Monday, March 4th, Last Day in St. Augustine

 We had a nice quiet day with the kitties and their squirrel friends. Of course, throwing out peanuts for the squirrels helped.

We would be leaving on Tuesday to head home, so we spent some time organizing to get thing ready to get back on the road.

Ryan texted and said they were going to skip Emma's volleyball practice that night and they would come over at 4PM and spend some time with us. When they came over, it had turned a little cool outside, so we sat inside. We ordered pizza and salad for dinner from Marcos's pizza. Then, the kids went into the bedroom to watch TV, while we chatted. It was a good night. Abby even came out and made friends with Najla. We talked about meeting them when school is out in May in Pigeon Forge, TN. They wanted to go to Dollywood. I couldn't believe I didn't take any family pictures. What was I thinking? The kids are so tall.

On Tuesday we left for home. It was raining almost the whole way. Abigail jumped on the dashboard to see where we were headed. She was amazed at the windshield wipers going back and forth, back and forth.

Check out the video.   https://youtube.com/shorts/gQLXBODTUvM

We were stopping over night at the KOA in Forsyth, GA. This has usually been about our halfway home stop when heading home from Florida. Unfortunately, it rained most of the way and the ground was saturated with puddles everywhere. 

 The one thing going for it was it had geese, big, noisy geese. Bentley saw them too. He couldn't hear them, but he could see them.

Meanwhile, Abby was busy begging for her cat grass. We keep it in the showers so she can't get to it. She is obsessed with it. It must be some pretty good stuff.

The next morning, we got ready to hit the road for home. The geese were busy honking and teasing the kitties. Abigail loved it.

She like this campground.      https://youtube.com/shorts/XIv1_4CeEWc

After getting the car hooked up, away we went, with Abigail leading the way. 

We had no issues this trip and no traffic problems getting through Atlanta. We got home early enough to take the kitties home , come back and unload everything from the motorhome. We were all happy to get home and Abby was especially happy to get back to her screened porch.

VISITING THR NAO TRINIDAD

 After breakfast we walked over to the ship, Nao Trinidad for a tour. It was docked just south of the Bridge of Lions and by the time we left the restaurant, the fog had cleared, and we could see her clearly. She was a beautiful Tall Shop. Of course, she is one of the reproduction ships of Ferdinan Magellan to encourage education of historical events.

She is touring various ports along the Eastern Seaboard and was in St Augustine until the end of April. Here is some info on her.  Trinidad (ship) - Wikipedia

NAO Trinidad – Tall Ships America

This is the Bridge of Lions which takes you from St. Augustine to Anastasia Island, where Ryan and Najla live.

The lions sit on each side of the entrance to the bridge.

           There's the ship. What I didn't notice until we got right over to it was the gangway entrance. Every ship I have been on had a nice flat long gangway without a steep angle. This one was not that. You can see the steepness of the gangway by looking at the white banner attached to it. ARE THEY KIDDING ME? Me, the faller and tripper of all times. Not only that, but there were NO RAILINGS to grab onto, just a rope on each side that was not taunt but swinging with the movement of the ship. OH LORDY. I just about turned around and left. One saving grace was that it had ridges that kept you from sliding back down. It took me a while to get up there. Once at the top there was another challenge---getting onto the ship. The step down was very steep and the steps were very small width wise. People must have had very small feet back then.

Once on board, the ship had 3 levels, The deck , top level and lower deck. Going from one level to the next was also challenging since the steps were also small and steep, but at least there were wooden handrails to hold onto. And inside all the areas were at an angle. I can't imagine sailor climbing up the riggings on a ship like this, especially when at sea.

                     It was surprising how small this ship really was to sail all around the globe.

                                                         Here's the route taken.   

  

                                               Some of the storage areas for food and supplies.

                                                           Those steep, little steps again.

                                           The captain's quarters. The only bedroom on the ship.

Goodbye Nao Trinidad. It was nice to visit ye.

Now to find our way back to the car. We headed back across the intersection at Ponce de Leon and King St, towards the direction we thought our car was.

                                                                     Past the square.

                                                             Past some nice little shops.

                                                                            Churches.

