Playing in St. Augustine FL [April 27 – May 1, 2016]

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... 

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. 

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.

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.

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.  

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.    

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. 

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.

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.