Girls Weekend 2016, St. Augustine, Florida

St Augustine Lighthouse          

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Yes, that is a picture of the St. Augustine Lighthouse above.  Yes, you can go into it and climb the 219 steps to the top for what I am sure is a stunning view of the area.  No, we did not choose to do this. Are you kidding?  There is a time when we would have readily done this, but our knees and ankles have aged a bit since we began our annual adventures and some things we just have to let go....

Anyway,  we awoke this morning to the alarm at 7:30am, a bit of a challenge since we managed to stay up until 3 am the night before journaling away.  After breakfast we were off for the days' adventures which centered around an EcoTour of the inter coastal water that is one of the bodies of water that surrounds Saint Augustine.  This tour, which doesn't seem to be very popular with tourists, was recommended to us by some of the locals working at one of the trolley stops.  Again we were blessed with stunning weather for the day.  We arrived at the city marina just in the nick of time to board our boat.  There was only one other couple on the tour with.  A lovely couple who were from Georgia and had wonderful southern accents.

Our tour guide, Joyce

Our tour guide was Joyce, who looked as if she lived outdoors and proved to be very knowledgeable about the waterways and the animal life that inhabits both the water and the air in this area.

Once out upon the open water, we were able to see that the Bridge of Lions was open to allow some taller vessels to pass into the bay.

The Bridge of Lions

Apparently this happens about once every hour throughout the day and can cause quite a traffic jam in town.  We were happy to be on the water where it didn't affect us at all.  Joyce then turned the boat inland and took us to an marshy inlet that is actually a river.  Here she pointed out many a group of brown pelicans, a white egret and a bed of oysters.

Brown Pelicans

As she was talking about the oysters and the various kinds of oyster lovers, I was scanning the water for signs of bottle nose dolphins who live in these waters.  It wasn't long before I spotted one.  While the oysters were somewhat interesting, the dolphin proved to be far more so and we were all fascinated watching the water to see where it would surface next.  Joyce explained to us that while most dolphins to live and travel in groups, this is not necessarily the case for these bottle nose dolphins and this one seemed to be traveling solo.  While we were watching the dolphin, Joyce spotted a young eagle flying high above us.  She explained to us how to tell the difference between an eagle and other birds of prey that can often be spotted above bodies of water.  Eagles' wings, she explained are flat, no notches in the bottoms like an osprey has.  She also told us that when an eagle is in flight, its' wings lie flat, not arched up toward the sky, like many other birds.  I was glad to learn this.  I had often wondered how people could tell the difference when a bird was high overhead where it was impossible to see the colors and markings.

We left the small inlet and went a bit further inland under a higher bridge where she pointed out a type of sponge that lives right at the waterline on the concrete pilings of the bridge.   These small sponges are orange and I would have thought it was just some kind of rust had she not pointed this out.

Orange sponges

We then turned around and headed back the other direction, towards the inlet where we first spotted the solo dolphin, because Joyce had caught sight of a pair of dolphins, a mother and her youngster.  Pretty soon we all caught sight of these two as well as the first dolphin we had seen.  After watching them a while, Joyce pointed out a young osprey that was sitting atop one of the signs posted for boaters and she brought the boat closer so that we could get a good look.

One legged osprey

I took several pictures of the osprey and when I zoomed in on one of them, I could see that this young osprey was missing the lower part of one of its' legs.  Joyce had just finished describing to us how osprey caught and carried fish with their claws, so I couldn't help but wonder how this one managed with just one claw.  Joyce pointed out how well-nourished this bird appeared so we all came to the conclusion that it seemed to have figured out how to survive with that one foot/claw just fine.  Mother Nature is truly amazing.WE then headed out of the inlet, under the draw bridge and Joyce pointed out where the waterway empties out into the Atlantic ocean.  While headed toward the ocean, we could see much of the damage that Hurricane Matthew caused to many of the boat docks on Anasataia Island.  There were even some boats that were still stranded up on land.  While there was certainly a lot of evidence of the hurricane throughout the town, all in all it was amazing to see how much recovery and clean up had already taken place in the two weeks since the hurricane hit this area.

