a busy summer part 5: the vacation, finally

I’m a coffee snob.  I may also be a music snob, a boot snob, and a guitar snob.  I am not, however, a beach snob.  I have friends who think South Carolina beaches are crap.  I have friends who think the Myrtle Beach area beaches are dirty and gross.  I understand that I do not have to agree with them to be their friend or to respect them.  I’ve been to beaches on both sides of Florida and the panhandle and their beaches are nice.  There are probably not many beaches I wouldn’t like.  The beaches at St. Augustine are pretty good.  The sand is white and fine and the beaches are very wide.  One difference from the beaches here is the long distance one must walk to get to the beach.  St. Augustine has wisely protected a wide area of dunes between the beach and the residential areas and this creates a cool little ecosystem in that space.  So while you may have to carry a bunch of beach stuff farther and across a long boardwalk, you may just see tortoises, snakes, and rabbits along the way.  

I woke up a little after 8:00 am on Sunday and after my run we drove into town to eat breakfast at a little place we had never tried called The Blue Hen.  It was a tiny, cool little place in the historic district and the breakfast was good.  We stopped by the grocery store to grab supplies for the week and then we went back and got ready to bask in the sun.  This was the last day of the heat wave and the temperatures were expected to be in the mid to upper 90s.  I found some breeze and some cooler air on the beach and after about an hour in the sun, I spent the rest of my afternoon in the shade of the umbrella.  Now I was really in a show about nothing.

Violet and I needed beach sunglasses.  You can’t use your regular sunglasses for this.  Beach glasses are disposable.  They’ll be scratched, covered in sunscreen, and lost in a few days.  The coolest pair I ever bought were $10 last year and I wore them 20 minutes before they were lost at sea.  I’m not certain Violet feels as strongly about this as I do, but she saw an opportunity for new sunglasses and we jumped in the car after cleaning up from the beach and headed for the local crappy beach store.  We tried on most every pair available.  The idea with beach glasses is that they have to have personality.  These are glasses you wouldn’t wear in regular life.  With some laughter we settled on two pair and headed off to pick up Thai food for dinner.  We attempted to walk on the beach that evening but a huge scary cloud drifted up and the lightning started about the time we started walking.  But there were plenty of sweets in the room so we just started dessert time early.

Monday after my run, I ran with Violet.  After that I walked a bit while keeping an eye on Blue when he ran separately.  Monday was cooler and such a beautiful day.  I stayed on the beach most of the day alternating between sun and the umbrella.  The big story of the day was watching this guy near us.  He was my age or older and clearly Scottish.  He talked to several people around him and was very nice.  The cool thing about him, though, was that he had a raging bull tattooed on his nipple area.  The face of the bull was right at the nipple and his nipple was pierced with a ring, making it look like the bull had a ring in it’s nose.  It was kind of great.  The beach was so quiet and wonderful that eventually I fell asleep in my chair.  I didn’t wake up when the tide started kissing my feet and there was a brief moment I was aware that a wave had gone under my chair getting my butt wet.  Soon I sensed someone was near me and I jumped awake.  It was the bull tattoo guy.  He was bent down rescuing my sketchbook from the waves.  He picked it up and was trying to place it on my sandals to keep it from getting wet.  He apologized for waking me and messing with my stuff but I told him how grateful I was that he was trying to help.  Sorry I don’t have a photo of the tattoo.  

We ended the day by walking through the old town.  If you’ve never been, it’s definitely worth putting on your list.  The oldest continuously inhabited city in the US.  Lots of parks and historical things and some really good food.  We ate at a place called Burger Buckets and it was really good.  We also got some Hyppo pops and Blue and I grabbed milkshakes at Cousteau’s.  Cousteau’s is worth the drive to Florida on its own.  They only sell waffles and milkshakes.  What a dream come true.  They’re all specialty mixtures and all very good.  The restaurant is themed around the movie “The Life Aquatic” and Jacques Cousteau.  Very cool.  Highly recommended.  It was a good day.

