Our Trip to St Augustine, FL

We spent the weekend in St Augustine, Florida relaxing and soaking up the sun.  It was such a super relaxing vacation, that we're all a little depressed to be back home and back to reality.  It was the perfect relaxing weekend that involved tons of food and beach time, and no electronics or makeup.  Paradise!  St Augustine is about four and a half hours south of us, so we drove down on Friday afternoon and got there before dark.  After getting settled at the hotel we ate at a little caribbean place that was famous for their corn cakes.  The restaurant was named Mango Mangos, but despite the good reviews... the food was just ok.  Afterwards we headed back to the hotel to call it an early night so that we could get an early start on the morning.

Corn cakes at Mango Mangos

The next morning we ate a light breakfast at the hotel before heading out and about.  We headed to the historic district, which was about an 8 minute drive from our beachfront hotel.  St Augustine is the oldest city in America so I expected it to feel just like Charleston or Savannah... but it was very unique.  All of the little city shops and restaurants lined the waterfront, and it was all very scenic and beautiful.  We walked around the Castillo De San Marcos, and watched as they shot the cannon into the water.  We stopped in at several little shops, and walked along the water.  For a little snack we stopped in at a little taco shop and split some shrimp tacos and chips and guac.

Castillo de san Marcos

Waiting for the cannon to be fired up top.

Beautiful old church

Flagler College, the old Ponce de Leon

Walking around downtown

Burrito Works Taco Shop

Jace enjoying his chips and guacamole.

After our quick lunch, we headed back out doing lots more window shopping, sight seeing, and soaking up the 85 degree weather.  We got Jace an old fashioned ice cream cone, and as we were heading back to our parking spot decided to stop in at the Seafood festival happening across the street.  If nothing else that provided alot of interesting people watching!  We got some shrimp skewers, that for some reason had marinara sauce on top of them (??!)... and then headed back to our hotel to spend the rest of the day at the beach.

The seafood festival going on in a nearby park

Trying to convince me to eat Alligator... the answer
was NO.

Coconut shrimp skewer on a bed of rice and coleslaw, topped with
MARINARA (?!)  Not a good combo.

Building sand castles...

After spending several hours at the beach building sand castles and watching Jace chase waves, we headed back to the historic district to eat dinner at Casa Maya, an authentic and health focused mexican restaurant.  It was a little hole in the wall, but super delicious and full of flavor.  We split a shrimp and rice dish and some mexican style tacos.  It was definitely the best food we had in St Augustine.  Afterwards we walked the streets in the dark for a bit before heading back to the hotel and crashing hard.  We were so exhausted from all the sun that we just laid in bed watching tv and eating popcorn.

Someone had too much sun and fell asleep...

Food from Casa Maya

Chill time at the hotel

Sunday morning we had a nice big breakfast at the hotel before checking out and heading to the beach for a couple hours.  Jace loved everything about the beach, running in and out of the waves, looking for fish, building sand castles, running up and down the shoreline... everything.  After being at the beach we headed to lunch at Acapulco overlooking the waterfront.  Then before leaving we stopped in at The Hyppo gourmet popsicles and got a pineapple cilantro popsicle.  Jace loved it!

Checking out and loading up the car... such a good helper :)

Paradise!

Trying to catch the minnows

Sprinting along the coastline

Daddy's little man

"Birdies!!"

Saying goodbye to the beach

Eating on the second story porch at Acapulco

Jace enjoying his quesadilla and pineapple juice.

Hyppo gourmet popsicles...

Jace loved the pineapple cilantro flavor!

Saying goodbye to St Augustine

The lighthouse across the water

Saying goodbye to St Augustine was sad, because we could have easily spent a week there relaxing as you can only do in a peaceful old coastal city... but we're so glad we went, and will definitely try to go back again.  This weekend was great and it made us realize it's been several months since we took a spontaneous little trip, so we're going to stay in Myrtle Beach and in the Smokey Mountains in the next couple of months to make up for it.  :)