She took us close to the fort that was constructed hundreds of years ago of coquina to defend the city.  Coquina was the only rock available in the area when the fort was constructed and had never been used before, so the Spanish were unsure how well it would hold up when attacked so they built the walls 12 feet thick.  Turns out this material which consists of millions of shells of dead sea creatures that has been compressed over the years into a form of rock is quite resilient and with all of the little air pockets in it just absorbed the impact of cannon balls launched at it and the fort never fell in all the years that it served to defend St. Augustine against attack.

Saint Augustine Fort

We returned to the marina, very happy that we had decided to take this tour and would recommend it to anyone visiting St. Augustine.  We then took a walk through town and ended up in a shop called Earthbound that we had walked by the previous evening and thought looked interesting.  Well, we ended up spending a couple of hours there and made several purchases, including some essential oils that Kathi bought for Ridley, some masks that I bought for Megan (they were on sale for $1 each, how could I resist!), as well as some cool clothes.

After shopping, we both realized that our late night of journaling had caught up with us and we were both pretty tired, so we decided to go back to the condo for a little bit to catch a quick nap so that we would be refreshed for our visit with our new friends, Julian and Shelley, whom we had met at Mi Casa Cafe and who had invited us to their home.

We napped, then went back into town to Julian and Shelley's beautiful home on Water Street.  As one might suspect from the name of the street, their house had definitely suffered some damage from the hurricane and they were still in the process of recovering, restoring and replacing things that were damaged.

Debris pile from hurricane damage awaiting pick up

Their boat dock was completely destroyed and when they returned to their home from Orlando, where they went upon the mandatory evacuation order, they found that their basement was full of water.  Their air conditioning units were still not working and not all of their electricity was working, either.  Nevertheless, they were gracious enough to invite us to their home, which is quite beautiful and has stunning views of the water.  They bought the home from artist who had added many unique and whimsical touches to the home, including mosaics and painted furniture.

The amazing fireplace in Shelley and Julian's home

We swapped stories of travels and raising teenagers as well as stories of the hurricane and what that was like for them.  It was a very enjoyable evening and Kathi and I were very glad that we had taken them up on the offer they had extended for us to come and visit with them.

We left there around 8:30 or so and had intentions of staying up and journaling through this last full day of our trip, after Kathi's cooked up more delicicious hamburger and onions for us for dinner, but after eating we were both starting to nod off, so we decided that we get a good nights' sleep, so we could get up early in the morning to pack and journal.

Oh, and Kathi's Amazon package?  She had received a text message from Amazon saying it had been delivered, but upon calling the front desk, she was told that no package had been delivered, so the saga continues.  Where in the world is Kathi's package?

Girls' Weekend 2016, St. Augustine, Florida

 

On the beach on Anastia Island

Kathi wrote:

Monday, October 24, 2016

 

Today is massage day! The day felt luxurious from the moment we awakened. First of all, we didn’t have to listen to any alarm of any kind, mysterious, inadvertent, or purposefully set. Second, we got lots of sleep, especially me. It’s not often I get a full 8 hours, nevermind 9! It’s just decadent, that’s what it is. By 7:30 we were out at the dining room table beginning our morning routine. I made the coffee, then started writing. I love writing our daily journals; it’s a way to relive our experiences and solidify them in my memory. It is quite time consuming, but both Lori and I are dedicated to the recording and sharing of these trips – it adds an extra level of enjoyment to them.

 

Our massage appointments were at noon, so we were able to enjoy a few hours of chill time, mixing writing with researching, planning, and chatting. At 10:15 I stopped writing to start my breakfast, and showered while it was cooking. Lori only had an English muffin because she didn’t want to stop to make her eggs. She regretted that later, as it turned out. By 10:45 I was sitting down to my meal…lobster tail and asparagus. That’s right, I had lobster for breakfast. Actually it was for lunch, I just ate a bit early because I knew we’d be gone all day and didn’t want to starve again like I did yesterday. The stupid diet only allows me two meals, lunch and dinner. When we made our grocery trip I was entranced by the offerings behind the counter of fresh fish and seafood that had never been frozen! So I bought some beautiful tilapia…and a lobster tail. The stupid diet allows several options for protein, and lobster was one of them. I have never cooked a lobster tail in my life, but I asked myself, how hard can it be? As it turns out, not very hard at all, and my my, was it tasty!! Lori, who had been engrossed in trying to get her journaling done before we left, suddenly noticed the time and jumped into the shower. Once she was ready we packed up swimsuits, towels, sunscreen, and mosquito repellent (without which I do NOT leave the condo!) and jumped in the car for the half-hour drive to the spa.