By Tuesday the days started to blur on me a little.  I was getting in the vacation groove.  I’d watch a bit of the Olympics at night and sleep a little later each morning.  I ran, and then usually ran again with Violet.  I made coffee and made my way to the sand to sit and watch people.  Blue was looking forward to going shopping at the outlets in town.  The afternoon was a bit rainy, so we drove to the outlets and walked through.  I wasn’t very excited about this and we did have a bit of a moment when we drove a short distance in search of a Journey’s store that apparently no longer exists.  We followed the map and kept walking by the “x” designated as the destination, but we never found the store.  This was mostly forgotten when we got to eat exceptional BBQ at Mojo’s on the way back.  This was also the night we tried to go to the torture museum.  I know that sounds sort of terrible, but we saw signs for the museum the previous night and decided it would be cool.  When we tried to get tickets the little goth dude inside scared us away by saying that it was strongly recommended that kids under 18 not be admitted and that it wasn’t legal for him to even describe some of the exhibits inside.  Fine.  We left.  But maybe they should reconsider their marketing plan.

Wednesday was a dreary looking day.  I dodged a bit of drizzle on the beach by scooting under the umbrella a little more.  When the skies got darker, I opted to gather my stuff and head inside.  As soon as I got inside it started pouring.  I napped while the rain slowed down and when I woke up, Violet and I decided it was time to explore the lighthouse.  The last time we were in town Blue and I climbed the 219 steps to the top but Violet didn’t meet the minimum height requirement.  This was her year.  I’m afraid of heights but I love looking out from high places.  Maybe that’s weird.  I don’t like looking down, just out.  Violet waited until we climbed all the way out onto the observation deck to tell me that she was also scared of heights.  We hugged the bright red wall all the way around as we looked out.  The view was amazing.  And though we were both terrified, it was exhilarating to be up there.  It was starting to rain again and we were VERY careful as we climbed down the 219 slippery cast iron steps with our wet feet.  We went through the various museum exhibits and just when we walked in the one farthest from the parking lot, a downpour opened up on us.  We tried to wait it out but it was 6:00 pm and one of the workers came to lock up.  We were soaked by the time we got back to the gift shop.  

With half of the car riders soaked to the bone now, the four of us tried to go to one of our favorite restaurants and found it closed with a lot of irritated people sitting in the parking lot.  We shifted to another favorite restaurant in town and we may have bought some warm, dry clothes at Marshall’s before returning to the room.

Thursday woke us all up with the realization that vacation was almost over.  We got breakfast at a local diner and then hit the beach.  It drizzled a little but I didn’t care.  I finished my David Sedaris book and had a beach nap.  I may have went inside in the afternoon and had a second nap.  We tried the closed restaurant again and it was open this time.  We drove around a little seeing things we missed on previous visits and watched lightning in the distance.  We ended the day by visiting the Publix bakery and grabbing desserts.  Oh, and I caught a vintage Tom & Jerry cartoon before the Olympics were back on.  That was nice.

Friday was “go home day”.  It’s always the worst of the vacation days.  We did two runs that morning and worked up an appetite.  We kept seeing this place called “The Kookaburra” in our restaurant searches.  There was one right across the street from where we stayed.  Their coffees were famous and so were their Australian pies…whatever those were.  We decided we needed to know so while we were on our second run, G ran over and got coffees and pies to try.  Dude, these things were excellent.  It was like a little breakfast pie with eggs, cheese, and meat.  The coffee was great too.  I mean, not as great as mine, so I followed my bought coffee with a homemade one.  We all went out for some final beach time and I stayed as long as I could.  Violet and I finally went inside around lunch time, showered, and packed the car.  

We checked out and drove to a mall in Jacksonville on the way home.  There was one or two stores we needed to go in briefly and we also needed a late lunch.  We shopped fast, hit the food court, and were back on the road pretty fast.  The drive home was pretty easy, though I did make G drive the last hour because my butt was cramping up.  We were home before it was too late and the dogs were very happy to see us.  The car was unloaded and we scavenged the pantry to find sweets before bed.  The credits started rolling on this delightfully boring episode.  Would this be our last adventure of summer?  

