St. Augustine and Best Friends

Even though we're back in the work-a-day world and can't just pick up and go cruising on Gypsies, we're not letting any grass grow under us - we're making the best of our free time, seeing the sights and enjoying life!!! I know, big surprise there!!! This past weekend we headed up to St. Augustine by land yacht to see our cruising buddies from September Song, Stephanie and Bob - unfortunately they had to arrive from Georgia by land yacht as well so Cassie and Godiva couldn't come with them!! We've been to St. A several times in the past couple years as it is one of our favorite places (the last time was actually last Thanksgiving when we spent a wonderful turkey-day weekend there with...you guessed it...Bob and Stephanie!!) What was so weird was to arrive by car and not on Gypsies - although I must say I didn't mind not having to deal with the current that rips through there or the construction at the Bridge of Lions (actually I guess I missed even that when I think about it because I would have loved to have been on Gypsies!) Besides, Gypsies is much more comfortable than the local Days Inn although there was a pool where we met the SS gang for a couple cold adult beverages and lots of laughs while catching up on all things work and fun since our last visit several months ago up in Fort Pierce when they had just gotten back from the Bahamas.

After poolside coldies, it was time to hit one of our favorite St. A watering holes, Scarlett O'Haras, for happy hour 2-for-1 cocktails including Big Boat Bob's (yes we still call him that on occasion) Captain and Coke - think the waitress liked us!!

The Crew Arrives at Scarlett O'Haras

And can I tell you how good their onion rings were!!!! I'm talking the mother of all crispy and slightly spicy o-rings here!! Normally I don't get that excited about onion rings - but these were the best (we went back the next day for more and more!!!) No calories in St A I heard!!!!

Back Together for Cocktails at Scarlett O'Haras

It was great to be back in a place with live music too - even if it wasn't nearly as good as what we got used to in KW!!! But when you're with good friends - who cares? We topped the night off with great pizza in the back of a funky little pizza place in the old town - xtra cheese, pepperoni and mushrooms was just what we needed before bedtime!!

The next day we played tourist and visited the Alligator Farm and Zoological Park - what an amazingly cool place!!
As the only place in the world that displays all 23 living species of crocodiles, we walked through exhibit after exhibit of alligators (including a couple albino gators)

Albino Alligator

and crocs, some in small "private rooms" while others lived communally in pools and sand islands!

Alligator Island

Resting Alligators

We saw an alligator feeding where they were thrown small rodents - unfortunately one of the big guys near us went postal on his neighbor almost tearing off his arm and knocking out teeth (that was enough for me thank you!!) The gators looked so mellow that you forget how fast they can move and how vicious they really are - got it!!!

One Ugly Croc

There was even a wading bird rookery which replicated a native swamp where hundreds of birds, including herons, egrets, ibis, roseate spoonbills, and wood storks roost knowing the thousands of alligators below would protect them from any tree-climbing predators.

The Alligators in the Rookery

Black Swan

Cockatoo

There were also exhibits of exotic birds, the cutest monkeys you've ever seen, and other wild reptiles,

Marabou Stork

Green Back Macaw

Green Back Macaw
Scarlett Macaw
Scarlett Macaw
This Turtle is Really Alive!

Southern Cassowary

Roseate Spoonbill

The Sulawesi Red-knobbed Hornbill

West African Crowned Crane

West African Vulture

including a komodo dragon (he almost got Bob's finger - OK not really but it was a fun picture!)

Kimodo Dragon Tries to Bite Bob Through the Glass

Oh and let's not forget the humongous tortoises who seemed "otherwise occupied" shall we say the whole time we were there - if you can figure out the picture, let us know - we think that's why they are almost extinct!!

"Otherwise Occupied"

From the Alligator Farm we went over to climb to the top of the St Augustine Lighthouse - all 165 feet above sea level and 219 steps!!!

The St. Augustine Lighthouse

A View of the 219 Stairs From the Bottom

St Augustine is the site of the oldest aid to navigation in North America - the original Spanish watchtower became Florida's first lighthouse in 1824. However, by 1870 the tower was threatened by shoreline erosion and construction began on the current lighthouse. The new lighthouse was completed in 1874 and has at the top a first order Fresnel lens which serves as the beacon. The lens consists of 370 hand-cut glass prisms arranged in a beehive shape towering twelve feet tall and six feet in diameter. The lighthouse is St. Augustine's oldest surviving brick structure and in 1876, a brick light keeper's house was added to the site. Light keepers' and their assistants lived and worked there until the tower was automated in 1955. The history is cool but the views were unbelievable!!!

View from the Top of the St. Augustine Lighthouse

View for the Top

At least Steph and I enjoyed them - the boys were a little wary of the height thing but they were great sports and made the climb anyway!! Gotta admit, it was a long way up!!

Not Everyone Likes Heights!