                                                                Old historic buildings.

Then we remembered our cell phones and location options.  When looking at it, it showed the approximate area where our car was. As we got closer, we stated to recognize buildings with Flagler College that we had walked past on our way to breakfast. And there was the parking lot where we had parked. YAY!!!! Boy, were we tired and happy to find our car and get back to the kitties. It was time for them to have a go out anyway. At least we had a little adventure this trip, and nothing broken.

Sunday, March 3. 2024 Time in Historic Area of St. Augustine

 On Sunday, Trevor had a soccer game and we had planned to get together for dinner later. We decided to go out to breakfast in the historic area & then for a tour of the Nao Trinidad that was docked at the marina by the Bridge of Lions.

For breakfast, we went to Mary's Harborview Restaurant. It was just north of the Bridge of Lions, so it should save us some walking---or so we thought. Parking in SA can be a challenge, especially since it was the weekend. David spotted a small parking lot that was only $10 per day as opposed to $15 for the parking garage, so we parked there. We didn't realize just how far away it was from the restaurant & we had no address for the parking lot so we could find our car later. We were across from Flagler College with lots of students walking along the brick sidewalks past us. We headed towards the marina through the streets of old St Augustine.

We know we walked on Hipolito and past certain college buildings, but no address. We couldn't see the marina very clearly due to heavy fog. 

We finally made our way to Menendez Ave, right across from the marina. With our phones help we came right out at Mary's Restaurant. There was a line of people waiting. The place was super small, with no more than 7 tables, but their menu was huge. These girls were in line behind us., waiting for a table.

After waiting we were seated and ordered our breakfast. I had a Greek Omelet and David had a Western Omelet. Breakfast was great!

There was an older man and his wife sitting next to us and I couldn't stop looking at him. He looked like my Daddy, at least until he put on his glasses. I didn't wat to stare, but it was so remarkable. 

After breakfast we walked down the sidewalk right past the Tini, Martini Bar. They used to have a live cam outside so you could see all the action & people going by the bar. It was especially helpful during the hurricanes because you could get an idea of the amount of water on the street with live cam.

This is the live cam from 3 years ago, but that area is always active.

🔴 [LIVE] Tini Martini Bar St. Augustine FL #America (youtube.com)

The ship we were going to see was just down and across the street from here. I'll so a separate post on that since I had a lot of pictures.

EMMA AND VOLLEYBALL

On Saturday, Emma had volleyball tournaments in Jacksonville and Trevor had soccer in St Augustine. Ryan and Najla usually trade off with the kids, one week Ryan does Trevor's games and the next he does Emma's. They have something almost every single day when the soccer and volleyball season is in. Also, Emma is learning sign language from one of the people at the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind in St. Augustine and goes once a week for that. They are always on the go.

Emma had volleyball all day Saturday, so we went up for her 12:30 game. We had such a good time watching her play. She is 11 yrs. old and plays on a team with 12 and 13 yr. old girls. They won their first match, lost their second and won their third.

                                                                    That's Emma, # 32.

I took a lot of video during the games, but it was hard to get all of the plays in the video.

Here's some on youtube.

https://youtube.com/shorts/RHOBfxu6_qU

Emma is a good server in VB

https://youtu.be/bdYMAIpQylA

After the first set of matches they played a different team. These girls are all supposed to be 13 yr. olds. This one looked 18 and she was so big, she looked like she could just walk over to the net & punch the ball down to the floor. But Emma's team won both matches with them.

Emma had one set of tournaments in the morning and another in the afternoon. During the lunch break David, Ryan and I went to 4 Rivers Smokehouse for lunch and their brisket sandwiches were delicious. Then Ryan went back for the afternoon matches. 

On our way back to St. Augustine, we stopped by the outlet mall so that I could go check out the Talbots store there. I always find a few tops for a bargain prices there. Then we went to Bealls (of Florida), another of my favorite stores and I found some great things on sale there. 

Then, back to the MH to let the kitties outside for some fresh air. While Bentley was in the playpen, I took Abigail for a ride over by the pond.