Find out when part 6 is posted....

the sunshine state

Florida is a strange state.  It starts out swampy and beachy like any other southeastern state but then it turns into a tropical island sort of place.  My parents took me to Florida the year I was born and again when I was 12ish.  Both times we went to Disney and one of those trips I remember clearly.  We spent a few days in Disney and one at Epcot and we even got to go to Cape Canaveral and saw the Space Shuttle Discovery on the launchpad a few weeks before it took off.  But what I remember most vividly was seeing alligators.  They were everywhere.  In the grass, in the ditches by the road, in every body of water.  The gator captivated my young mind.  

Now when I'm offered a chance to go to Florida, that inner gator hunter in me comes alive and I happily agree.  This despite how hot I know it is in Florida.  And how much it rains.  And how far it is from my house.  

 When G asked if I wanted to tag along to her work conference in Tampa, I immediately said yes because I knew The Dali Museum would be close by.  But I also knew we would find great food and fun things to do as well.  The first stop was St. Augustine.  Within 5 minutes of getting in town we were at Mojo's eating BBQ.  We cooled off with peach pops from Hyppo and walked through the historic city.

 It was dreadfully hot but beautiful.  I wanted to get a few photos of the sky over Castillo De San Marcos so I left G in the shade and scooted across the road for a second.

 As it happened, I was just in time for the afternoon cannon firing over the waterfront.  So I took up my spot in the hot sun and waited through the reenactment.  

 Covered in sweat, I needed to cool down again with a milkshake from Cousteau's.  This may be my favorite place in the city.  The small restaurant only sells gourmet waffles and shakes and every item on the menu is based on the movie "The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou".  And waffles and shakes...come on...what could be more perfect for me?  

 We enjoyed a nice seafood dinner on the water at Hurricane Patty's and then walked out on the beach to sample the cool water in the Atlantic Ocean.  The sun was setting on the way back to the hotel and the whole town was golden.

 My internal runner's clock woke me up at 6am and the golden light was back for sunrise over the city.  I got to run across the Bridge of Lions and I estimated my distance pretty well.  I only had to run around the hotel once to get my mileage.

 St. Augustine is beautiful.  I highly recommend it.

We had breakfast at Georgie's Diner, an old reflective silver 50s style diner.  We went because of the name but the food is excellent.  While we were there, a dude leaned in and asked what G ordered and the people behind us spilled their ice water all over themselves.

Then we jumped in the car and headed for the other side of the state.

 Neither of us had ever been to Tampa and G had never been to the Gulf Coast.  As we drove in to the city, at the last minute we decided to bypass the hotel and drive out to St. Petersburg to watch a baseball game.  The Tampa Bay Rays were playing the NY Yankees at Tropicana Field.  This was G's first MLB game.

 We had amazing stadium dogs.

 And we enjoyed the luxury of a covered, air conditioned stadium.

 I've head a few times that Florida is like a reversed US east coast.  Meaning, the northern part of Florida is more like a southern state and the farther south you go, the more northern the state gets.  I assumed this meant that there were more people from northern states moving to southern Florida to escape the cold.  In Tampa and St. Pete, this proved to be truth.  At least every second person we saw was from New York.  At the game, the ratio may have even been higher.  The Yankees have a spring training facility in Tampa and there were at least as many Yankees jerseys and fans as Rays fans.  (Or in our case, Cubs fans)  We pulled for the Rays out of principle but it was cool to see the Yankees.  The Rays won.

We thought we dodged the rain storms inside the stadium and on the drive to the hotel.  We found a mexican restaurant nearby and walked over.  When we sat down to eat, the rain returned and though we tried to wait it out, we ended up getting soaked walking back to the hotel.  

 And in true Florida fashion, the moment the rain stopped, the beauty returned.  That was the sunset view out our 11th floor window.

The next morning I tried out the River Walk on my morning run.  I had a quick breakfast and then headed back to St. Pete to spend the morning at The Dali Museum.  That was an experience I'll have to save for another blog post.  It was great.

