Summer Holiday Recap in St. Augustine Beach

Well, well, well. Here I sit trying to figure out how to get back on my blogging path. I started yesterday with my Menu Plan Monday explaining the 21 Day fix, but overall it has been a really long and wonderful summer. My last post was during my anniversary week, which my husband spent in Los Angeles, after he got home everything got crazy. In fact, I finished a ton of posts for that week and I wound up never finishing them, but I have them scheduled throughout the rest of this month so I'm reliving it all. During this time it was the kiddo's last week of school, it was my friend's last week here so we were bouncing all around trying to see each other (only reason the expat life sucks, people come and go), and then we booked last minute trip to visit my parents in Florida, whom we hadn't seen in two years, since our last visit there in the summer of 2013! So, basically I haven't been blogging because I have been super busy living life! I am returning though with a heart full and ready to share so much with all of you!

Today, I want to share with y'all our time in Florida over July and August and hopefully give you some super fun ideas to plan your next family vacation as there really is more to Florida than Miami and Mickey Mouse!

The first place I am going to highlight is St. Augustine. I seriously cannot say enough about this wee little city. It is not only our nations oldest city, celebrating it's 450th Anniversary this week, but it full of so many fun activities!

Beach, beach, and more beach!

We vacation in Crescent Beach, which is just south of the St. Augustine Beach Pier.

It is really beautiful and there are many places to rent along the beach. It is less populated than the popular pier area and you can still drive on parts of the beach, although I wouldn't recommend unless you are experienced.

Obviously I think catching a sunrise is the bees knees, but if you are at the beach during a full moon a moon rise is pretty darn majestic.

Once you're on the beach it is always fun to check out the wildlife.

Wildlife 

Eating a crab for breakfast.

A full muscle this is rare.

These were just a sampling of the fun things we saw on our walk. The starfish, if they were alive I threw them back, which is why I was holding the one, he was moving quite a bit so I threw him back, I threw the fish back too although it totally freaked my teenager out.

While we were there the shark life was very active as well. A number of fishermen caught the small ones and there was a decent size one swimming in the surf as well one day. We saw a stingray and some dolphins as well!

Surf

In this area there are several places to rent a board that are extremely affordable. They all offer lessons as well. We rented from the Surf Station, they have a little "sub station" South of the original Surf Station on A1A next to South Beach Grill. This was walking distance down the beach from my parents place and we were able to surf down the beach on our trek to bring the board back...the guy mentioned that was a first ;)

Stand Up Paddle Board/Kayak
I sadly have no photos as we didn't get a waterproof camera this time around and I have no special case for my phone. But, if you go out to Anastasia State Park and go down to Anastasia Water Sports they have a great shack there with all sorts of sporting equipment to rent. It is the same place we rented in 2013 with my brother and sister in law. (P.S. Get the ice cream...its call Big Kahuna or something cheesy but it is freaking amazing! Best enjoyed in the pouring rain ;))

Go to the Farmer's Market
The one on Wednesday at the Pier is my absolute favorite. Boiled peanuts, great produce, and a fab natural soap stand. Go check it out.

This photo actually has a cute story. Our friend had a dollar in his wallet from the last time he was in the U.S. When my hubby came home for a week he gave it to him to spend and my hubby forgot, so we took the dollar and put it to good use, sent this photo to him so he'd know what his dollar bought! ha!

Our market spoils of fresh peaches, watermelon, all sorts of veggies, and boiled peanuts of course!

Visit Downtown St. Augustine
There is The Fort, George Street, a beautiful cathedral, and the Lions Gate Bridge, and an awesome carousel and park. Go visit. Now.

At the Fort.

More of The Fort.

On George Street.

On the carousel. This carousel is quite old, much older than me in fact! There is also a park here and it is located next to the local library!

Shopping at the Outlet Mall
We didn't take any photos here but we sure did buy a lot of freaking clothes. We always hit this place up when we come back. It has improved a lot since I left there in 2000, if you want a deal, this is your place.

St. Augustine truly is a favorite place of mine to visit. There is even so much more to do than I have listed here, this is just what we did this trip. What is your favorite vacation destination?

Travel the World in Books: Totaled by Stacy Grice

After reading a few heavier titles like Gargoyle and A Long Way Gone I was looking for something a little more "fun" to read, something with some actual physical romance in it, and a book that talked about sites and things I was familiar with. Totaled was the answer to that!

Totaled was written by someone I know, Stacy Grice. She is more a friend of a friend. Went to high school with my husband and college with my bff...so, of course I had to pick up this book!

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Bree Murphy is stuck. Forced to grow up too fast after the tragic death of her mother, she has little time for any sort of life for herself. Now in her early twenties, she is coming to the realization that she deserves to put herself first.

Drew Dougherty is also stuck, in a state of merely existing. Memories and secrets of the day he lost both of his parents haunt him, forcing him to cope the only way he knows how...by fighting.

When these two worlds collide, hidden truths are revealed and relationships are put to the ultimate test. At a crossroad in their lives, they must decide if taking a risk is worth everything.

Or will their love be…

Totaled.

It takes place near my hometown in Fernandina Beach, FL. Which really is what drew me to the book, I love reading stories where the scenery is familiar and I can literally imagine myself driving or walking where they are, or even remembering things that happened to me when in that spot.

The story is well written, told from the point of view of the two main characters, Bree and Drew. I really enjoy these stories, because in a love story, or romance, especially I think seeing both sides is really important. It makes the story not seem so desperate as it does when it is told just from one side. There is a great balance of "action", fighting and romance, to keep you hooked and wanting to get to the end as quick as possible!

