While we didn’t make it as far as we’d hoped, I’m happy to spend time in St. Augustine. We got tied up, and cleared into the country in time to head up to the hotel’s daily happy hour for hotel and marina guests. As we walked up, I saw a spoonbill feeding in the flats and I’m pretty sure I squealed like a child. They’re one of my favorite birds, and I’d only seen them a couple other times. We relaxed with a beer at the outdoor fire pit and watched the clouds roll in, but the storm never materialized. After our tiring passage, we decided to keep dinner simple and go to Osprey Tacos and Old Coast Ales.
The next morning, we had brunch at Uptown Swinery, and we were super sad to hear it’s closing. They had actually closed early that day, but we saw people inside and went in to check, and they seated us. Apparently someone had forgotten to order champagne – their mimosa towers are a big draw – so they decided to close early. But we had a wonderful brunch (I got shrimp and grits) and had a nice chat with our server, Jackson, who also works during the week as a hand on the schooner Freedom. He encouraged us to come out for a sail, and we promised to try.
We spent the rest of the day sightseeing and shopping in St. Augustine. We finally tried Columbia Restaurant for dinner, and it was really good! We didn’t have a reservation and had a long wait (next time we’ll plan ahead), but it was worth it. We shared a few small plates, and I’d love to go back and try their paella. Not wanting to be jerks and make our server stay late, we got the white chocolate bread pudding to go, and I’m pretty sure she just gave us what was left – the portion was HUGE (and it was to DIE for)! One of the servers saw Chris’s Hope Town Canvas hat and stopped him to chat – it turns out she’s from the Berrys and was excited to hear we’d visited.
Monday was back to work for us, and Laura spent the day sightseeing. She was heading home on Tuesday, and since she needed to pack, we went to Sarbez for dinner since it’s close and quick. I’ve always been curious what the name means, so we asked and it’s “zebras” spelled backwards (obvious now that I’ve been told!).
I’d been wanting to try Odd Birds on Anastasia Island, so Chris and I went after work on Tuesday night, and they had some really creative cocktails and good food. The next day, Chris headed off to Atlanta for work. It was nice to have some quiet time on the boat after the whirlwind of the previous couple of weeks, but it was suddenly too quiet.
I wasn’t excited to be here alone with intense thunderstorms and a tornado watch in effect. The line of storms looked incredibly intense, but we got off easy with gusty but not terrible wind, heavy rain and just a little lightning. The storm did spawn a tornado down in North Palm Beach, but we were lucky. Weather continued to be intense, with high winds and thunderstorms rolling through all week.
While Chris was away, Katy and Phil were in town to see a show at the St. Augustine Amphitheater, so we met up for dinner at the Conch House before their show. It’s always fun to catch up with them, and it was nice to meet Phil’s brother and his wife.
When Chris got back, we had dinner at the Ice Plant, a farm-to-table restaurant with great cocktails and mocktails. It was nice to find a place where we could get interesting drinks without alcohol, especially since they don’t take reservations and we had a pretty long wait. The building itself is fascinating and dates back to the 1920s, when it was actually a functioning ice plant. According to their site, the bridge crane that still sits on its railings over the dining room was used to move massive blocks of ice that they broke down and sold to local customers and shrimp boats. The menu is relatively simple but the food is good and well-prepared, and we’ll definitely be back.
Chris had the car for the weekend, so we drove out to Middle Beach at the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Preserve and walked the beach until the wind picked up too much, effectively media blasting our legs. We stopped at the visitor center on the way back and hiked the trails which, thanks to the storms of the past couple of days, were pretty muddy. But it was a beautiful walk, and we got to see an armadillo! The trail we walked took us out to a pretty little beach on the ICW, and even that had decent waves with only a half mile or so of fetch. It was nice to get some time out walking in nature again.
I finally made us reservations for a sunset sail on Freedom for Wednesday night, and that was the first time in a while that the weather was actually nice. We started the sail with a glass of champagne and saw dolphins as we raised sail off the fort, and we were treated to a beautiful sunset. Incidentally, that was the day we finally closed on the sale of our apartment, so it was the perfect celebration! We had good wind and were able to sail under the Vilano bridge before it died out on us on the way back. It was fun to watch the crew handle the sails, and for the first time, we actually understood what the spaghetti of lines all did. We enjoyed chatting with Jackson and the rest of the crew and our fellow passengers, and I was sad for the evening to end. I always feel silly paying to take a sunset sail, especially since most of the time they’re not really sailing, but we actually DID sail on Freedom, and I’m glad we decided to go out. If you’re ever in town, book yourself a sunset sail and tell them we sent you!
We had our Thursday night date night dinner at Llama, which of course we were excited about. We’ve yet to have a dish we didn’t love, and the wine list is equally good. We tried the 2018 The Owl and the Dust Devil red blend (read the story – it’s really cool!), and I can see why this is a regular on their menu. We started with ceviche, and I got the Chancho con Carapulcra (pork belly) and Chris had Cordero Cusqueño. For dessert, we had the Sacred Valley (an amazing chocolate mousse) paired with a really nice dessert wine.
I took care of some laundry and while I was waiting for a load to finish, I walked over to Whetstone. We’re addicted to the Sebastian 80% dark chocolate, so that one was a given, and I couldn’t help picking up a truffle assortment and some of their dark chocolate cherries. I know I CAN order online, but I like waiting until we visit and getting it in person.
One thing we really miss living this lifestyle is going to concerts. We catch a lot of local live music, but the last “big” show we went to was Phil Collins at Madison Square Garden in 2019. On a whim, Chris decided to see if anyone was playing nearby, and we were able to get last-minute tickets to see Gojira and Mastadon at the St. Augustine Amphitheater. We brilliantly went for tacos at Osprey before the show (on Cinco De Mayo) so we missed a little bit of Gojira’s set, but the show was awesome. We ended up walking back and got home super late, and immediately crashed so we could be up and ready to depart in the morning.
Thanks to Laura Olsen for her photo contributions!