beautiful st. augustine

One Saturday in March we headed to St. Augustine to spend the whole day exploring the city. For part of my birthday present, Clay bought us a sunset river cruise so we decided to fill the day with sightseeing. It's about 2 hours or less from our house so we figured we could fit in plenty for a full day and drive back.   

Our first stop was a cute little breakfast place called The Gallery Cafe.  It was family owned and operated and yummy!  Great start to our day! Now, I did not take the photo below...it was jam packed and we were lucky to get a seat under the Joker.  

Next stop, Castillo de San Marcos. Just a little history: It's the oldest masonry fort in the US, originally constructed by the Spanish between 1672 and 1695.  The British, Spanish, and Americans all made changes to the Castillo before it was finally retired in 1900 and now serves as a major tourist destination. 

After Castillo, we headed across the street to ultimately find a sports bar to watch the NC State/Miami game (boo...State lost.)  We walked around downtown for a few hours and went into so many random shops and eventually got ice cream before our sunset cruise!

Ponte Vedra Beach

Our sunset cruise was scheduled for around 5:30 that night.  It was nice to relax and see the view from the water. Here's the Castillo again...

<3

Another little history lesson: We cruised on by the 280 ft. Great Cross, the tallest freestanding cross in the western hemisphere. In 1565, a Spanish admiral named Pedro Menendez de Aviles landed on the shoreline, planted a wooden cross, and celebrated the first actual Thanksgiving on American soil (where it stands today.) It represents the beginnings of Christianity and the founding of America's oldest city - St. Aug's!

The Great Cross

To end our lovely day, we drove to an amazing restaurant called Caps on the Water for dinner.  I had been there once before when my childhood best friend Christina used to live in Jacksonville. This place is incredible and a must-do if you are ever in the area. It has a huge outdoor seating area that overlooks the Intercoastal Waterway and has some seriously yummy food.

We got there around 8:30/9:00 that night so it wasn't the best time to take photos. We had oysters as an appetizer, I had a deliciously seared wasabi-sesame encrusted tuna steak with spinach and Clay had vanilla & horseradish encrusted tilapia with veggies. NOM NOM NOM...plates were definitely cleaned.

Thanks Google images for the following:

                         

What a great day!

visitors galore!

We are so excited to finally share our VISITORS post!!  We have had 4 sets of friends and family come and stay in our guest rooms (yep...we have 2 guest rooms so come on down!) 

VISITORS #1: The Moon and You

We were so excited to find out that our friends Ryan and Melissa, and talented musicians, were going to be doing a southern tour and they were stopping by Lake City to play/see us! Ryan was a member of the former band Uncle Mountain who played at our wedding (and a childhood friend of Clay) and Melissa is his sweet, sweet girlfriend.  They booked a show at a place in town called The Cafe' (we basically got a private show!) and they were amazing!

 



cuties



 

Clay and I wanted to check out the Ichetucknee Springs, two beautiful springs that are 72 degrees year-round, so we all suited up, packed the car and went to check it out. It was in the low 70's that day but 72 degree water is CHILLY! Once we were there, we decided to go for it and get in! YOLO right? It was worth it...definitely something to check off my 30 before 30 list. :)

 



Ichetucknee Springs - gator free and gorgeous

 

72 degrees wasn't too bad...during the FL winter :)

We really enjoyed Ryan and Melissa's visit!  They were the first familiar faces we had seen since we moved and they were great faces to see!  Thanks for coming! :)

 

Visitors #2: SURPRISE! Kristen and Kimberlee :)

 

For those of you that know me well, you know two of my best friends Kimberlee and Kristen.  We taught first grade together, lived together, and have been close ever since. Kristen has already blogged the trip on her blog, Michael + Kristen + Kellan. You can see her post here that includes WAY more details and fun photos.