 When our kids were tiny, they'd get really excited when they saw palmetto trees because they knew we were near the beach.  You can get a sense of where you are by looking at the trees.  The tall pines near our house slowly give way to spanish moss and palmettos at the coast.  Then, driving south from Jacksonville, the palmettos change to these tall, beautiful palm trees.  These were all over St. Augustine and Tampa.  I think they're my favorite.

 When I returned from The Dali, G was still in conference sessions so I walked a few blocks to the Tampa Museum of Art.

 One of the exhibits was an untrained guy who started decorating baseballs.  He sent them to MLB teams and coaches and developed quite a following.

 This one was to honor the Cubs' 1989 Division Championship.

 The figurative exhibit featured some well known artists and some personal favorites...Niki De St Phalle...

 And Keith Haring.

Later we found a Maggiano's Italian restaurant and explored the town a little more.

 The next morning I got a little lost on my morning run but afterward I found the coolest place for breakfast and coffee.  I love my coffee and there's no substitute for the coffee I make at home.  But Moxie's Cafe in downtown Tampa makes better coffee than me.  

 I did a little exploring after breakfast, trying to walk off the two huge coffees I had.

 The Tampa Theater was showing the Mr. Rogers movie but we couldn't fit it in our schedule.

When G got free, we drove to Clearwater Beach.  We stumbled in to Frenchy's Cafe and won the food lottery.  The crab fries were so wonderful.  G copied the recipe from the menu and we hope to try to replicate this soon.

 Then we got to see the Gulf of Mexico.  The water was mostly clear but it was very, very warm.  We walked a bit and enjoyed watching people.  We discovered that bathing suits can be very different in Florida.  It was an interesting walk.  

 Each morning on the River Walk, I passed lots of runners, walkers and bikers.  Near the Convention Center, if every second person was from New York, then every third was a nurse traveling from another place.  The first morning I noticed quickly that people were not making eye contact or speaking to me.  Runners normally at least acknowledge one another with a nod or a wave.  After the first few people didn't speak, I made it my mission to bring some southern hospitality to the Tampa River Walk.  I "Good Morning-ing" everyone and made them smile and speak.  

I had another giant coffee at Moxie's and when I got back to the hotel, G was ready to hit the road again.

 We drove back across Florida on a different route, taking us past farms, horses, cows and lots of small bodies of water.  I'm pretty sure every road we traveled in the state was under construction.  About 7 hours later we arrived in Charleston, SC just in time for the afternoon heat.  We walked around the city a bit and then headed across the bridge to eat dinner at Page's.  While we were there we noticed that Page's also offered breakfast.  The next morning we considered several options before deciding we would go back to Page's.  We made a good choice.  

 My runner's clock must have decided I needed to sleep in an extra 30 minutes so I missed the sunrise but I still had a beautiful run over the Ravenel Bridge.

 I only stopped once for photos and I held my phone extra tight this time.  The last time I took photos while running across the bridge, I dropped it and nearly lost it over the edge. 

 After my run I got to explore the fishing pier under the bridge.

 Charleston (and Mount Pleasant) has the best light.

After breakfast, we had to go back to the beach.  We decided we prefer the Atlantic to the Gulf.  And South Carolina to Florida.  

Now back to the alligators.  If you're wondering how many gators I saw on this trip...the answer is none.  Not a single one.  No space shuttles either.  But that milkshake at Cousteau's...more than made up for it!

st augustine! (part deux)

Last summer we ventured down I-95 into Florida to scope out St. Augustine.  We loved it there and we found it difficult to do everything we wanted to do in a week.  So this summer we decided to go back to finish what we started.  

 We pretty much made up everything on the fly.  Starting with a 30 second Google search for food near Blufton, SC.  G found "Cheeburger Cheeburger" and we took the next exit.  It was a classic style burger joint complete with Betty Boop cardboard cutout, real burgers and delicious shakes.  G had been in the car with me for 3 hours at this point, thus the fake smile.

 The shakes were really good.  The kids shared a chocolate and I had a s'mores.  So good.

 The sugar rush gave us the push we needed to get to Florida.  This was our 3rd floor balcony view for the week.

 Last summer we ate our way through town and found some favorites.  Saltwater Cowboys was one and it was first on our list of return meals.  That's a plate of real crab cakes, hushpuppies and cheese grits.  Spectacular.

