Hooray for Saint A!!

Still reeling from the debacle that was our election, I decided to take a mini vaca with my daughter Tara and grand daughters Kaity and Bri.  I most of all needed serious stress relief!  So it was decided to go to the most wonderful place on earth, no absolutely not Disney- But the always fun and fabulous St. Augustine! St. A take me away!

I have been there numerous times and always find something new I have never done before.  There is no such thing as too many times to St. Augustine. So beautiful, so interesting, so friendly!  I mean REALLY friendly, like Stepford.  I remember one time Jim and I went, while he fished on a pier  I was constantly greeted by well wishers, Ex: hi, how are you, isn't it a beautiful day, etc.  I found it a little unsettling at first but have just come to love it along with everything else St. A.

Our first stop was a Village Inn so Tara, a veteran could get her free breakfast for Veteran's Day. Everybody stopped by the table to thank her for her service and we did the same as many were vets themselves.

Next stop was a hotel. We picked the Best Western right across from Ripley's Believe it or not.   It was conveniently located but a tad pricey, the cost of the convenience, and since we didn't want to look around it would be fine.

Then the long walk into the center of town.  Over the course of two days I walked so much and climbed so many stairs!  I hadn't gotten that much exercise in two weeks!  To really appreciate it's ambiance St. A is a walking kind of place, plus there is limited parking. They weren't thinking cars 450 years ago.

One thing I had never done in all the times I have been there is the horse and carriage ride!  And since Kaity is our little "princess" girl we had to do that first.

The princesses and "Brock"

All of us ready to go

One of the stops on the carriage ride, a breathtaking church

Our horse's name was Brock and he was vocal through the whole tour, perhaps he thought he was giving the tour. Kaity wore her tiara the whole time and did the princess wave to everyone she saw which resulted in laughter, waves and smiles back.   It was nearly an hour ride through parts of town not seen on the trolley tours.  Very fun and interesting and well worth the money.

Our next adventure was Ripley's Believe it or not.  I was afraid the girls may get a little freaked out by the freaks but they were okay and thought it was all very interesting.

Fish made from junk at Ripley's

Girls afraid of creepy statue at Ripley's

 Tara also purchased ghost train tickets which I also have never done before.  But before that we killed a little time in the old part of town.

Girls in front of the ancient city gates

A view of town

Just hanging out

posing with a pirate

The Ghost train was next on our adventure list. I had gone on a walking ghost tour before
and that was loads of fun and super informative, so I thought this should top that.  Well it didn't.   We only made three stops and one of them was right back to Ripley's where we started out from! So that was a little disappointing. One fun part of it though was that we were given real ghost hunting equipment to use, an EMF detector and a laser grid light. The theory there is a ghost will break the grid pattern.

ghost grid

shadow on old tower wall

By the time the tour was over it was nearly 10pm and we were all exhausted from a long fun filled day.

Day two St. A:

Our hotel had a little breakfast buffet which was a nice surprise and we knew we needed it for part two of our tour of St. A.

Since Tara and I hadn't gone to "The Fountain of Youth" in ages and the girls had never been that was number one of the list for the day.

They added to the park and it is much nicer than we remembered.  There were the peacocks of course- always entertaining, the fountain itself where you can taste the mineral water that was "supposed" to keep people young and the planetarium, always interesting. But they added some new attractions too like the weapons demonstration and the old Spanish church. Kaity loved the monk, asked him several questions and afterward gave him a big hug!

Girls toasting at fountain

just chillin at the beach

beach combing

Peacock on a canon

Me and the girls at the entrance to "Fountain of Youth"

Peacock mating dance

Peacock displaying for non-impressed females

Sorry this isn't better I jumped when it went off!

crossbow demonstration

canon demonstration

Two girls and a monk

from the choir loft in the church

A dome to remind me of home

view of the giant cross from the park

at the fountain display

river view from the park

Our next stop was to a park that is pretty close to town. They have an enormous play park a little further away but that requires paid parking. So we opted for this one and they do have a wonderful old carousel!

cool old carousel!

The final leg of our tour was to St. Augustine beach where we all
searched for interesting shells and fossils.

Then we  headed home on the back roads and saw all kinds of cool stuff including a Reindeer farm! Who knew?

Now today I am home adding this blog and so far today has been hell.  This morning I spent hours on the phone with Direct TV trying to  fix a glitch on the system.  Next I tried to load my pictures from my phone to the laptop and that wasn't working.  And finally I have been writing this blog and the mouse has been going bat crap crazy bouncing all over the screen. Ah yes, back to reality!