They drove down from VA/NC to surprise me and spent my whole birthday weekend with me! {ah-may-zing} Clay kept it a secret for weeks, which is incredible.  They woke me up in the middle of the night when they got here by flashing on the lights and screaming.  I literally thought we were being robbed so I pulled the covers over my head (like that would do anything.)  They brought me lunch and visited my school & class, we went shopping - of course, and we took them to eat at some of our favorite restaurants we discovered. We had so much fun as always! I am so blessed to have them in my life! I was beyond surprised and will never forget that weekend!


 

A cakery in LAKE CITY! (Limited hours...but
we made it & they were good!)

 

 

local produce shopping

 

Mmm...Satchel's Pizza!

 

Here's the bus that doubles as a booth for larger parties!
We WILL sit here someday.

LOVE you both. xoxo.
 

Visitors #3: MIS PADRES!

My parents helped us move and stayed for a few days to help us get organized and all set up! What a HUGE help that was...but this time they were bringing us a van full of our wedding registry items that we couldn't fit in the big move. Yep, we have a lot of stuff.  Well, as Clay says...I have a lot of stuff! :) 

On our packing day, it was pouring rain and in Roanoke (where my parents were driving from) it was sleeting and beginning to snow. Obviously, they left a lot later because of the weather.  The original plan was to go by my brother's house in Cary and pack the van with our wedding gifts that they so graciously let us keep in their attic (since our place was too small for everything) and drive them down to FL. Well, that didn't work out...but they packed up the van and brought it all down in Feb!!  It was a blessing in disguise because we had SO many gifts that it completely filled the van...and if that was the case in Dec, Cheeto and Chester wouldn't have to been able fit!!!

It was like Christmas all over again when we unloaded everything and got it all organized! They were also able to fit another bed frame in the van so we bought a new mattress and set up our guest room #2! It was extremely productive! We also headed to Jacksonville to look at a truck (which we now own,) walk on the beach, and enjoy our time together!  It's always a great weekend when they are around! 
 

Neptune Beach: Dad was SO excited to be on the beach in February!

 

<3 

  We love you both and are so thankful for all your help!

 

 

Visitors #4: Two Weekends with JASON, STEPHANIE, AND SOPHIE

Clay's cousin Jason, wife Stephanie and their daughter Sophie came to FL for a family vacation in late February.  They traveled from Washington, NC and stayed with us on a Thursday night.  Clay and I worked Friday and they made their way down to Tampa.  We met up with them in Clearwater, FL on Saturday to go to a Phillie's Spring Training game.
 

Phillie's training field

 



 

Stephanie and Sophie

 

 

After the game, we headed down to Ybor City and walked around.  They were having a huge festival that weekend so there were lots of food vendors and arts & crafts for sale. 

Tampa Bay Buccanneer's ship

 

Then we headed down to Clearwater Beach that night after dinner at a delicious Thai restaurant.

 

rooftop view

The next morning, we headed to Indian Rocks Beach for a walk and have breakfast. We found this yummy place called Crabby Bills.  It was delish!  

 



crab omelet = ah-may-zing

 

Then we headed to the Florida Aquarium to meet up with Jason, Stephanie, and Sophie before we headed back home.

 

 

 They stayed in Tampa for the week and then came back to our house to stay on their way back to NC the next weekend. I cooked dinner Friday night - my first homeade pie from scratch and truffles!  On Saturday, we went to Gainesville to the Florida Museum of Natural History,  Sweet Frog for some yogurt, and then to Satchel's Pizza for dinner! We had a great 2 weekends with them and were so glad they could come down and stay! Thanks for coming and we can't wait until next time!

Dinner: my first homeade pie - corn, tomato & cheddar (mmmm!)

 

dessert: chubby hubby truffles!

When will YOU become our next house guest?!?  



seeing sights.

Ok, so it's been a while since I've blogged...so I'm going to do a couple posts on the busy things we've been up to!  I know you're probably thinking: So, they're living where again? Lake City...super small town, just starting to make friends, how in the WORLD are they so busy? Valid thoughts my friends.