 

I had done the spa research a couple of weeks ago, and had chosen a place that just “felt right”. Fortunately, my instincts were spot on. I had booked a couples massage, which our assigned therapists (mine was Christine and Lori’s was Sunshyne) thought was a brilliant idea for BFFs to do. I had suggested to Lori that we do a 90-minute massage with 30 minutes of reflexology added in, for a total of 2 hours of blissful decadence, and she readily agreed. It was absolutely wonderful, and we couldn’t believe that two hours could go by so fast. 

 

The spa was about 2 blocks from the beach, so when we left we drove straight east, and easily found a free parking spot at the St. Augustine Pier.  We walked across the sand and spread our towels about 20 feet from the water’s edge.  The day today was 75 degrees and cloudlessly sunny, with a light breeze blowing. We had found heaven. We spent several enjoyable hours there, reading, sometimes talking, and often just gazing at the water or watching some guys playing football or a dad throwing a Frisbee for his son and their dog. What a joy. What a blessing.  What a day.  Lori here.  I just have to add how strange it is for me to look out at the ocean toward the end of a day and have the sun setting BEHIND me, rather than over the ocean, because, of course, the ocean that I am used to looking at is on the west coast rather than the east.

 

Kathi coming out of the water

Around 5:15 or so, we left the beach, rinsed off as much sand as we could, and set off for our final adventure for the day, the Grande Royal Escape Room. So, I think escape rooms have become our new bowling.  We used to bowl every Girls’ Weekend, and then it became kind of stressful feeling the need to always find an alley and make the time, so we crossed it off the “must do” list, and added it to the “if we want to” list. Plus, Lori got tired of me kicking her butt, because I rule at bowling.  Um, sorry Kath, but I have to call you out on this one.  I am quite sure that I  pretty much reigned supreme when it came to our bowling games.  Nice try at stealing the Crown of Strikes, but I cannot allow this.  We went to an escape room last year in Richmond, so this was my second attempt at one. Lori, however, has become somewhat of a specialist and this would be her fourth time, all in different cities. Our scheduled time was at 7:00 for our escape, and we arrived plenty early. We took advantage of the time to take a walk, as it had been somewhat of a sedentary day so far.  St. George Street wasn’t far away, so we headed off in that direction, and made it to another store we had seen on Saturday and kind of wanted to visit. We stayed and looked around for a bit, then it was time to walk back to check in for our adventure.

 

A group of 6 was also booked to do the escape room at the same time, so altogether we were 8 people. The manager, Chris, led us all into the room to explain the rules.  This place is new and is only running one room right now, but plans to add a couple more in the near future. We were told that we were art thieves who wanted to steal the Mona Lisa, which was displayed prominently in the center of the space. There were forty color coded clues hidden in the room; we were to find them, sort them by color and solve the associated puzzles. I won’t give any more details here. The entire group set to work ripping the place apart to find the clues. After a while we got into a rhythm and we all worked together well.  The time on the clock kept ticking down ticking down…we had only an hour to get out of the room to be successful.  Lori was hyped to have her first successful escape out of her now four tries…but alas. It wasn’t to be. Lori here.  Well, crap!!  Another Escape room defeats me.  I am beginning to think that I am not nearly as clever as I have always believed I am.  But, I will try and try again until I have a victory. Despite some great teamwork and many small and medium successes in the room, we were stumped at the end and did not successfully escape the room.  We were BUMMED, but also ready to admit that we’d had a great time.  We liked the structure of this escape room.  It was easy to work together even though we were two separate groups of people, and the clues and puzzles were set up so that everyone had something to do at all times.  Bravo, Grande Royal, you did a great job. We will get you next time!

 

Our Escape Room team

We still had not eaten, and it was late when we got home, so I quickly cooked up my tilapia while Lori opted for the leftovers of the delicious chicken dish she had made on Friday.   Holy moly, I was STARVING by the time we got back to the room.  This diet of Kathi's is KILLIING  me!! We were extremely distressed and frustrated that the HDMI adapter had indeed NOT arrived from Amazon, despite the assurance from USPS that they would deliver the next business day. We are obviously not supposed to watch the shows we want to see on this trip!