You know the saying, all culture and no fun.....ok maybe I'm improvising but after a day of playing tourist, one gets thirsty! So we hit the nearest watering hole, the Conch House Lounge for some sustaining coldies and popcorn.

Conch House Lounge

With the thirst partially slaked, we were off again towards the beach - of course - in search of cool beach bars. We didn't find many to choose from but hit on Jakes for pitchers and wings - with friends any place can be fun!

Jakes

A quick change and we were off for a night of frivolity, starting of course at Scarlett's for more o-rings! Chased out by some seriously not good music, we hit the Milltop in search of better - not to be!!! if anything it was worse - at least topsides. The musician downstairs was somewhat better (we at least could finish our beers without actual pain in the eardrums!) There we were entertained by a game of guess whether it's Pat or Patricia - we took turns trying to get full frontal views surreptitiously of course and even at the end of the night we had a hung jury - 3-1 in favor of female. Does this make us bad people??? Not that we cared one way or the other but shouldn't you be able to at least tell??? OK maybe we should have gone home at that point....but we didn't. We found more music at a yard garden cafe

Cocktails at the Garden Cafe

and then had some mexican food at the glamorous Taco Shop - kidding....not that we ate there, but the glamorous part. Pretty much a dive - just the way we like it!!

The Taco Shop

Sunday was a little rainy but what better way to start it then a big grand slam breakfast at Dennys???? Seriously!! Us and about 100 others - luckily we got a table before the line began to snake out the door. Guess everyone else went to church first ..... knew there was something we forgot! It was sad saying goodbye to Steph and Bob but we know we will see them soon - on their trip south they plan on stopping here at our marina on Merritt Island for a bit this Fall. What a great weekend though - thanks guys for meeting us in the middle!!!! We braved the raindrops to walk around town a little to soak up some of the awesome Spanish culture and architecture

Spanish Architecture

Spanish Statue

Spanish Style Church

and surprise, surprise wound up back at Scarletts for one more round of o'rings.

Scarlett O'Haras

Good thing there are no calories in that place!!

The Oldest Schoolhouse in America

Captain Ralph's Monkey Band on the Streets of St. Augustine

Part of the fun of where we are located now is that there are so many kewl places and things to do within two hours of us - on the way home from St. Augustine, we ran through a list of all the places and things we want to do. It's a seriously long list!!! So much fun to be had, so little time......what a great way to live life!!

Thanks everyone for the wonderful birthday wishes - despite a rainy day, I watched a movie marathon, complete with popcorn and all kinds of treats (because there are no calories on your bday either). Dinner was Chinese food and a great bottle of wine (a real bottle no less) and for anyone who knows me, they know that by the time I went to sleep, I had a big grin on my face! This week the gym has been calling my name - in all CAPS!!!!

Cocoa Beach - Land of Surf and Beach Bars

Well we are back to living for weekends like most people I guess - we work during the week (Doug in his office and me at the gym and on the boat - I actually had a two day legal project this past week for a former client and it was a total blast. Guess I forgot how much fun legal stuff can be - did I just say that??? who am I???) We enjoy our cocktail hour and some pretty amazing sunsets each night but let's be real - we love our weekends!! and we are sure making the most of them!!!

A Beautiful Sunset Over Harbortown Marina

We hit the Thunder on the Water Power Boat races at Cocoa Beach the other weekend - man what a blast. Of course we had to search for the perfect venue at which to watch the races - thinking (correctly as it turned out) that the Cocoa Beach Pier would be jamming and not in a good way, we drove further down the beach in search of more local color and great beach bars. Never fear - we sniffed out a couple awesome joints (yes Stephanie - these are real joints!!) The first and probably our favorite is the Sandbar Grill - I can see many, many, many afternoons spent here!!! How can a place be bad when it's slogan is "we don't run from hurricanes, we drink 'um!!!

We Haven't Tried to Weather the Category 5 Hurricane Yet

They serve category 1 through 5 hurricanes - the cat 5 is unbelievable!!!! We're talking white rum, spiced rum, coconut rum, triple sec, a dark rum floater and a shot of 151 down the straw for good measure (oh yeah - forgot to throw in a little fruit juice) - and no I have not had one yet, but can only imagine what one of those puppies would do to you. Actually we saw a couple "lovely ladies" who had had more than one from the looks of them - yikes - hurricanes are destructive!! Maybe we'll try and make them in the safety of our own boat - we do have all the fixings!!

The Back Patio at the Sandbar

The Front Door at the Sandbar

The Sandbar has a pool table with an old sofa in the front - reminiscent a little of a well used frat basement (boy do I miss my Dartmouth days sometimes) - with it's own bar. As you follow through there are lots of TVs for us sports hounds and then a bar and open patio out back leading to the ..... parking lot (which is right in front of the beach - so it's real close to being a beach bar!!) Doesn't seem to matter as this is clearly a locals joint and the place everyone comes for lunch and after a long hot day at the beach. It is filled with all those wonderful things that make a bar so kewl - very cold beer, sports on tvs, tan, ripped surfer dudes many sporting no shorts (sorry typo or freudian slip - I meant shirts), great fish tacos, cat 1-5 hurricanes, sand on the floor, live music and did I mention very cold beer?