Both kitties enjoy being outside so much. After a few times Bentley was walking down the steps to come out and Abigail was eager to enjoy the outside too. They are so much fun to take along and get along pretty well.

HANGING OUT IN ST AUGUSTINE

 On Friday, March 1st we had to move the MH to a different site in the same campground because we couldn't get reservations in one continuous site. It was right across from where we were, but a back in site instead of a pull thru. This site didn't have as many squirrels for the kitties, so we had to throw out peanuts to attract them. 

Once we were settled in, we put Bentley in his playpen and Abigail in her stroller for a while. In the afternoon, Bentley had an appt. at Shores Animal Hospital to get his fluids. Brooklyn a young vet tech was so nice. She had given him fluids on Monday, and she did it right in his carrier.

Then we went back to the MH for more relaxing. Ryan, Najla and the kids had more game time scheduled Friday night, so we decided to go to dinner at Saltwater Cowboys, which is actually one block over from Ryan and Najla's on the Matanzas River Marsh. We hadn't had lunch and wanted to get there early to avoid the crowd. We arrived at 4:50 and there were only a few tables with customers there yet, so it should have been a quick meal. We order appetizers and they came in about 15 minutes. We had ordered our dinner at the same time, and it didn't come, and didn't come and didn't come. We tried to find the waiter, but he seemed to be elsewhere. A couple of times he buzzed by our table without even looking at us or stopping to check on us. Then he came over and asked if we needed anything ese. I guess he realized we didn't have our meal. David and I both had water to drink, and David had a glass with lipstick on the rim, so he asked for another glass of water. The waiter looked really embarrassed and flustered and went to get David another water. About 15 minutes later, he came back and said our meal would be out in just a few minutes. David asked about the water, and he said, "they must have delivered it to the wrong table". Sorry, but we weren't buying that one. I was ready to put out money on the table for our appetizers and leave. But we didn't. After an hour and 20 minutes, our food arrived. It was hot and good. I had shrimp & grits and David had catfish and grits. At least we knew it hadn't been sitting in the back, getting cold. I imagine the waiter forgot to put in our order. Two hours after arriving we left. We were both so aggravated about the poor service there that I posted our experience on a FB page about restaurants in St. Augustine. I got a ton of feedback. Lots of people saying, they would have left after half an hour, etc. I did get a message from the restaurant saying to contact them.

I sent them an email and a day or so later they emailed me apologizing and said if I would come by, they would refund our money and give us a give card. But I told them we were from out of town and would be leaving soon but thanked her for the offer. She said they had 2 waiters out sick and the waiter we had would be getting some additional training. At any rate we won't be back.

The interior was pretty rustic, since they were an old restaurant on the marsh. You can see how empty the places was when we got there.

At least we had appetizers to munch on for a hr. and 20 minutes. Fried okra and fish dip.

MORE TIME IN ST. AUGUSTINE

 We have really been lazy this trip. Mostly it has been relaxing outside with the kitties. The weather has gone from 64 to 80 degrees within a day or 2. Now it's back down to the 60's and we will probably get some showers.

Bentley has really been enjoying the playpen. We threw out some peanuts for the squirrels and they have been entertaining the kitties. Since Bentley can't hear, the squirrels can sneak up on Bentley pretty easily from all sides.  They draw his attention in one direction, then circle around and grab the peanuts while he's looking the other way. Pretty smart squirrels!! They are not afraid of people or kitties. They will even climb on the screen door in the motorhome to tease Abigail.

Tuesday, night we went to dinner with Ryan and Emma for tacos at Jimmy Hula's. They were great and it was a nice meal.

Wednesday, we had Mexican food at The Meyers house. We got to see their dog Ellie again and their new kitty, Pippen. She is part Siamese and very leery of people. If we had more time with her, I'm sure we would have made good friends.

On Thursday we went to a new place (for The Meyers), Casa Benedetto. The Italian food was excellent. You could tell the pasta was freshly made and every meal was so good. I had the Grandma Betty's Manicotti, and it was fantastic. The place was really small but crammed with people and tables. It took a while to receive out meals, but they were so worth it. We would definitely go back there again.

There are just so many good places to eat in St. Augustine.