St. Augustine, Florida

St Augustine, Florida January 2022

We flew to Jacksonville, Florida in January 2022 and had a great time.  We flew all day from Idaho to Colorado to Florida. We rented a car from EazyRent and made a very odd M shape to get to Zaxby's for dinner and the kids loved it.  Its mostly fried chicken - I got their grilled chicken salad without croutons and fried onions, it was very yummy.  We then traveled 40 minutes to St Augustine and stopped at Publix to grab some groceries.  We were tired, ok the seven year old was ready to burn some energy, so it was a bit of a mess.  We grabbed breakfast items and frozen pizza.  My goal was to not cook while on this trip and family could make easy meals.  We ended up eating out more, financially it is best to meal plan- regardless of everyones opinions of what you make- but it was nice to relax. 

Speaking of everyones opinions, our family of 5 have alot.  Before we left on this trip we talked alot about attitudes and sacrifice.  With celiac, severe nut and fish allergies, we needed to compromise on food places.  We actually found a spot with 5 food trucks and we could pick what we wanted.  It was great but very overpriced for the food we got.  With peoples wants - beach days, swimming, napping, reading books, shopping- we also needed to know we weren't going to love everything on the docket but could be kind about it. 

This is what our week looked like in St Augustine:

Monday fly all day from Idaho, drive, get groceries, get to house late, very dark, unpack, get to bed.

Tuesday : this was our stay at home day -our VRBO had a swimming pool, kayaks, paddle boards, and bikes to use, we were right on the inlet- but John wanted to go explore and we all decided to go too. We parked downtown and as we were walking by Castillo san de Marcos  we decided to visit it now  (I had it on our itinerary to go when we did our historical trolley tour, but we were so excited to explore).  John asked about a military discount and we are so thankful he did.  He got a card for free pass to any national monument and it includes 3 adults.

We walked all the rooms, and up top that is where we lost the boys to canons.  I spotted a blessed bench in the sun and we were blocked by the wind (spoiler alert- it was low 70's with 10 mph wind our entire week- better than gray skies and 30 degrees) so the girls and I sat for about 15-20 minutes.  Its then that I realized how bad our smokey summer was in Idaho.  Last year was just really hard.  Long gray winters, long smokey summer, back to long gray winter.....I just couldn't get enough of the blue skies, blue water, sun on my face- even if I was in pants and sweatshirts.

We walked St George Street which was familiar to us as we watched YouTube videos of things to do in St Augustine before we left. Its THE tourist street with shops and food.  We ate at the Taco Shop and it was very delicious, however their homemade Baja sauce is very, very hot. They were playing 90's music and as my teen would say - I was feeling the vibe. 

We of course shopped some stores, but most importantly we found an ice cream shop and I walked back to a homemade popsicle shop- delicious.  

We decided we need to see the ocean so we drove and found free parking (parking is where they make ALOT of money, cause you have to pay everywhere) and visited the Atlantic.  It was Owen's first time seeing the Atlantic - we had taken the girls a few times when we lived in Baltimore.  I couldn't believe the amounts of seashells on this beach.  Millions upon millions.  You couldn't walk without stepping on them.  We all wet our feet, but as Owen got more and more brave he ended up taking a roll in a wave and then just went for it.  We had no towel so we stripped him down in the car and cranked the heat on the way home.  Sand everywhere in our rental car, but it was great.  There is such a joy in watching your kids smile, laugh, and be brave.

Wednesday My goal was to spend as much time outside as possible while in Florida - I had hoped to be hot, but it is January in the Northern Hemisphere- I am thankful for the weather we got, there was a very cold storm that came in after we left.  We don't always get to avoid storms - how often do we think about that on the days that we didn't go our way?  How much was held back for us.  So I was thrilled to be on the back porch reading my bible (how I spent every morning- bible, son/sun, fresh air...) when I saw a dolphin fin - not gonna lie - my mind went straight to shark, I have no excuse - its just how this noggin' works.  ANYWHO, I yelled to the family, and my son was too slow for my excitement so I maybe shoved moved him to the side to get to the ocean.  We got to watch not one, but three dolphins who frolicked and played and showed off for at least 15 minutes.  The rest of the week you would see a fin come up and down and move on, but this moment, was what we had been praying for, and we were so thankful.  Later that day we went to St Augustine Alligator Farm and had a blast walking through and seeing so many Alligators and Crocodiles.  They had food pellets we could throw to them in the water, Owen loved this part.  They have a cool company next door that lets you zipline across the park. You need to be at least 8 years old, a certain height- I can't remember, and less than 250 pounds.  Owen was not tall enough.  We were trying to figure out if Jillian wanted to go and who would go with, but they all decided to stay together as a family.  Owen said, don't worry, we will do it when we come back.  Love his positive outlook on life.  When we left to find lunch we found most places are closed for the 'off' season.  Some places looked great for date nights or kids who eat well.  I am not going to pay 18.99 for chicken strips that Owen might not like...I mentioned how it would be cool if they had a group of food trucks so we could just pick what we want.  And guess what we found.  I got an acai bowl, Hadley got tacos, and the other 3 got burgers or hot dogs, fries.  They had a cute atmosphere with shade, music, outdoor games.  It was spendy, but everyone was happy.  We headed back home to  relax, find a sunny spot on the side of the house to get out of the wind while John wins Dad of the Year award (he wins this most days) by taking Owen out on Kayaks.  Owen was so happy.  I loved watching them.  While bundled up.  That night we read about St Augustine having the top 10 best lights in America? I can't remember but we visited the Nights of Lights and found it to be very pretty.  Walking along the ocean, next to the fort, all the white lights reflecting off of the water, when you drive over the bridge its very beautiful.  We walked around town, found Mayday ice cream.  It was a hit and we made sure to go back.