 

 

After dinner we got down to business, journaling with a purpose, to such an extent that we didn’t get to bed until almost 3:00 a.m. – YIKES!!

 

 

Girls' Weekend, Sunday, October 23, 2016

    Sunday, October 23, 2016

Flagler College Entrance

  Today was a day that Kathi and I both wished that we could turn back the hands of time and attend Flagler College here in Saint Augustine.  Seriously, this place is amazing.  We got up early this morning so that we could take part in the 10am tour because we figured there would be fewer people on this tour, thus allowing us to ask more questions of our student guide.  This proved to be true and we did, indeed, ask many questions during the tour despite the lack of caffeine in our blood (this due to the fact that we were running a bit late leaving the condo, and not walking past any coffee shops on our way from the car to the college.  This place is magnificent and I would advise not missing the opportunity to tour this building if you happen to be in Saint Augustine.  The building was completed in 1888 after 18 months of construction and originally served as a VERY high class hotel for the VERY wealthy.  It looks like a castle.  There are many places in the building where you can see gold.  If you see gold, well, then what you are looking at actually IS gold.  

Gold Leaf in Wall Murals

  Either gold leaf or real gold.  There was a shelf in one of the rooms we toured through that was very crooked and I mentioned this to our guide.  She said, yes that shelf is indeed crooked but the fact that it is PURE GOLD requires that some special crew needs to be called in to rehang it.  This room also had 11 Austrian crystal chandeliers hanging in it, each valued at around a million dollars.

Crystal chandelier

  What were once hotel rooms for the very rich now serve as dorm rooms, each one having its own fireplace, which the students are not allowed to use.  The dining hall once served as a ballroom and all of its' many windows are Tiffany glass making this the largest collection of Tiffany glass in the world that is functional, not just decorative.  And everything in this place looked absolutely pristine.  Apparently the students (of which there are only about 2600) are all required to take this tour to learn the historical significance and importance of this place and the things that are in it as well as to take a course about the history of the building.  This seems to be a good idea because it doesn't appear that there has been any vandalism of destruction of anything as one might expect from the average American college student.  Flagler College is a private liberal arts college that charges its' students $25000 per year for room and board whether they are from in state or out of state.  Our guide, who is currently a senior, said that her largest class had 23 students in it.  Again, very atypical for an American college campus.  What a place to get an education.

Tiffany glass windows in the dining hall

  I could go on and on about this place, but instead I suggest you look it up on Google and read more about it there.  It's worth the look.   After our tour, we went in search of coffee and found the delightful Kookaburra coffee shop where I not only had a delicious cup of coffee with coconut milk, but also a tasty Aussie pie with ground sirloin and cheese baked into a pie crust.  It was very good.  

Coffee at Kookabura

  Once we had taken in our morning dose of caffeine, we went to the Lightner Museum which is across the street from Flagler College.  This, too, was once a Henry Flagler hotel called the Alcazar.  This was the hotel that Mr. Flagler built for every day people and actually was really the more fun hotel of the two.  This hotel included an enormous swimming pool, a bowling alley, tennis courts and Turkish baths.  It now houses the many collections that a Mr. Otto Lightner, publisher of Hobby magazine had bought from folks over many years.  These include collections of buttons and toasters and money, as well as glass and crystal and music making machines along with many, many other collectibles.  This place is somewhat interesting, but Kathi and I both agreed that it was not nearly as fascinating as Flagler College, nor was it kept in as good a condition. Upon leaving the Lightner Museum, we both realized that we were ready for a bit of a rest, so we decided that we would take the trolley car to our next destination which was the Fountain of Youth.   We had originally planned to go to the Fountain on our first full day here, but were informed by the gentlemen at the Trolley ticket center that it was closed as they repaired damage that had been done by Hurricane Matthew.  We found out later that these guys were misinformed and that we were in luck and it was open after all. After a nice 15 minute trolley ride where we were able to sit and rest our feet and legs for a bit, we disembarked at the Fountain of Youth.  The saga of the elusive HDMI adapter that Kathi had chased down on Amazon (so that we could use the Google Chromecast that I bought so we could watch the latest episode of Designated Survivor, which, it turns out was delayed until next week due to the presidential debates) continued in the form of a text message from Amazon informing her that delivery was NOT made because the business to which it was to be delivered was closed.  Huh?  The front desk of the resort was closed?  I don't think so.  This, of course, caused Kathi great distress (she had paid extra to have it shipped next day so that we could use it tonight once we were back in the room) and after having a cup of water from the Fountain of Youth, which seemed to having no anti-aging effects AT ALL, she got on the phone to Amazon and eventually the United States Postal Service to try and resolve the issue.  Unfortunately, she was unsuccessful in getting the cord delivered today, as promised, but did get an extra month of Amazon Prime and that extra shipping cost credited back to her account out of the deal.  

