Today was not such a lazy day since we got ourselves out of the RV early this a.m. to go into St. Augustine for a look around. The streets were nearly empty around 8 a.m. Early morning shop proprietors were out sweeping their sidewalks and the city workers were hosing down the side streets.
Our purpose of this early morning excursion was to try out one of the best coffee houses in Florida. What made it extra special was the place is called Kookaburra. As you might have guessed by the name, it is an Australian coffee house, which featured brekkie (or breakfast) single serving size pies.
It was a very small place with great coffee and yummy pie (sweet potato, broccoli and cheddar). They also had sweets treats and some were even vegan friendly. Well worth the early wake up and stop.
While we were there, we took advantage of the early morning empty streets and wandered through the shopping and historic district. This is Paul’s favorite way to “shop”, when all the stores are still closed. Along the way, we happened upon some old fortune-telling booths and other vintage carnival machines. A handshake could tell the the strength of your personality, a palm reading machine the strength of your love. There was Merlin, Zoltan, and others, all in very good condition.
There were many great places to check out when everything opens up. Way more than we can fit into our remaining time here. Unfortunately, I was so busy gawking at the interesting buildings in town and I forgot to take photos again. Oh well, I guess we’ll just have to get up early again and go get some while the streets are mostly empty.
The town has a really beautiful college campus right in the historic district, Flagler College. It has an interesting history here and appears to still be going strong.
It was a gray misty/foggy morning in the 60s when we set out, highs were going to reach 84 in the afternoon.
We could see the sun was trying to break through as we headed over the long bridge back to the campground.
Once back at the camper, Paul got ready for the arrival of Ken and Bob for some time out on the Malacompra bike trails about 30 mins south of here. I spent my time watching sessions at the RootsTech conference and getting some small bits together for the boys to snack on when they comeback from the trails.
While on the trail, Paul got a great video and a couple photo of one of the Gopher Tortoises. This guy was much bigger than the one we saw yesterday.
We finished off the evening by heading to town for a dinner out and exploring the city at night.
Before turning onto the bridge to St. A., we took a short side trip back to the town of Vilano Beach to grab a photo of the Magic Beach Motel, a beautiful Art Deco building with lovely details still intact. I bet those neon bunnies hop out of that hat. Will have to go back at dark when the lights are on.
The town has some new hotels going up. Most of them are adding retro-style deco-esque period accents that help them blend pretty well with the existing old architecture.
St Augustine at night was packed with people and it’s only Thursday. It was very hard to get a seat anywhere for dinner, almost impossible to get seating outside, up to an hour wait.
We wandered around, tried a few places and ended up at MiMi’s Famous Crepes where we both had a caprese crepe that was very savory and hit the spot. We stopped for some hand dipped ice cream before heading back to the car.
And that pretty much wraps up it up for today.
