A Florida Vacation -Summer 2016

If you have already read my post about St. Augustine, then you can probably guess what my favorite part of this year's family vacation was. But, I feel like I still needed to write about everything else we did last week, as St. Augustine was only one day of our adventure.

This year's vacation was August 6th-13th. Since a part of "family vacation" is that we have to all ride together, Micah and I had no idea how we were going for fit 6 of us comfortably into one vehicle. However, when we arrived at his parents house, we were greeted by our elegant roadtrip chariot

This baby gets a stunning 12 miles to the gallon, and comes complete with an antenna where we could get two cable channels inside. It says it sleeps 6, but I say it only COMFORTABLY sleeps two. And yes, we slept in it. Micah and I got to his parents house on Friday night, and we didn't leave until Saturday morning. Since his parents are renovating, we didn't have anywhere to sleep inside their house, so we got to break in this beauty. Look mom, I went camping! 

A drive that GPS said would take us 14 hours, ended up taking us 22 hours.

 Noah took the early morning hour driving shift, and between him and my father-in-law, we arrived in Florida at 7am Sunday morning. 

**A side note here: these two maps show you what part of Florida we explored. New Smyrna, Daytona, Deland, Port Orange, and Ponce Inlet are all places I will reference. In the first photo, it's too hard to read given the size of the photo, but we are in the Yellow section-the Central East. In the second, you can see an enlargement of Volusia County, where we spent most of our time. 

Once we made it to Oak Hill, Florida, the rest of Sunday was spent pretty low-key, 

"watching the Olympics" (taking naps....)

and lounging around until that evening, when 'the kids' (Micah, Myself, Noah, and Kourtney) went to New Smyrna Beach at sunset and walked around for about 30 minutes.

It was really nice going later in the evening, as the beach was all but empty, and we had it to ourselves. 

Monday we visited what used to be my favorite beach in Florida, Playalinda Beach on Merritt Island. This is south of New Smyrna Beach on the County Map I showed you up above. 

This beach used to be my favorite because:

1. It's never very busy

2. It costs $5 a vehicle to park

3. Because it's not a heavily traveled public beach, it's very clean and you can find lots of seashells 

4. You can stop and watch Manatees swimming in the river

While it is technically a public beach, it's not commercialized. So, there are no lifeguards, snack stands, or planes flying by advertising restaurants. In fact, if any planes do fly over the beach, it's probably a military one since this beach is located near a military base, and also not far from the Kennedy Space Center. 

I was so proud of myself at Playalinda, I went the whole day without getting sunburnt! 

That night, we fulfilled another vacation tradition, a mini-golf showdown. This year's course was the Pirate Adventure course, located in Daytona. We have done this one before, but I certainly didn't mind doing it again. And we had an amazing sunset as our backdrop for golfing :) I didn't win, but we had a great time being competitive with eachother

Tuesday, we paid the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse a visit. This might be the only lighthouse I have ever been to. My first visit here was in 2012, but there was so much that I had forgotten about it, I'm so glad we went again! 

We met a turtle...I tried to take him home with us, but he wanted to continue living in Florida. 

After traversing the 200-and something stairs to the top, the ocean breeze that hits you when you walk out on the platform is a welcome surprise. And the views are breathtaking.

Don't look down! :)

Family Selfie! (The only one we took the whole week)

Wednesday morning was our trip to the Deland Flea Market. My father-in-law loves flea markets and we visited several throughout the week, but this one was the biggest. To make things more fun for the rest of us, this year we decided to have a competition. The rules were simple, find the most random item you can for under $5, winner gets both items. The teams were Micah and I, versus Noah and Kourtney. I feel like we both did well. Micah and I scoured around the various tables and found several things that we kept in mind. In the end, though, it was the $1 framed photo of a llama that won out for us. I thought our entry was going to be the winner, but...Noah and Kourtney proved victorious with their Michael Jackson rubber ducky, for $3.

The winners with their prizes....and the losers, with...nothing. :)

Once the flea market was done, we headed to New Smyrna Beach for an afternoon in the sand. New Smyrna might be my favorite beach now. Since we had the RV, we couldn't park anywhere in the "normal" parking lots and had to drive up to the northern point of the beach and walk through a neighborhood to get over the dunes. There were people there, but it wasn't crowded at all and was very clean, AND had lifeguards!