Bottoms up at the Fountain of Youth

  Once the business with Amazon was done, we went on to enjoy the rest of the Fountain of Youth site, which is actually an archeological park. The park include a replica of a Timucuan Indian village. The Timucuans were the tribe of Native Americans that lived in this area when Ponce de Leon landed her in 1513.  Unfortunately, the tribe is now extinct.  There is an archeological site on the property where the remains of 47 Native Americans were discovered in 1934.  These appeared to be the remains of Christianized Native Americans due to the positioning of the bodies (arms crossed over the chest) and in 1991, the remains were reinterred with a full Catholic mass.  There are ongoing excavations at the site even today.  For some reason there are also many peacocks that live on and freely roam the property.  

Peacocks!

  We wrapped up our tour of the Fountain of Youth and decided that we were tired and hungry.  After a quick stop at the liquor store for some Bailey's for Lori, as well as a run into Radio Shack to get a router (the next idea in trying to get our Chromecast to work.  Long story short, this idea was faulty and would not bring us any satisfaction)

Kathi and some beautiful flowers

  Once back in the room, Kathi fixed a delicious dinner of hamburger and onions sautéed in coconut oil.  We set about journaling, but Kathi gave up relatively early because she could barely keep her eyes open.  I wasn't too far behind her.  We had really done and seen a lot today and it was time for some rest.  Tomorrow we have 2 hours massages scheduled at noon, then plan on spending a little time at the beach, then hope that we can make it out of the Escape room........

Girls Weekend 2016, St. Augustine, Florida

St George Street

Saturday, October 22, 2016   Another glorious morning in St. Augustine, Florida.  We were awakened a bit earlier that expected this morning by the 6 am alarm that Kathi inadvertently set last night while placing her iphone on the charger/clock radio last night.  Once she turned it off, we both got up to use the bathroom, but deemed it too early to start our day and both climbed back into bed and went back to sleep for a couple of hours.  When 8am rolled around we were both ready to start the day.  These days, Girls Weekend morning usually start with a cup of coffee and some time on the computer.  Catching up on emails and social media and the like.  For me, this also includes catching up on all of my many word games, Lexulous, Words With Friends and WordChums.  On this particular morning Kathi was searching on line for an adapter that would allow us to connect an HDMI cable to her computer.  She was so involved with this search that she totally missed out on my breakfast preparations and was convinced, when we finally left the room that I had not had any breakfast, while in fact, I had cooked and eaten fried eggs and had English muffins and yogurt.  Man, can that woman get focused!!! Then while I showered, Kathi wrote up our journal/blog entries for our first day.  We try to keep up with our journaling daily because, otherwise, we seem to forget much of what we have done! Our first plan for the day was to visit The Fountain of Youth once in town, then do some shopping in the amazing and unique shops on St. George street then find our way to the starting point for our Ghosts and Graveyards tour scheduled to start at 8:20pm.  Then we talked about driving into Jacksonville to visit the Free People store for some shopping as well as the Best Buy store to buy the HDMI cable.  Then Kathi did some investigating and found the the HDMI cable was significantly less expensive on Amazon and Jacksonville was ruled out.  Kathi then showered and got ready and by the time that we got into town we realized that we really didn't have time to visit the Fountain of Youth after all, so we skipped that, boarded the trolley and made our way to Stop #5, St. George Street. While walking down St. George we could hear music coming from different venues along the way, reminiscent of New Orleans, and found ourselves drawn into a charming place called Colonial Square from which came some amazing guitar riffs. This place had a little stage set up at one end with benches for seating set up in front of the stage and under a big tree that had lanterns and lights strung up in its branches.  The performer was Dewey Via, who played some amazing guitar and had a voice like Wolfman Jack.  He smoked and drank and entertained the crowd.  We discovered that he was going to be playing later in the evening at a different venue and we decided that we would try and seek him out there after we did some shopping.  We continued along St. George street wandering in and out of various shops, noting many people dressed like pirates as we walked along, but, somehow, not thinking that this was strange at all.  At one point we wandered into a nice little clothing store called Shopaholics Plus, where we spent the next 2 hours trying on and ultimately buying some great tops.  Kathi has often commented on how we seem to buy some our favorite clothing items while on Girls Weekend and this trip seems to be no exception!!

