Road Trip - St. Augustine

I have often said that for A REAL RETIRED HOUSEWIFE OF FLORIDA every day is a vacation!  But sometimes I feel like taking a vacation from my vacation.

My favorite vacation...ROAD TRIP.  Brian and I make a great ROAD TRIP team.  We both agree on the destination, Brian picks the route and I take it from there.  I research things to do both at our final destination and along the way.  My motto is:

"The destination is just one part of the journey"

On a ROAD TRIP from our home in Ohio to Detroit, Michigan, I found so much to do along the way it took us 3 days to get there, instead of 3 hours.  You can imagine the fun I am having discovering adventures in our new home state of Florida.

Our latest ROAD TRIP was to the historic city of St. Augustine, Florida.  I knew very little about the city (history is not my strength).  Here are some interesting facts about St. Augustine from Wikipedia:

• The oldest continuously occupied European-established city and port in the continental United States
• First explored in 1513 by Spanish explorer and governor of Puerto Rico, Juan Ponce de Leon
• Ponce de Leon was the first mate to Christopher Columbus in 1492
• Henry Flagler, a partner with John D. Rockefeller in Standard Oil arrived in St. Augustine in the 1880s and was the driving force behind turning the city into a winter resort for the wealthy northern elite

Any more facts and my eyes start to glaze over.

I used TripAdvisor (my authority on travel) to see the lodging options.  I picked the Travelodge on San Marco Avenue.  The staff was friendly and most important the room was clean and comfortable.

When we arrived I noticed that there were two thrift stores next door.  For most people that would be a bad sign, but for me...it was a bonus.  I left Brian to take the bags to the room and I walked to the stores.  At the second store I found a major score, 6 glasses in a pattern I collect.  The glasses are Cameo by McBride and I rarely see them at thrift stores.


For first-time visitors like us, a trolley is the best way to get around.  Parking in the city is expensive and hard to find.  It is convenient to park at one of the free parking lots at the trolley stops and jump on and off the trolley.  Plus our tickets were good for 3 days.

The day we arrived, we bought our tickets, road around listening to the driver and getting the lay of the land.  We stopped at the Castillo de San Marcos, a fort that is now a National Park.  I won't go on about what I really thought about the fort (boring), but I will say you get a great view of the Matanzas Bay and the cannon firing demo was fun.

The next day, with a plan in mind, we hit the sights.  These stops brought the city's history to life (and that is saying a lot from a non-history person like me...with a short attention-span).

Saddie Mae showed us around the Old Jail, nearby was the Oldest Store Museum and the St. Augustine History Museum.

The Spanish Military Hospital made you happy to me in modern times! We also saw the Oldest Drug Store and the Fountain of Youth.

We didn't go in the Ripley's Believe It Or Not, but we did see some interesting things outside the building. There was a 4-room log house, made from a hollowed out Redwood log.

Also in the parking lot was an exact replica of Michelangelo's famous statue "David".  For many years the city of St. Augustine made the museum cover the statue until they surrounded it with a hedge.  You can walk in and see the statue, but you can't see it from the parking lot. 

I also use TripAdvisor to find good places to eat.  With our trusty GPS, we tracked down TripAdvisor's #1 restaurant in St. Augustine, The Back 40 Urban Cafe.  I stepped outside my comfort zone (pasta, burgers, seafood) and got the Shrimp Curry Salad...OMG.  I could write a whole blog on how delicious this dish was (using phrases like "visually appealing" and "depth of flavor").  While waiting for Brian to finish his Upside Down Chicken Pot Pie, I enjoyed a very tasty piece of Key Lime pie.

On the way home, we stopped in Gainesville to learn more about Florida's history at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the University of Florida's campus.  The museum shows that there is lots more to Florida than theme parks.

Back to my regular vacation lifestyle...