 The night before we left, I picked up a set of 3 special lenses for the iPhone.  The lenses screw into a clip that just clips over your phone lens.  They're not great quality (they were $4 in the checkout aisle at Walmart) but they're super fun.  I had the most fun with the fish eye lens.

 For at least a week, G was showing me photos and videos of sea turtles hatching and racing to the ocean.  We were hoping we'd get to see that happen, but when we inspected all the marked turtle nests on our first night, we saw that the nest were all fairly new.  The next morning on my beach run I saw a brand new nest being marked off and I stepped over the mama turtle's tracks back out to sea.  That's all the sea turtle we got all week.

 The kids and I made a cool drip castle.

 After a morning on the beach we drove into the old city and visited our all time favorite restaurant, Mojo's Old City BBQ.  It totally lived up to our 364 days of craving it.  So good that we immediately agreed to eat there again before the end of vacation.  

 We walked our BBQ off and saw some cool things.  There's plenty of cool shops and lots of sweet treats in town.

 That's the family standing in the gate to the city.

 The next morning during my run I decided to go ahead and run all the way to the pier.  The pier is just over 2.5 miles from our condo.  The BBQ and seafood was heavy but I figured I needed the extra miles.  About a 1/4 mile from the pier a high school running team passed me going the opposite direction.  I went on to the pier, took a few photos and then headed back.  I'm a bit competitive when it comes to running, so even though I was feeling it, I could see some of the running team just ahead.  I sped up and eventually passed about 5 of them before getting back home.  I was feeling good about myself.

 Then I promptly blew those burned calories on french toast at Georgie's Diner.

 After breakfast we checked into the St. Augustine Alligator Farm.  The kids loved it.

 The big albino crocodile.

 A very large American Alligator.

 After we saw the whole place, we gathered with a crowd for the big feeding show in "the swamp".  We were "smart" and found a shaded spot to stand under a tree.  The trees were all filled with these big, loud birds.  The big, loud birds all had full bellies and did not seem to like the crowd gathered under their nests.  Just before the feeding show started, one of them pooped on my arm.  I looked up and he was looking at me.  I'm pretty sure he aimed.

 I was lucky it was a small amount, but I was unlucky enough to get hit again on the hand by a smaller amount a few minutes later.  I wasn't sticking around for the third time.  We quickly left the shade and headed for an air conditioned bathroom to scrub the nasty off my arm.  I got pooped on!  That was the kids' favorite part.

 I think this sign was my favorite part.

 After the gator experience we hit the beach in the afternoon and stayed out until we were hungry.

 I played around with the macro lens.

Violet caught this cool fish in her net.  She kept him in her bucket of water for a while and they bonded.  She named him "Shelly".

 Shelly posed with her for a photo before returning to his family in the sea.

 The sand was very fine and soft on the beach.  Any sort of sand sculpting was going to have to be done by carving into the already packed sand.  This meant a lot of careful digging.  But the beaches there are so wide and spacious and people were leaving to go eat so no one bothered us.

 The next day we went into the city again to goof around and eat.  

 The kids on the waterfront.

 G and Blue 

 A lookout tower on the fort.

 G and Blue on an old cannon photobombed by a tourist.

 The fort again

 While we were exploring the town, a big crowd of actors came walking down the street in costumes from St. Augustine's history.

 We asked for a photo and the conquistador put his hat on Blue.

 In town we snacked on milkshakes and waffles from Cousteau's, fries from the place formerly known as French Fry Heaven and we sort of had a meal at Scarlett O'Hara's.  We finished the day with a game of shuffleboard.

 The next day's adventure involved driving into Orlando to visit Disney Springs.  G went there on a work trip last fall when it was called Downtown Disney.  They've added all sorts of new things since then and since going to the Disney parks will cost you an arm and a leg, she thought they would like this and it still be affordable.  

 I know it almost sounds like torture to take your kids to just outside of Disney and not actually allow them to go inside.  In fact, there's a good This American Life episode about this exact thing.  But honestly, they absolutely loved every minute of it.  And there was so much to see and do, they're heads were spinning all day.