Dewey Via

  We walked to the end of St. George street then made our back toward our trolley stop on Spanish Street, that runs parallel to St. George in search of a place to catch a quick bite before our ghost tour.  Finding nowhere to eat on Spanish street, but many charming homes, we cut back across to St George and eventually into Mi Casa Cafe, where our musician, Dewey Via, was now playing.  Kathi dutifully ate her apple, while I ordered up a bowl full of red beans and rice and a Stella and we sat down at a table to listen to Dewey.  Initially we were sharing a table with a couple who, apparently meet up in St. Augustine for date night, since they live in different nearby towns.  They left after a couple of songs and we were then joined by two couples, Lisa and Frank and Julian and Shelley, all locals who shared some stories with us after we shared the "Girls Weekend" story with them.  When it was time for us to leave for our ghost tour, I shared the address to this blog with Shelley and she graciously invited us to visit with them at their waterfront home sometime before we leave.  We will likely take them up on that offer!  While sitting in the cafe listening to music several men in bras came through collecting money for breast cancer research.  We, of course, had to tuck a couple of bucks.  Once we left the cafe, we came upon a group of zombies and ghouls dancing in the middle of the street.  I love this place.

Hugenot Cemetery

  We boarded the bus for the "doomed" Ghosts and Graveyards tour and were entertained with stories and even a few dramas acted out over the next hour and a half.  The tour includes a stop at the Tolomato cemetery, which is the cemetery located within the city limits of St. Augustine and is where the city's Catholic residents are buried.  I took a picture or two here, and while I didn't capture any images of apparitions, I did get a number of "orbs" in one shot.  Orbs are thought by many to represent spirits.  I'm not so sure that I buy into that idea, but if that is the true, then I have a picture with quite a few spirits making their presence known.

Orbs in Tolomato Cemetery

 The tour ended and the city jail, which is a beautiful building on the outside (Henry Flagler wanted no eyesores in his town), it is unmistakably a jail on the inside and at night, in the dark, is pretty creepy even though it is kept in pristine condition. This part of the tour includes some wonderful storytelling by an actor clothed in jail stripes who claims to be the ghost of a prisoner who had been hung on the gallows in back of the jail earlier that day.  It was delightful.  

The gallows at the Old City Jail

  Once the tour was over, we walked the couple of blocks to where our car was parked and headed back to the condo and a good night's sleep, so that we could be refreshed for the next days' adventures.  

Girls' Weekend 2016: Friday October 21

This is another entry written by Kathi.

Friday, October 21, 2016

   

Kathi in St. Augustine 

We forgot to mention the random alarm noises we experienced during the day yesterday, after we had settled in to our condo.  A car alarm went off with no one around, and some type of smoke detector alarm started beeping and we had no idea where it was coming from.  In addition, there was some kind of motorized vehicle cruising around outside our window that we could never see or identify. This morning we were awakened by another strange sound at 6 AM.  It sounded like a cross between a fire alarm and a moose call. As soon as we were brought to consciousness it stopped, then started again and then stopped again.  We managed to sleep a little bit more after that but decided to get up and get the day rolling at about 8:45.

 

After we had both showered and breakfasted we forwent our normal morning nerd computer/journaling/research sessions and left the condo to explore the city of Saint Augustine. 

After a quick stop at Starbucks, we drove south and east for about 20 minutes and found one of the several St. Augustine welcome centers.  We went in and after listening to quite a bit of free advice and historical references from the guides, decided to purchase the tour package that included free on-and-off trolley rides for the length of our stay, admission to a couple of the lesser museums, a tour of the old jail, free parking and shuttle rides, and the grand prize…admission for the Ghost and Gravestones tour.  We also opted to pay in advance for a tour of Flagler College, and for an Eco Tour.  We will, of course, write more on those things later, after we have experienced them.