Thursday - Thursday was a bit cloudy, but still beautiful for our historical trolley tour.  We paid for parking at one of their locations -$20,  but found another parking place that was free.  If anything, just know we were there in the off season, and parking is extremely limited, if you find a place and you have to pay, just do it.  I'm writing this in March and we went in January, so I am having a hard time remembering how many stops there are, but lets go with 20?  If you want to get off you can, another Trolley will be there in 15 minutes.  It really is a great way to see the town.  I think I would have done it on the first day to get your bearings- the layout, where you want to go back, but I have John who was born with an internal compass and knows roads in our valley that no one has even heard of. Some people use the trolley to stop at places like the fort and to visit it, or to other locations and stay and visit.  However you can run out of time, I think the trolley runs from 9-4.  We found ourselves on St George street daily, this is where you will find all the tourist shops, restaurants, and goodies.  We ate lunch at the Snack Shack - not my favorite- fries were covered in the nacho cheese sauce and I haven't had that in years - for good reasons. Thankfully my celiac allows me to not feel great if I am exposed to a little - but with Jillians nut and fish allergies, along the coastline - I am a bit nervous 99% of the time we eat out.  We loved our time on the trolley, learned more about the city, and realized there is a large tourist attraction for ghost tours.  We lived in Georgia for 2 years, and there was a strong presence of superstition and ghosts - I don't know what I thought Florida would be like, but I did not expect have a strong southern feel (fried foods, superstition, etc).  We headed back to the house after we got back to our car and had dinner at home and spent our evening out on the dock, listening to a party  on a boat out on the water.  They were having a great time.  It was beautiful to see across the inlet and see the Nights of Lights.  

Friday-  Friday was a day at home, we needed to be around wifi to register for our co op classes. Boys went out on the kayak and paddle boards, and at low tide they found a sand bar and were standing out on the ocean.  It was so cool to see.  Jillian went out for a bit then came back to hang with her sister, reading in the sun.  I talked myself into my swimsuit and as I got on the paddleboard I found Johns sweatshirt on the dock and stole it.  I paddled out and found the boys around the corner and got to see the very large cross we saw on our historical tour.  It was beautiful to see and we found another sand bar filled with lots of birds.  We went to another sandbar and they showed me star fish they found.  It was great and I was so thankful I sucked up being a bit cold.  We decided to load up and go to the State Park.  My very courageous kids played in the ocean while I sat with my back against the wind in a hoodie and my hot tea.  Hadley sat with me and was just shooting the breeze and I couldn't stop laughing - there are these birds that were expecting some food and they did not know how much my daughter hates animals, especially anything that flies.  I have a 2 minute video of her shoeing them away, continuing her saga and I would see them before she would, sneaking up behind her.  Highlight of the day for sure.  We went home - relaxed and decided to eat our last dinner at a popular outdoor restaurant Harry's.  We enjoyed crab cakes, burgers, scallops, and live music.  We of course, had to find Mayday for one more fill on ice cream (they have amazing dairy free options)

Saturday - When I came out of our room, I noticed the flag on our flag pole completely still and straight down.  The best weather, on check out day. We were so thankful we picked a late flight, we packed up, cleaned up and decided we would go to the beach for 2 hours before we headed back to the PNW winter.  We were prepared to have suits ready, towels, clean clothes, etc.    I have multiple videos of Owen loving racing the waves, his smile is so contagious. I was reminded in that moment how happy a parent is seeing pure joy on their kids' face.  How God must feel when we are showing and sharing pure joy.  We said goodbye to the sun, blue sky, and beach...it was so hard.  We headed back to Jacksonville, where the kids begged for Zaxby's for lunch, returned the car, the shuttle to the airport and headed home.  The flight was hard for Owen - he did great, he is just a busy boy and sitting still was very hard for him.  However I have pictures  of his face seeing what it was like to fly above the clouds.

I'm so thankful for this trip.  I am so thankful to my husband for working so hard to make it happen.  I am so thankful as a family we are frugal and save for emergencies and we budget for fun trips.  We say no to things so we could say yes to this.  

There are alot of photos, and these are not to brag.  This blog is for my family.  And I have always loved pictures - they capture the memories - the smell, the laughter, the fights that we know about but I'm not going to air our dirty laundry here.  Those are for us to know about, and to see where we  need to grow and have grown. This trip had its own hard parts.  My allergies were triggered, and some of our attitudes weren't great.  But all in all we love each other and we had a great time.