Sunday, June 28, 2009

This morning we had waffels for breakfast! Yum! Hotel breakfasts are getting better than they use to be. We got tickets for the Ripley's Red Train tour. This was a great way to see the city. Ryan loved it...what boy doesn't love trains? Aiden even slept on the train. Yeah! And Daddy and I got to hear and see the history of the city. What a remarkable thing...to see and walk and touch the same places Ponce de Leon discovered. Well, the Native Americans discovered it, but Ponce de Leon claimed it for Spain. We saw Castillo de San Marcos, the Spanish Fort. It's the largest still in America. We heard and saw the canons fire. Did I mention we heard them? wow loud! The Spanish soldiers yelled "Cover your ears!" and they weren't kidding. I got a great pic though of the moment it fired. The only price I paid was just a little hearing loss. I tried to cover one ear on my shoulder and the other with my hand, but then trying to snap the photo was a little difficult. But I got it! Ryan enjoyed crawling through one of the rooms that had a pint sized door. Scott had to crawl in after him. I wasn't about to go in. Some of the others on tour were talking about how they felt ghosts present. They were getting all creaped out and acting like they just felt the spirits of the dead crawling all around. Some people...

We hopped back on the train and saw other neat things like the Winery (they use muscadine grapes native to the Southeast), the oldest wooden school house, Flagler College, downtown St. Augustine...everything is old there: increadible houses, monuments, and gardens. I just love that sort of thing. And of course the train tour was narrated with cool historical stories. Well worth the $15 to tour for 3 days! We all had a great time. The only thing was I was wearing a sleeveless shirt...and no sunscreen on my arms. I put some on my face, but my arms rarely get burned. This was a rare day to say the least!

We ate lunch at a great place called Pizalleys. Great pizza! Great atmoshpere! Great air conditioning on a HOT day! After getting refreshed we walked the cobblestone streets in the old city and saw a Greek Orthodox shrine, did a lot of shopping and picture taking. We found our Christmas ornament! Actually three. Every year we get a Christmas ornament on vacation or of something that characterized that year. One shop had some hand carved wooden ornaments of things around St. Augustine. They were so neat we got three.

After all that fun in the sun, we had to go back to the hotel and rest a bit. Did I mention I love cold, dark hotel rooms? While Scott and the boys napped I would catch up on facebook and email. We decided to go light on supper and ate at McDonalds...can you believe it? I never eat McDonalds. Well, I guess never, say never huh! We drove out to St. Augustine Beach to find a location of a place our last night's waitress told us about. We actually drove straight to it by mistake. It was great! And it was beautiful. The coquina (shell that has turned to rock and used in all the buildings down there) was plentiful on the white sandy beach and the sand dunes were paradise. SO...I had a crazy idea of trying to get that perfect family picture again. Well.....a storm was brewing and we had to work fast. Again, the boys wanted to play more than pose for a picture. The sand ended up blowing in our faces and it looked like snow. We never got that perfect shot, but we made lots of memories. The clouds and lightening were crashing all around us and the photos did not do justice, but it was amazing! We let Ryan play a little, but the rain came and we had to go. We ended up driving around the town at night seeing the sights, the lighthouse was gorgeous at night too, and we rode the antique carousel. Another great day!

The old city gates from the inside. The only thing left standing from the original city wall.

The Old sugar mill. They use to mill cane sugar. Now this was our first train stop where we parked the van.

Palm trees everywhere!

Presbyterian church.

Oldest working Drugstore in America.

Saturday, June 27, 2009 ~ Happy Anniversary!

Its hard to believe that its been 11 years! In many ways it seems like yesterday that I met that red head from Georgia at seminary. He was the cutest little library worker I had ever seen. He seemed so studious (ha!) Later, he would become my Sunday School teacher, best friend, and soul mate. We have shared so many laughs, tears, and dreams together. In fact, he has made all my dreams come true. As a child, me and my gal pals would pretend we were grown ups, married with kids. All these years later, I'm still playing house with the greatest father, husband and friend on earth. It really is a dream come true.
Reality set in when we ate lunch at Shoney's in St. Augustine. It was not the grand tea parties of my childhood. We only wanted a quick, cheap lunch that wasn't fast food. We thought we could get a little salad bar or something. I should have walked out the moment we walked in and it smelled like a bathroom had exploded. But we were seated so fast I didn't want to seem rude. I looked at the menu and even a stinkin' club sandwich was $8.99. What happened to a cheap lunch? I decided to only get a baked potato for $1.69. (Now that's cheap) I also just wanted to get out as quickly as possible. Happy Anniversary honey :) At least Ryan enjoyed his spaghetti. Oh well....things got better. We checked into the hotel and it was great. Don't you just love walking into a dark, cool hotel room? That smell...that unique hotel smell hits you as you open the door. Ahh! I love it. Ryan is going to take after me I think. That was the first thing he said. "Mama, it smells like a hotel." We hadn't even unzipped the first bag, though, and he was asking if we could go to the pool. We have a pool at home, but there is just something about a hotel pool. But the pool would have to wait.

After unpacking and recuperating from the drive we got our things together to go to dinner and the beach. We ate at a wonderful restaurant right on the water called The Reef. Great view, great shrimp, and wonderful Chicken Alfredo! Much better than Shoney's...duh! We enjoyed talking to the waitress. She was born and raised there. She gave us some good tips on beach areas that we would eventually check out. Ryan just had to tell her that we were going to go the Fountain of Youth and she told him to be sure to drink from it because her grandmother drank from it as a girl and she is still alive at 103! I think there is just something about living next to the beach that gives you life! What do you think?

We spent some time trying to get a good picture of us as a family there on Vilano Beach after we ate at The Reef. We never could get a great shot. We would eventually try again on another day. It was hot and kids just wanted to play. How do all you families get your kids to sit still for a photo? Anyway, I'll post a few just to show you how I can never get Ryan to look dead on the camera. His face points to the camera but eyes always look off. Or he will put on such a fake grin it becomes hilarious. Oh well...here are our memories. BTW, yes, later that night we took the boys to the hotel pool! It was great. No sand, so salt, and the largest dragon flies I've ever seen. Aiden loved floating around in his floatie and Ryan swam like a fish in his spiderman vest. Great ending to our official anniversary day. A bit different from the honeymoon 11 years ago, but wonderful all the same.

Summer Vacation Begins! ~ Friday, June 26, 2009

I took Scott to work today after his lunch break so we could hit the road as soon as he got off work at 5:30. We were all so excited to leave. We had been marking off the calendar with Ryan for 15 days leading up to our vacation. Ryan was plum giddy. We drove until about 12:30am until we reached Adel, Ga, just outside of Valdosta. We didn't have a reservation because we didn't know exactly where we would end up. We were so tired at this point and Aiden was screaming because he was tired of being in his car seat. I seem to remember Ryan being a better traveler at that age. We pulled into a Super 8 just hoping to get a cheap stay, but they were all booked up, so we had to drive down the way. I was actually glad because it looked like a dump. There was a Hampton Inn and I called the number on the GPS and they said they had room available for $79. I said "we'll be there shortly." I was so glad because Hampton's are usually at least $100 a night so I was more than willing to take it. When we got there the clerk said that the phone number was wrong on the GPS and we actually spoke to the Hampton in Albany, Ga and the rooms here would be $99 a night. But, my smooth talking husband worked his magic and got the room for $79. Woo hoo! We got a room there and it was like heaven. The beds were so comfortable. The room was clean and we got a good night's rest. We hit the road the next morning after a great hotel breakfast about 9:45am to finish our drive into St. Augustine. Again, with butterflies in our stomach.