I got sunburnt (as you can see in the photo above, which was taken at the end of the day) all because another tradition was fulfilled. Each year we go to Florida, we try to make a sand sculpture. This year, we made a whale. 

Unfortunately, we started it too late in the afternoon and the tide started coming in before we could finish him. (His poor tail...) That night, we ate at DJ's Deck in Port Orange. It's a little seafood shack under the overpass, right on the river. I got scallops and Micah got Crab legs. 

Sunburn is in it's full glory now..

The food is always good, but my favorite part about coming here is feeding the fish that live under the dock! 

I don't know if the video will work or not, but these fish go CRAZY when you drop in a few pieces of the food you can buy out of a gum dispenser on the dock. 

Thursday was our trip to St. Augustine. When you get done reading this post, if you'd like to read about St. Augustine, go up to the top and in the first sentence, click St. Augustine, or just click here.

Friday was another day at New Smyrna Beach, this time, I wore clothes and camped under the umbrella the entire time. I even took a chair and just sat and watched. No more sun for this girl, but my view was still pretty nice. 

We ended our Friday night with a trip to the Daytona Beach Pier. I was very sad to see that they got rid of their giant ferris wheel, without it the pier seems really empty. We walked along for a while, catching Pokemon and watching the sunset. 

Then, once the sun went down, we wandered across the Hilton's outdoor area and saw that they were showing Ghostbusters on the side of their building, so we sat in their wicker chairs for awhile and watched the movie. It was very peaceful, watching a movie with the sound of the waves behind you and the cool ocean breeze. 

Looking back, my favorite part of vacation week was getting to genuinely relax for a little bit. We didn't jam pack the week full of activities, but we also did just enough that I wasn't bored. I enjoyed watching the Olympics during the day, as we don't have tv at home, and I wouldn't have gotten to cheer on team USA otherwise. 

This time, I actually had cell phone signal most places we were, so I was able to keep in touch with my parents. I also didn't have to worry about our animals because Lindsey is amazing and we knew she would take good care of them. (And she did) 

Saturday was our 22 hour trek back to Illinois, and Micah and I pulled into our driveway at 9am Sunday morning. It's been a full week and I feel like I'm still behind. I mean, I only have one week of August left and we are getting into the busiest time of the year that I'm totally not ready for. 

Life goes on ready-or-not though, right?

St. Augustine, Florida

When someone says Florida, 98% of people picture the beach. And rightfully so, with the state of Florida bordered by water on 3 of its 4 sides. Don't get me wrong, Florida has some GORGEOUS beaches, but if you're like me and have skin the color of a porcelain doll with the delicacy of a piece of tissue paper, then the beach might not be your best friend.

Welcome, to the beautiful city of St. Augustine, where the history (and Spanish moss) is bountiful.

I had only visited here one other time before last week. Lucky for me, this time we drove an RV so we had to park a ways away from downtown and walk down the shady green sidewalks that were in full summer bloom. (Oh darn, right?) 

Our first stop was the Castillo de San Marcos. This Spanish fort is the oldest masonry fort located in the continental United States. It first opened in 1695 and was built using the materials of the area, which included a large amount of shells and sand, and you can see them in the walls. 

I love history and all things old..and I also like taking pictures, so here is the outside of the fort 

For $10, you can go inside and do either a guided or self-guided tour. We chose self-guided since we had been there before, and it was a particularly hot day already, so we didn't figure being in a crowd of people in a place with no air conditioning would be much fun.

Inside the interior rooms of the fort, you might think that since there are few windows and it's not well lit that it might be cooler...wrong! The air was stagnant and the moisture from the harbor made the air sticky and moist. The walls were all fortified and at least 6 inches deep throughout. I don't have many photos from inside the rooms, but I do have this one. Though my husband is walking away in the photo, the emphasis is on the door. I thought it was neat

You can walk up some uneven, yet completely safe, stairs to the exposed top of the fort where they kept the cannons. The views of not only the harbor, but the fort itself, are breathtaking. 