 

To get from the welcome center to the first trolley stop, we were driven in one of the shuttles. Our driver, whose name was Oz, dropped us off at the Old Jail which was a trolley stop, and we exited the shuttle and relocated to the waiting trolley.  The Old Trolley in St. Augustine is a 3-unit open air motorized train that runs a circuit of 23 stops.  Every trolley driver delivers a continuously running monologue about St. Augustine’s rich and deep history, bringing up points of interest as we pass.  There are always at least 7 trolleys running at any given time, so that if at any point you get off to look around, you never have to wait more than 10 minutes when you’re ready to get back on.  We took the trolley through the first five stops before getting off to stroll St. George Street, which is just one of several quaint, walkable streets in the Historic District of St. Augustine, but more than the others, this street is lined with wonderful boutique shops and restaurants. In the last several years Girls’ Weekend has included some great shopping outings; when we were in Seattle a few years ago I dang near replenished my entire winter wardrobe! St. George Street was wonderful, and we had no trouble finding some “souvenirs” for ourselves - cool stuff including purses, reading glasses, sunglasses, wind chimes, ear cuffs, shoes… in other words we did some serious damage in about 2 1/2 hours.    

St George Street 

We caught the trolley at about 4 o'clock to continue through the rest of the stops. This should have taken about an hour, but it actually took two hours because traffic was so awful due to the lifting of the draw bridge twice while we were trying to get through that area. This delay bothered us NOT AT ALL, because the tour was very interesting, we had a really nice female driver, the weather was absolutely beautiful, and in case you didn’t know, it’s GIRLS’ WEEKEND!! It was two weeks ago today that Saint Augustine was hit by hurricane Matthew, and on our long trolley ride the evidence was visible all around us.  In one area in particular we saw household appliances, furnishings, and other sundry items all piled up on the sidewalks and on the sides of the roads. Huge trees were uprooted and tin roofs were peeled back like tin can lids. Seeing all this made us conscious of two things, a) to have this much debris still in the streets, and to also know that the residents and officials had been cleaning diligently day and night since the hurricane, it was clear how ferocious this storm had been, and b) blessings arrive daily from God and we need to always remember to be grateful.  Back at the Old Jail plaza we were shuttled to our parking lot. We made a pitstop on the way back to the resort to purchase creamer, salt, and a Google Chromecast – more on that later. Lotsmore on that later.

 

As we arrived back at the condo at about 7 o'clock, we were targeted for another flesh-eating mosquito attack; despite the earlier purchase and application of Deep Woods repellent, I now have bites on my upper back, the backs of my thighs, my ankles, my hands, and one behind my ear that I may have to surgically remove or go mad.  Lori seems not to be suffering nearly as much as I.  In fact, she has made it through the swarming without a single bite. She SAYS they usually bite her. I think she told them to concentrate on me because I’m so much sweeter. She is very lucky I love her.

 

Lori made a delicious meal that was actually legal for the stupid diet that I'm having to suffer through while on girls weekend (more on that later as well).  After dinner, I settled in at the dining room table to get to work on the journal while Lori installed the Google Chromecast. At least, that's what was supposed to happen. We were determined to watch the most recent episode of Designated Survivor, which both of us had missed; this was the entire reason for the purchase of the Chromecast. However, it was not to be. The double level security of the resort combined with the particularities of the Chromecast meant that despite both of our best efforts along, with those of Eric by phone and a very patient and long-suffering maintenance man in person, we were unable to successfully pair the device with the television. As it turned out, the entire effort was moot, as Designated Survivor did not even air this week because of the political debate. This entire non-event took over two hours, and in the end, we were somewhat frustrated and journal-less. However… what’s our battle cry? It’s Girls’ Weekend, so who cares!  At about midnight we decided it was time to turn in, but at the last minute Lori remembered we had to toss the states. It was her turn tonight, and she managed with one deft flip of the bowl to reduce us to only four remaining options for next year: Texas, Maine, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. We decided that we are quite thrilled with any of these options!