 

First up, Jacksonville. Clay and I had only really explored the beach areas so we decided to check out some other spots in town.  (Not the most exciting set of photos but we also watched the Duke/NC State game 1/2 the day...when State won and began the court-storming craziness.)

 



Jacksonville: Cummer Museum of Art

 

Beautiful gardens outside the Museum

  

Main Street Bridge



 



Jacksonville Landing: lots of restaurants, sports bars, shops, etc.



Here are some pics from my last birthday of my twenties. It was a really great day. The kids were SO well-behaved, Clay cooked & did the dishes, and a teammate made me a delicious cake!



Gorgeous sunset...probably one of the best we've seen!



Mmmm...we had sushi and filet's for dinner at the house!

 

A sweet teammate of mine made me an incredible
two-layer Reese's peanut butter chocolate cake...to die for!

Another weekend we headed to the Stephen Foster State Folk Culture Center (aka museum and park) and headed to the Suwanee River to go for a walk.  I only have a picture of the Suwanee River...the Stephen Foster part was a little boring - picture a TON of old photos and info. on Stephen Foster (the guy who wrote "Oh! Suzanna" and other tunes.) He never visited Florida: just looked on a map and picked places here to write songs about.



Hopefully this will be our next kayaking adventure!

The next series of photos are from Alligator Lake here in good 'ole Lake City. It was a colder day (mid 50's) but we still went to check it out. It took us about 1.5 hours to walk around the whole lake and this was of course our first gator sighting!



How cute are these leaves? <3



spanish moss is EVERYWHERE



Our first live gator! (They don't move unless they are
threatened and they don't just come chasing after you.) Totally safe!



Gator # 2 - look closely!



Told you it was cold!



This reminded us of a scene in Big Fish.
LOVE that movie.

 

Another weekend we headed to Tallahassee to see the Wolfpack play Florida State! Again, with a game involved, we didn't have a ton of time to really explore. We had breakfast before the game at a cajun restaurant called Angelette's Cajun Kitchen. It was pretty good...but I'd like to go back for lunch or dinner and try the more authentic cajun meals! Then we ended up meeting some State grads at the game (who are in GA in the Air Force) and met them at Mellow Mushroom after the game to hang out. It was nice to be in a familiar setting with people who knew about places from Raleigh. 

 

 

For dinner, we went to the Midtown Filling Station. We had a variety of plates and they were all delicious!  We will definitely be coming back here again. Of course I got a picture of our menu and not the food...newbie blogger mistake.

 

The next series of photos documents my first rodeo ever in my 29 years on Earth. Woah...what an experience it was! Clay's company was a big sponsor for this rodeo so everyone had to go at some point to show their support. I'd have to say that this was far less entertaining than any Friday night Wal-Mart trip (my expectations were set so high) but it had it's moments.

 

 

Once we found a place to sit, the fun began! I was having trouble focusing because there were so many cowboy hats, huge belt buckles, hilarious elderly cops, and camo. It was insanely overwhelming, not to mention that it was way out of my comfort zone (I wore a blazer.) HA! 

 

The first event was where the cowboys and girls dash out into the center of the ring chasing a calf, rope it around it's front legs so it falls over, jump off the horse and "hog-tie" the calf's back legs...all timed.  I was NOT a fan of this event...I felt so sorry for the little calves!

 

We found one of Clay's coworkers and sat with her and her daughter for a little while. She was appalled that it was my first rodeo (exclaiming it VERY loudly) and I was hoping no one else was listening.  

 

I thought this photo captured the scene well. *Note, the people
sitting right up front paid more for their tickets...hmmmm.



This bull was pissed and went after one of the emcee's
riding on a horse. This was entertainment!

 

Save a horse... (yep, it was blaring multiple times)

 

sneaky attire photos in the stands - not easy

 

 Several things I want to point out in the photos above of our police officer here. He moved super slow, was chewing on the end of a cigar, always kept his hands in his pockets, and the obvious - his age. (Also note the GMEN blanket!)

 

Successful country fried first rodeo. Yee-haw!

 

More to come...stay tuned!