We’ve spent the past three days in Florida, and it’s been awesome to be back in warm, sunny weather!
We drove from Savannah, Georgia to St. Augustine, Florida in about four hours and pulled into our campsite near dusk. The difference in scenery was pretty dramatic. The darker greens of forest shifted to the light, bright green of open land and palm trees. We crossed the bridge to Anastasia Island, where we had three nights reserved at a state park. The tortoise crossing signs, and the white sand dunes, mixed with grasses and shrubbery, lined the drive. The camping loops were all scenic and shaded, and our site was just wide enough for our pop up to fit sideways.
Jon was starving when we arrived, so we quickly unhooked, turned the pop up into place, and popped it up. I ordered pizzas from Mellow Mushroom, which Jon had noted as we drove into town. I’d never heard of the place, but he claimed that it’s a southern favorite, and I was willing to try it out. Daisy and I set up the inside of the trailer and got an arugula salad started while Jon and Mic went out to pick up our pizzas and some ice for the cooler.
Dinner was fabulous! We had arugula, fresh blackberry, walnut, and goat cheese salad with a lemon and olive oil dressing. Our pizzas were the Holy Shitake (4 kinds of mushrooms with a white garlic sauce) and the Funky Q Chicken (chicken, bbq sauce, caramelized onions, and bacon). Some spinach-artichoke dip accompanied it all. Yummy!
Unfortunately, we found out very quickly that the raccoons were going to be a problem. Daisy and I had heard a lot of rustling outside while setting up. We locked the door until Jon and Mic returned. Then, while enjoying our meal inside, Jon looked out and checked on the coolers to find that a particularly bold raccoon was grabbing our butter, cream cheese, and shredded cheddar. Jon threw his shoe at it from the porch to try to scare it off and, instead it walked up to his shoe and turned it over- to see if it contained any additional dairy items, I guess.
After we cleaned up from dinner, there was a lot of strapping and latching and weighing down of the coolers. We felt pretty secure, but could hear the raccoons rustling around outside all night. When we got up the next morning, we found that they’d gotten into a latched bin to take one bite out of each of three Saltine cracker sleeves.
After further raccoon-proofing, our first full day in Florida was spent relaxing and exploring. We rode our bikes to the beach in the park and spent a couple hours laying down on the coarse sand, watching sandpipers, and gathering shells to look at and share with each other.
After our relaxing day at the beach, we ate a late lunch at camp and then decided to head into St. Augustine for the evening. We drove into town and parked at the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument
St. Augustine itself is claimed as the oldest, continuously inhabited city in the United States, and we enjoyed exploring the narrow, cobbled streets and numerous shops and historic buildings festively decorated for the holidays! We grabbed some warm beverages and some sweet treats to share at St. Augustine Coffee House (fabulous double chocolate brownie).
We headed back to camp where Jon got a fire started and cooked up some dinner. It was lovely relaxing by the fire into the evening.
Thursday morning, after breakfast, the girls and I spent some time studying the Spanish history in Florida. We discussed the similarities and differences between the goals of the French, English, and Spanish explorers and how the different goals impacted their interactions with the native populations.
We decided to FaceTime Lighthouse students from the Castillo and then get dinner in St. Augustine. We made it to the fort in time to check in with the students for their Social Studies period. We showed them the coquina blocks from which the fort is constructed, and conveyed how their unique composition allowed them to absorb canon fire, making the fort basically indestructible. We also took the opportunity to have a ranger, the gracious Eric, explain the history of the fort to us and the Lighthouse students as we took them around the courtyard and into a couple of the rooms. After signing off, we explored all of the rooms we had missed the previous day and learned more fascinating history. I compared learning about the fact that Florida had formed the 14th and 15th colonies, which stayed loyal to England, to the way I felt when I discovered Scarlett Johansson has a twin brother. Mind blown!
We wandered around St. Augustine and ate a wonderful dinner at Columbia, a Spanish restaurant in the historic downtown area. Seafood tapas, warm bread, soft butter, and white wine led into a Cuban style sliced beef dish for me, fried eggplant for Mic, and grouper for Jon. Daisy just ate from everything and exclaimed how amazing it all was. We finished by sharing a serving of the restaurant’s “famous” white-chocolate bread pudding. We were so full (but pleasantly so) by the time we left!
We enjoyed one last stroll through the city to walk off our dinner and admire the holiday decorations, then headed back to camp. We stopped to walk out on the beach boardwalk so that we could listen to the ocean in the moonlight and watch the beam of a distant lighthouse.
Back at camp last night, we prepared for an early start to our day. Today, we’re making the six-hour drive from the east coast of Florida to Clayton, Alabama, where Jon spent much of his childhood. We’ll be staying for three nights with Mom and Pop Watson, who were the house parents of a group home where Jon spent several years. We visited last with the girls about two years ago, and they are so excited for another visit with the Watsons on their land out in horse country! And, of course, Jon is feeling happy to be heading back to “Sweet Home Alabama!”
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