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| Arggghhh matey - Russ goes native at the Pirate Museum |
St. Augustine is really set up for tourists with lots of fun things to do. In addition to
the interesting historical sites, we also did some stuff just for
fun...
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| Our shady spot on St. Augustine's Crescent Beach - lots of fine, white sand. |
St. Augustine Beaches
allow dogs on a leash; Florida beaches are usually off limits to dogs. So, we spent the day at Crescent Beach, which
is the beach the furthest south. The
sand is fine and white. You can drive on
the beach, but this beach only allowed 4-wheel drive because there hadn’t been
rain recently to pack down the upper sand areas where you drive. The beach is wide enough to set up an
area of umbrellas and chairs and not be aware of the cars driving behind
you.
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| Shallow water at Crescent Beach |
The water is very shallow here, so
the waves were very gentle.. Since Tiki
was with us, we decided to buy umbrellas to shade all 3 of us. The shady spot was so comfortable that Dana
was lulled into a 2-hour nap by the sound of the waves lapping on the
beach. We enjoyed a nice take-out lunch
from a nearby restaurant before the nap, and a walk on the beach after.
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| Blackbeard's Flag |
Pirates Museum was
really more fun than Dana thought it would be.
Of course, Russ loves pirate stuff, so he was in his element. The museum has some genuine pirate artifacts
(like Blackbeard’s flag), and presents an interesting and informative narrative
of piracy on the East Coast and particularly Florida. It also has some silly special effects, like
a display of a sleeping pirate that actually breathes with his chest moving up
and down. It was lots of fun, and Russ
got a genuine, temporary pirate tattoo for the occasion.
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| The sign and stills say it all |
St. Augustine
Distillery is only 2 years old. It
makes and sells rum, vodka and gin. They
also have some bourbon aging that they will start selling in a few years. They purchase most of their ingredients from
local sources. For instance, the vodka
is made from an heirloom sugar cane that is grown nearby. The gin botanicals include lemon peel from
local lemons. Everything is small batch
produced and the actual distilling space is quite small.
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| Bourbon aging |
The free tours run every half hour. You wait for the tour in a museum room that
tells about their distilling process, and the history of the Ice Plant building
that they have restored and share with a restaurant. The tour starts with a 10 minute film about
the founding of the distillery and the local growers that supply them. The actual tour is about 10 minutes in the
distilling area (which was disappointingly brief for us), followed by 10
minutes in the tasting room. They made
us Florida Mules and New World Gin and Tonics to taste. They sell the ingredients for these drinks in
addition to the vodka and gin. We were
disappointed because we couldn’t really taste the spirits themselves for all
the other flavors in the mixed drinks, and it seemed like the tasting was
marketing the other ingredients as heavily as marketing the spirits.
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| The ice plant building they have restored and re-purposed |
The distillery was founded with local investors. One of the investors gave us a really
interesting talk about how the company came to be funded, and the efforts they
had to go through to be able to sell their own product at the distillery. We bought some gin and vodka and tasted them
that night. Great taste, lots of botanicals in the gin and a very smooth, tasty
vodka. We both think the rum is
(disappointingly) too raw, so will drink it with lots of other flavors mixed in
to it.
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| We requested and received a shady campsite at Compass RV Park |
Compass RV Park
is a located less than a 15 minute drive from downtown St. Augustine.
It was recently purchased, and the new owners
have brought in a fabulous management couple.
The four of them have really done a marvelous job sprucing up the park
and making it a fun and desirable place to stay.
They have put in improvements like concrete
patios and a new laundry room without disturbing the “old Florida” charm of
shady oak trees draped in Spanish moss.
While we were there they were installing 4
trailers that you can rent for a St. Augustine vacation or a fun weekend with
family or friends.
Every Saturday night there is live musical entertainment on
a small stage near a campfire pit.
Campers who feel the urge may perform in addition to the scheduled
singers. While we were there we heard a
French Canadian couple who played guitar and sang several songs for us in
French. We generally don’t talk about
where we stay in this blog, but we feel that this campground is special and
deserves a mention.
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| Enjoying lunch at Harry's Seafood Bar and Grille |
Harry’s Seafood Bar
and Grille is a New Orleans style restaurant in old town St.
Augustine. It has a marvelous, walled,
outdoor courtyard with lovely trees shading you while you eat. The food was delicious. The lovely atmosphere and good food make this
restaurant worth a mention as well.
While we are talking restaurants, we ordered a pizza from
the De Leon Pizza, just 5 minutes
from Compass RV Park. The large pizza was huge and tasty.
We called and ordered on the way home from a long day on our feet, and
the yummy, easy meal was welcome.
