Our Last Stop in Florida

Tuesday, March 22nd – St. Augustine, Florida – Day 43 

 The most frustrating problem we have right now is we are over our data limit. If you’ve noticed my posts have been delayed for quite a while, its because we have internet, but the speed is reduced so much we get frustrated and stop trying. The kids can’t log on for classes and we keep getting absence phone calls. Caley and Andrews place had Wi-Fi yesterday and I tried to maximize my time by desperately posting blogs and photos. 

Today, we are staying in a golf course parking lot, so we don’t even have power to charge our devices. 21st century problems. 

 Our obligation to the golf course was to spend $20 a day at their facilities so we went in for breakfast. They had a bean bag toss and checkers to keep the kids occupied while we ordered bar food. Kids had hot dogs, breakfast of champions. Mary had a massive club sandwich. Gen and I had steak sandwiches which were pretty good. We made a purchase large enough for both days and went back to our parking lot home. 

 We wanted to explore St. Augustine today. We drove by Ponce De Leon’s Fountain of Youth, the site of the first colonial settlement in the United States. There was an entrance fee, so we didn’t bother going in. The kids all got out of their seat belts as soon as we stopped so we had to convince them to get them on again. Nightmare. 

 Our second stop was the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine. I talked to Jeff for the first time in a while on the way in. The girls lit a candle as a prayer for our trip and Mary bought them each a glow in the dark coin. We hung around to listen to a talented organist practice. 

 We wandered along the narrow pedestrian street in the middle of St. Augustine wandering into shop after shop. The city itself had a very different feel from other places we’ve been. Two storey buildings that are close together with narrow cobble stone streets between them. There was a variety of buildings of some significance that were stunning architecturally. Mary absolutely loved the city and has declared it her favourite place on the trip. There is also a Spanish fort that we looked at from the parking lot along the river. The town has enough of a different feel with a few interesting tourist traps such that I could see why it’s a destination. 

 We decided to go to the beach, so we crossed the bridge to go to the local key (every beach in Florida is on the island or key directly off the coast). There was another play structure with a splash pad, so we stopped there to eat some food and hang out for a bit. Eventually we were able to drag the kids away for long enough to walk along the beach and look for shells. I didn’t think the beach was that nice, but Gen and Mary really enjoyed it. 

 On the way back, we dropped Mary off in St. Augustine to explore some more but the rest of us were too exhausted to continue. The kids went right to bed. I picked up Mary after a while and stayed up to hang out in the car to research what to do in Georgia and South Carolina. We were heading to our 9th state of the trip, Georgia, in the morning.