 The Lego store was the biggest hit of the day.  Blue was overwhelmed by the giant Lego sculptures.  That was the 7 Dwarfs.

 Buzz and Woody in Legos.

 They'd both saved up money for months to spend at the Lego store.  They were thrilled to be inside picking things out.

 Blue with Lego Hulk.

 A giant Tinker Toy sculpture.

 We left Disney Springs and stopped by Maggianos for dinner and the kids were still visibly thrilled about life.

 The ride back to the coast was quiet with Blue catching a nap.  But they perked up in time for some ice cream to cap off the day.

 Blue was exhausted.

 Running at the beach is always great.  The views are exceptional.  We had a good weather week.  Last year it rained at least 5 minutes every day were were in Florida.  This year it was hot, but not unbearable and it only rained once and that was late the night before we went home.  It was perfect.

 One of my old Winthrop students lived near St. Augustine for a while and last year she gave us some great food recommendations.  She sent us to Metro Diner for dinner and it was very, very good.  This year G wanted to go again so we tried it for breakfast.  Equally as good.

 We all needed the morning to recover from the Orlando trip so after a nap we took over the beach for the afternoon.  We skim boarded for a while and carved a giant Kabuki face in the sand.  

 The afternoon breeze was really comfortable and the beach cleared out completely as everyone took off for dinner.

 Just before dark, we took our sandy, sweaty, stinky bodies to try the Sunset Grille.  Then we did some nightswimming in the pool before bed.

 Then we were down to our last full beach day.  We were missing our dogs and kinda wanting to shower in our own shower and sleep in our own beds.  But we also didn't want to leave the beach and we didn't want vacation to be over.  The sweet dualities of life.

 So we stayed on the beach as long as we could.  We skimboarded, boogieboarded, splashed and buried kids in the sand.

 And then as promised, we went back to Mojo's for another great meal.

 That's the super-old cemetery across the street from Mojo's.

 The last night walk on the beach.

 More fun with the fish eye lens.

Lifeguards

 Also lifeguards

 This is a cool photo G took of Blue skimboarding.  She took it with the Kindle and we have no idea how it did this.  Very cool.

 The last day I got out a few minutes early for my run to see the sun rise as I ran.

 The thing about a sunrise is that it happens so fast.  Its easy to forget the sun is always moving in our sky and it's only when we have a reference point like the horizon that we notice that it never stops or slows down.  There's something in there about time and how we spend it.  Something about making the most of it.  "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may..."

 The coolest thing about the place we stayed was the flamingo mural.  Classy.

 But the adventure was not over yet.  On our way home we stopped off in Savannah.  Blue was an infant the last time he was there and Violet had never been.  

 We were just there for lunch so there wasn't a lot of time for history lessons but maybe when they learn about things in school they'll have a visual reference.

 The cargo ship made a lasting impression, though.  We watched a tug boat go by the waterfront and a few minutes later this giant ship crept by us.  They were convinced it was going to hit the bridge.

 We waited until it cleared the Hwy 17 bridge before heading to eat.

 After lunch we made the last leg of our trip home where we were greeted by three very happy dogs.  

Side notes: 

On the drive down I-95 an 18 wheeler blew out a tire beside us.  It was loud and scary.  We slowed down and he did not.  This led to about a mile of driving behind the truck as it shredded it's back tire into hundreds of black chunks and threw them at our car about about 70 miles an hour.  

Ants.  We had them.  They greeted us on the kitchen counter when we arrived for a relaxing vacation.  As irritating as they were, they were not allowed to ruin our fun.  We sprayed them daily and we turned the dining room table into the kitchen counter for the week.  You can't control the things that happen, but you can control your reaction to them.  

Skimboarding is hard.  For years we've laughed at the kids attempting it and busting their butts on the hard sand.  Last year there was one stashed in a closet and we decided to try it. Slapstick comedy ensued.  We were sore and covered in bruises after just a few minutes.  This year we bought one and got some more practice in.  We got better, but we were still hilarious.  Blue is still sore and I'm lucky to be walking.