Girls' Weekend, Thursday, October 20, 2016

 

Jacksonville airport. Picking up the rental car

Thursday, October 20, 2016

God blesses Girls' Weekend, and we get confirmation of this every year as we plan to meet for our annual sojourn.  Lori arrived at the Jacksonville airport first this year, and by the time I landed, deplaned, and made my way to baggage claim she had already picked up the rental car keys and was waiting for me. Oh, Lordy, that first long satisfying airport baggage claim area hug is the most amazing culmination of months of anticipation! It took us a bit of time to find my bag, as we could not locate my flight on any baggage claim monitors, nor was it assigned to one on the main screens, NOR was there anyone from my flight waiting around for bags. As it turned out, almost no one on my little commuter flight had checked a bag, and those who had, picked them up planeside. We finally found my bag sitting all alone on the claim belt reserved for American, looking a bit abandoned.

We found the car, and shortly after noon we set off.  It was an easy 45-50 minute drive southeast from the airport to the Bluegreen resort in St. Augustine where we are staying, as Lori and I talked the whole way (how surprising!) and our cute little Toyota Yaris just ate up the miles. Our condo wasn't ready when we arrived because it was still at least 2 hours before check-in time. A very nice young man at the front desk – who was named Berkan and is from Turkey, although he had almost no discernable accent - switched us to another room that was ready. This was great, because we were able to settle in and relax…and continue talking.  

Shortly after we were married, Eric and I began investing in timeshare with Bluegreen Vacations, and we love it. The properties have great amenities and the customer service is fantastic. We’ve recently acquired more points, and now I am delighted to have the ability to host Girls' Weekend in MY timeshare, as Lori has so generously done through her Worldmark membership for so many of our trips over the years. The two companies are very similar with comparable standards of resorts and services, to such an extent that Lori felt immediately at home when we settled in.  This unit is a one bedroom, with a big open living and dining area, full kitchen, a bathroom with a standing shower and another sink and full jet tub in the bedroom. The property is on two golf courses, and we have a screened-in balcony that looks out over the pretty rolling hills and greens. 

Lori had taken the redeye from Portland Oregon (poor Lori always has to take the redeye if she wants to get to these eastern destinations at a decent time of day), and by now was in great need of a nap.  While she was sleeping I took a quick walk around the property and then settled in a chair by the pool and enjoyed a nice phone chat with Ridley.  At 5:00 pm I headed back to the condo to wake Lori up, and we soon left to go grocery shopping. Both of us were starving by this time and ate almost half a jar of pickles while walking through the store.  By the time we were finished grocery shopping we were ravenous, but we still found the energy to stop at the Starbucks on the way back to the resort.

We didn’t know it when we first saw it, but the screen on our balcony was mandatory for this place at this time, or else no one in their right mind would ever go out there.  Hurricane Matthew roared through almost two weeks ago and devastated the northern shores of Florida. St. Augustine was pretty much shut down for a week as water rose and flowed unchecked down the streets of the city.  Now, businesses and neighborhoods are opening up again, but the deposits of standing water have led to the hatching of billions of giant killer zombie mosquitoes.  We were besieged by them as we tried to get from the car upstairs to our door. I had gotten a couple of bites out by the pool earlier, but this nighttime mob of voracious flesh eaters added several more, and I had to coat myself with Cortisone to save me from scratching my skin off.

Back in the condo, we were way to hungry to wait and abandoned all hope of cooking anything substantial.  Lori nuked a sweet potato and I settled for cottage cheese and tomato with some asparagus, and an apple for dessert.   

After we ate, it was time to begin the ritual tossing of the States.  We learned our lesson from a few years ago when we left our precious US states puzzle pieces in a hotel room, never to be seen again. When we replaced them, we bought a second puzzle so that both Lori and I had puzzle pieces. This was smart, because..well, because Lori and I are very smart, but also because Lori hadn’t been able to find hers while packing, but I had mine so we were good.  After separating out everywhere we had already been (that Iist now totals 26!!), removing Indiana and Oregon, as well as Hawaii and Alaska for differing personal reasons, we were left with 21 contenders for next year’s GW destination. Placing all of these puzzle pieces in a bowl, I hurled them into air and we watched them land. The face-up ones were put back in the baggie to wait another year, while the remaining states lived to see another day. These nine survivors are Texas, South Dakota, Maine, Rhode Island, Delaware, West Virginia, North Dakota, Maryland, and Connecticut.

 

Good night from St Augustine

 

After quite a bit more catch-up conversation (we are SO GOOD at that!), Lori’s sleepless night and my early morning flight caught up with both of us and we went to bed. God is good, and so is Girls’ Weekend!