I didn't stay up top for long though, because as I said: the top is completely exposed (no shade or cover from the sun). Plus, I also got yelled at for not sitting on one of the designated benches they had for people to sit in. The wall is just about butt-height and I didn't even think about it and sat down on top of the wall where I was... My bad..

But, I have to say: 

I admire the staff here. They were watching everyone (including me) to make sure that the fort didn't decay any faster. We heard more than one of the tours going on around us and the people here are passionate about this history of this place. They weren't just there for a job, you could tell that they enjoyed making history come alive. (Plus, it was easily in the 90°s and some were dressed in costume. Wool on a summer day? No thank you...). 

As we were leaving, the man at the welcome desk right inside the drawbridge was talking to some children and had a photo of him shaking the King of Spain's hand from when the King and Queen visited the fort earlier in the summer, and this ranger/volunteer was so genuinely excited to be showing people that he got to meet the King of Spain because of his job. 

Leaving the fort, we walked past a cemetery. I don't usually photograph cemeteries out of respect for the dead, but this one was just so pretty for some reason. Call me crazy I guess.  I wish I had walked around the old stone wall and got a picture of the iron gate, which was easily made in the 1800's. (Again, I love old things!)

It was hot enough outside, and we were bound by time constraint, so I didn't get to walk downtown to the heart of St. Augustine. Instead, our group walked a block to the original Ripley's Believe it or not museum. Located, you guessed it, in a neat historical building that resembles a castle.

I am a self proclaimed history nerd, so let's talk about this building for just a minute. Its neat, right? 

The now home of Ripley's believe it or not museum was actually, originally, the Warden Castle. Built in 1887, it was the winter home of William Warden, who was a business partner of John Rockefeller. This castle was owned by the Warden family until sometime in the 1930's. Then, in 1941 it was purchased and renovated as an upscale hotel for the rich and famous. 

The castle suffered a fire in 1944 and claimed the lives of two women, who, oddly enough, were not burned in the fire, but died of suffocation from wrapping themselves in wet towels to prevent themselves from burning in the blaze. Those are the only deaths reported in the history of the building, and it is said that they haunt it to this day. (And this is also an exhibit inside the museum)

Robert Ripley loved this hotel, and tried several times to purchase it, however he could never get the owner to sell. Ripley died in 1949, and in 1950 his descendants were able to finally purchase the property, and today we know it as the first Ripley's Believe it or not museum location. 

I don't have many pictures from inside the museum, though you are free to take photos as you wish. I do, however have this photo of Frank Sinatra. I love the music of Sinatra, so this stuck out to me. 

But it's just a portrait, what's it doing in a museum that boasts the biggest collection of weird, unbelievable, amazing, unique, (and sometimes gross) things?

Well, it's constructed completely out of crayons..if that helps it become more amazing to you.

The museum is three floors of, well, things you won't see everyday. Artifacts from the space station, a door wreath made of human hair, an iron maiden medieval torture cabinet from Germany, a vampire killing kit, African fertility statues, a dress made of newspaper, statues and sculptures galore, taxidermy animals with extra limbs: you can spend anywhere from 2 hours to a full day inside this museum. 

They even have an entire section designed to shift your perspective and challenge your mind. 

This was the "can you connect all the gears to make one big working unit"

The exit of the museum is a black light lit tunnel where the room spins around you. (Don't worry, they also have a "cheaters" exit for people like me that get motion sickness..) and it leads you into the gift shop. 

Once outside, we took advantage of the photo op, which in my true fashion, required several attempts..

But all in all, a great day. As we walked back to the camper, we had lunch at the Village Inn restaurant, who boasted having the "best pie in America". Of course, that had to be put to the test. I can't speak for everyone else, but my Strawberry Rhubarb pie was pretty delicious.. and so was the burger I ate as my main dish. 

Some other things St. Augustine offers that we didn't get to do:

• Ponce De Leon's Fountain of Youth
• St. Augustine Pirate and Treasure Museum
• Countless ghost tours
• An Aquarium
• The first colony of Spanish Origins
• Taking the bridge across into Anastasia Island

Pretty much the entire rest of the city ;) 

I would love to go back and explore some more of this historical city! Oh and I would be totally ok with it if our next visit was NOT the middle of summer, during the hottest weeks of the year