menendez’s birthday!”

We headed back to the hotel, dropped off the bikes, cleaned up, then headed out for dinner…

And beer:

Happy Anniversary to us.  It was nice to get away.

Reboot

The cold, shitty (rain, snow ice, whatever) weather has really been getting to me.  It was nice to escape to the 12 Hours of Santos where I could be nice and warm, so on the way back from Florida last week I started thinking about getting away again.  I called the little lady to see if we had any plans for the next weekend (this past one), and she said no. 

“Well then”, I said, “let’s go to Florida!”

I got out of work a little early on Friday, and after packing a few things we were on the road.  A few hours later, we were in the 450 year old city of Saint Augustine.  It was a mini vacation of sorts, mostly to get away from the cold (and snow) and also to celebrate the eight year anniversary of our nuptials.  The forecast called for light rain, but we brought our bikes anyway.  There’s no better way to see a city than by bike, and we didn’t let a little drizzle stop us from being tourists.

A “Chain Gang” at the Old Jail

Growing up in Florida, I’d been to Saint Augustine many times before.  It was one of the first road trips Little Miss Sunshine and I had ever taken together back in the day, and this was the first time we’d explored it by bike.  After riding around a bit, we stopped in for a tour of the San Sebastian Winery.

 The rain didn’t dampen our spirits, and unlike the locals that complained of the “cold” and wet weather, we enjoyed some wine outside on the roof.

Wine tasting wasn’t enough I guess.  We decided to turn our ride into a full on booze cruise through the city by making our next stop the newly opened Saint Augustine Distillery Company.

We showed up right on time for the free tour, where they took us inside to show us how they made bourbon, rum, vodka, and gin (all from locally grown ingredients.) 

They’ve been busy in their short time in business:

After that we were taken to a room where our tour guide mixed up some drinks, which were free as part of the tour.

He put on a good show, and made some really good drinks for us (with their award winning gin and vodka.)

Pinky out, ‘cause we’re fancy like that down in Florida.

I’d never taken a tour of a distillery before, and I was having a good time.

Just like a ride at Disney, the tour ended in their gift shop.  That wasn’t really a bad thing.

Since we were on bikes, we decided not to buy anything on the spot for fear of breakage.  The plan was to return the next day when we could carry it.  For now, we had enough alcohol in our system to carry us the rest of the way through our bike tour…

And that should carry you until tomorrow.  It’s crappy outside again, so I’m definitely dragging this one out.  I mean, what else do you have to do?