CATCHING UP WITH THE REMAINDER OF OUR TRIP.

 I guess I left off on Friday when we went to Salt Life for a late lunch and to Verizon to trade in our old phone for a $500 credit each. We used to LOVE the clam chowder at Salt Life. It was the best we ever had. I guess the chief left and took the recipe with him since it was pretty average, this time with a bunch of veggies. NE clam chowder isn't supposed to have veggies. We sat on the top deck, outside and it almost blew us away. It was incredibly windy. The view wasn't as good as usual since we could only see a sliver of the ocean. 

Friday was a lazy day and we spent a lot of it trying to figure out our new phones. Ryan and Najla went to a Kane Brown concert, so we didn't see them on Friday and they had already arranged a sitter for the kids.

On Saturday, we went to Metro diner for breakfast, Like other restaurants they seemed to have reduced the size of their menu. The food was good though. I had a Belgium waffle and David had his usual, eggs, potatoes and bacon.

Tried to get a picture of their specials board, but this guy walked right in front as I took the picture.

We sat outside with the kitties. Nickie just sits in his stroller with the top open and never tries to jump out. He is so happy there and the weather was cool and perfect.

Ryan and Trevor came over for dinner for David's famous chicken fried rice on the Blackstone. Najla and Emma didn't come because Emma now had what Trevor had with a fever of 103. We really missed them, but we sent lots of leftovers for them. We also noticed a beautiful red cardinal that kept hanging around our motorhome. It had actually been there for several days. He wasn't eating anything, just hanging around. It was probably a deceased relative just getting in on the fun.

On Sunday, it was a lazy day with the kitties. Nothing exciting, just more time figuring out our new phones. A very relaxing day.

On Monday we went to the Oasis restaurant for breakfast and then to Bealls for shopping. I love that store and it is only in Floriday. I always find something at good prices. I order from them all the time at home, but it was nice to be able to shop in the store. I bought some new pants and tops and we also found a great camping chair. It's a foldable rocker that you can use on the ground, beach or porch. It's the red chair in the picture, but Bentley thought I was taking his picture. lol

Monday night, Ryan and Najla invited us over for dinner at their house. The food was good and the company better. Both Emma and Trevor were feeling better and we had a great visit. We were leaving on Tuesday to go home. We would have loved to stay another week. And I wish I had taken lots more pictures.

Tuesday, we headed home with a stopover in Forsyth, Ga for one night. All 3 kitties had their favorite places to sleep.

Bentley slept on the driver's side of the dashboard.

Nickie slept under the dashboard on my side.

Finnegan had the whole sofa to himself.

We arrived save and sound, but tired. We got everything unloaded so that we could have some time to do laundry and recover the next day.

TIME WITH THE GRANDKIDS

 Wednesday night, Ryan and Najla had a business meeting and asked if the kids could come over a spend the night with us. Of course, we said, of course. The last time they did that they were a lot younger. 

We had a good time, but Trevor had a bad cold and wasn't feeling that great. One minute he was feeling great and the next minute, his fever was back and not feeling so good. The kids voted on pizza for dinner. There was a brand new Marcos pizza place right down the road so that's what we had.

After dinner we played a few games of Bingo. We had 3 Bingo games. National Parks Bingo, Bug Bingo and Camping Bingo. We decided on National Parks Bingo. Trevor won 2 games and Pepere (David) won one.

For desert we had Key Lime pie and of course Nickie had to be in the middle of everything. The kids took Nickie for a walk around the campground. The kids look so tall here and Nickie loved it.

Emma slept on the pull-out sofa bed and Trevor slept on the drop-down bed on the dinette. It was either that, or we roved the kitties from their bunk room so the kids could have the bunk beds. In the morning Pepere made sausage and blueberry pancakes. and hot chocolate. Then the kids played games on their tablets for a little while.

After breakfast we took Bentley for a ride around the campground and on the Nature Trail.

They took turns pushing Bentley and traded places halfway. When we got to the pond Trevor was busy picking up snails, finding polliwogs and minnows in the water. 

There was a very large, beautiful butterfly sitting and then flying around the trail in front of us.

For lunch the kids wanted leftover pizza and Ramen noodles.

When Ryan got home from the vet hospital we took them home and Trevor suggested we stop by Barnes and Noble for some new books. 

When we got to their house they introduced us to BOB. Bob is a very old (about 38 years) and large African Saharan tortoise that lives in their back yard.

 Bob is quite a pet.

Bob loves veggies. Emma is feeding him some cucumbers and bell pepper. He used to belong to a lady that kept him in her house, but she couldn't keep him any longer, so Najla brought him home to live with them. They have a metal fence all around their back yard and Bob has been known to push open the gate and go walking down the street. He has even made it over to Ocean Grove RV park next door. Luckily, everyone knows where Bob lives. If you leave the porch door open, he will just walk into the house. Ryan has had a hard time keeping up with all the holes he digs in the backyard that he likes to burrow in to.

 Bob is quite a pet. Ryan and Najla have an inlet of water from the river in their backyard so they see all kinds of wildlife there.

On the way home from Ryan and Najla's we went by the Verizon store to see if they could figure out why I wasn't getting any notifications on my phone when I had a message. They could not figure it out, but we ended up getting new phones. These were 5 years old, so I guess we were due new ones.

On Friday, after making sure all of our data and messages transferred over to the new phones, we took the old ones back for a $500 trade in on each phone. Then we went to Salt Life for a late lunch of New England Clam Chowder and Tacos. It was a good day.

TUESDAY IS OUTLET MALL DAY

 On Tuesday we went to the St Augustine outlet mall. It used to be GREAT, with tons of stores and when Ryan was in college at the University of North Florida in JAX we used to stop at the mall regularly to get clothes for him. Every time we come back to SA we go there. There were mall stores on both sides of I-95, but now many have closed, and there are stores only on the West side.

The stores I always like to visit is the Talbot store and the Vera Bradley store. I always find something in those 2 and at great prices. At the Talbot store I bought a few T shirts and a pair of lobster shorts. At the Vera Bradley, I bought 2 new wallets that I really like. The one I have is wearing out.

Everybody needs lobster shorts.  

After the mall, it was lunch time so we thought we would try a new to us place called FORDS GARAGE It was across I-95 next to the Ford and Lincoln dealerships. How appropriate. This is a chain, but we don't have one in Chattanooga. It is a restaurant/craft beer pub with a car theme. I could just imagine Tim Allen eating there.

The servers all dress like gas station attendants and the inside is decorated with car engines and parts. The windows are garage doors.

Don't know who this guy is, but he was sitting in the middle of my picture.

The food there was really good. I ordered one of their smaller hamburgers with brisket on top & David ordered the fish and chips. Look at the size of that fish!!!!

Ryan told us that if we go there to check out the men's bathroom. So David did. The urinals are barrels and the tire sinks have gas pump handles for knobs.

They have a menu with bottled and can beers, but also have a huge number on tap. David likes IPAs and they had quite a few. It was a fun meal and we would come back here again, Their prices are a bit high though.

We then went back to the motorhome and sat outside with the kitties.