For the boat races we wanted a little more elevation though so chose to head to the roof deck next door at Capt J's where we had a great vantage point to see all the kewl speed boats racing up and down the beach

Doug at Captain J's

- they all have such awesome, testosterone driven names!!! It looked like a parade route out there on the water with the thousands of anchored boats forming the sidelines of the race track - ya think there was some fun happening out there??

The beach was packed with people watching from the sand and the water - I don't know but from our vantage point it looked like the boats were coming awfully close to those idiots actually swimming in the water!!!


While the beach was jammin' there sure was some fun happening up on the deck where we were - it was packed with people who had seemingly been there quite some time (a couple "gentlemen" and I use that term loosely appeared to have been there since the day before!!!) We were all betting on how soon it would be before one of them fell over the railing....does that make us bad people? What a great day - lots of sun, fun company, great food, boating entertainment and did I mention cold beer?

This past weekend we spent Saturday hanging out and boogie boarding on Cocoa Beach (with of course some refreshments at the Sandbar in the late afternoon). Is there any better feeling than that sun kissed, salty, sandy I've been at the beach all day and am now drinking a cold beer listening to live music feeling??? Cocoa Beach is known as the surfing capital of FL (who makes this up?) and with Hurricane Danielle off the coast, the waves were immense!!! Unfortunately we were having so much fun that we failed to take pictures - our bad. Sounds like we will have a few more opportunities with Earl and Fiona coming along on Danielle's heels - what's the best kind of hurricane (besides the ones at the Sandbar?) - ones that don't hit you or do any damage but kick up the waves so the boogie boarding is huge!!! We missed you and your slick lizard 41 Bob - when you come down in the Fall we'll get out there since the waves are supposed to be great year-round down here - yippeee!!

Yesterday we spent exploring the town of Cocoa which is off the ICW - very cute little town with lots of shops including Whatnots General Store,

Whatnots General Store

a beautiful playhouse,

The Village Playhouse in Cocoa

and a great waterfront park with an amphitheater, wading pool and everything.

The Amphitheater

In fact the first weekend in October is TropStock in the Village - a whole weekend of TropRock musicians including our own friends from Key West, Scott Kirby and Dave Edmisten - also playing are Peter and Jim Mayer and Nadira Shakoor from Buffetts Coral Reefer Band and a whole bunch of other cool folks. We already have our three day pass, have scoped out the venue which is awesome and have been told by Dave that we will have a blast - are you kidding me, of course we all will!!! So if anyone loves good music, that would be a great weekend to visit!!!

As cute as Cocoa is, it lacks one of the things that we consider essential to a great town - cool bars. There was The Dog and Bone British Pub (do you think the door was a dead giveaway? it looks like Austin Powers' car for pete's sake) which we made a beeline for and attempted to go in for a warm pint of British beer but we only made it about 3 feet inside the door before the accumulated smoke from the 3 people at the bar (at least we think there were only 3 although it was hard to see through the purple haze) drove us out in in search of oxygen. Now as most of you who know me can attest to, there's rarely a bar I can't be comfortable in no matter how much a dive - but I gotta tell you this was so bad my eyes were watering and my throat closed up within seconds of walking in the door. No beer (and I don't say this lightly) is worth that!!!

The Dog and Bone

Being the only real bar we found in town, it was time for us to move on - so of course we headed back over to Cocoa Beach and our favorite dives!!!

Before hitting our local favorite watering holes though we just had to walk through Ron Jon Surf Shop which is by far the largest and kewlest surf store I have ever been in - it's open 24 hours a la LL Bean and is just knarly dude! It's brightly colored (some might call it gaudy)

The Entrance to Ron Jon

with huge surfer sculptures and an old woody (get your mind out of the gutter and think surfing) outside

The Woody

- on the inside it is a veritable fun house of surf gear, clothes and more flip flops than I've ever seen in one place!!! Despite the fact I could have done some serious damage there, we walked out with only a surfboard shaped rug for our galley - we'll be back. I'm also thinking seriously of taking some surfing lessons - might as well take advantage of our location here and learn something new and kewl!!!

Next week we'll have lots to talk about and lots of pictures (some of which I may not be able to post I'm sure - hopefully!!) since we are heading up to St Augustine by land yacht to meet up with Stephanie and Bob from September Song. Yup - the four of us together again with nothing but decadence on our minds - we'll let you know if the city is still standing when we leave!!! Word to the wise - next weekend would not be a good weekend to visit St A's, there may be a run on beer and Captain Morgan!!