These two characters have  made their way into my heart and the end was a killer, I was not happy with her "cliffhanger"...she better get to writin' so I can know what happens!

Sea Turtle Action

So, I am really terrible about organizing my pictures. As I was going through them recently I came across a lot of pictures and stories I never told of our vacation to Florida in 2013.

We stayed for two weeks at my parents beach home in St. Augustine, FL. If you haven't been to St. Augustine and you live within a days drive-GO! Seriously, I don't know what you are waiting for....aside from the beach there is so much to do there. It is a fantastic place, and I basically grew up there and never get sick of it! Anyway, back to the turtles....

This was a fantastic trip and there was a lot of late season sea turtle action happening. Usually by late July all the turtles have laid their eggs and a lot of hatching is happening, but this time around we saw tons of tracks....

One other amazing thing that happened....my brother and I went for a very late night walk around midnight, neither of us could sleep and needed some quality sibling time I suppose so thought a walk and a drink would do us some good. Well, we happened to get lucky and actually saw a turtle who had just laid her eggs and was covering the hole, then made her way back to the ocean. We of course watched from afar as she made her way back to the ocean but it was pretty amazing, something most people never get to see.

We didn't get pictures of her because 1) we didn't have our phones and 2) we would have needed a flash and the turtles are very sensitive to light. The positioning of the moon guides them to and from the ocean, so any lights on shore and things like flashlights and camera flashes can disturb this, so if you ever see one just know your memories are good enough, let them alone and quietly, from afar watch them. Also, never ever touch them or the eggs.

Another interesting thing about the turtle we saw is she laid her nest really far down on the shore, super close to the ocean. There may have been something wrong with her as we've never seen a nest that close to the ocean, even the "turtle patrol" woman said it is very unusual for that to happen.

This was after the "turtle patrol" had come by, they saw the nest and were worried the eggs would get crushed by passers by or be endangered by the incoming tide, plus it was right in the middle of the driving path so they moved the nest, higher up.

This is the nest after they moved it.

Crabs can sometimes dig down and will eat on the eggs, that hole indicates something most likely got down there. :( There are several other predators that can snack on the eggs so these little guys have a lot to go through to try and survive.

Here are some more fun next pictures:

We wanted a picture with the nest, this was a good as it was going to get ;)

You can see from this picture how close that next we saw was to the ocean, I was standing at the shoreline....

Once the "turtle patrol" finds a nest they mark it with pink ribbon, then as the gestational period goes on they then mark it with different colored ribbons and will add cones around it as it gets closer to hatching to keep people away. The patrol will come down and check on the nests and make sure all the turtles made it, if there are some stuck they will help un-stick them or they will dispose of them if they didn't make it,. They also use this I believe to sort of track the turtle population.

This sign goes on all nests because believe it or not people are dumb enough to disturb these nests and steal eggs...

 Nests at sunrise....so beautiful!

If you want to read a little more on Florida sea turtles check out these websites:

Sea Turtle Conservancy

Vilano and Crescent Beach Turtle Patrol

Fish and Wildlife Research Institute Turtle Research

Sea Turtle Tracking

This was one of the greatest experiences of my life and I was so excited to see it with my brother because I hadn't seen him in nearly 4 years! So, the fact that we, like idiots, went on a late night walk with no flashlights during a full moon and got so lucky was fantastic! Spontaneity has its perks! 

Have you ever seen a turtle lay eggs or seen some hatch?

Will My Days Ever Be Normal Again?!

Well, today is Tuesday. I arrived home from my nearly month long holiday way too late last night. Today I woke up way too early for a wayward traveler at 6am, threw in a T25 video to complete, jumped in the shower, fixed some cereal and a banana (thankfully my wonderful Mr. did a little shopping for me on Sunday) jumped in the car and began the three hour sojourn to Seattle-Tacoma International to pick up the teenager's dear friend who flew all the way up here from Florida. Let me tell you, I may sleep the next three days! My internal clock is all kinds of messed up. I can say though we have had a ton of fun. I do love traveling and being busy so this really has been super fun for me. In keeping with my travels for just a little longer I am going to share a fun activity we did during our vacation....kayaking!!!

This took quite a bit of discussion because my brother and his wife had never been kayaking before. My brother is the type of guy who won't really jump into anything with out really knowing how to do it. He wanted to do a guided tour but I wanted to take the teenager and wasn't paying $100 for a guided tour. So, I convinced him to go to Anastasia Water Sports. We called 24 hours in advance to reserve two tandem kayaks. When we got there at 9:15, just 15 minutes after they opened they were ready to go. They asked us to give them a little time to get everything all set up because they open at nine which really means they get there at 9 ;)....life is a beach afterall! So, the guy gives us a little instruction (it is pretty much get in and paddle lol) and we were off. If you've never been you do get a little wet when kayaking so make sure you bring a water proof camera or a case for your camera. I wouldn't really recommend bringing a cell phone or anything like because I think it would detract form getting in touch with nature.

Anastasia Water Sports is located in Anastasia State Park off of Salt Run. Salt run is a nature preserve area so when you go out you can expect to see a lot of wild life! But, as you pull out if you are going out a low tide you'll easily be able to touch the bottom of the run. There are also lots of people out fishing and one guy was even sitting in his beach chair in the middle of the run! So, going at low tide is a great time to go if you were wanting to get out of your kayak at all. The guy who helped us load into our kayak's even said that a lot of people get out at the sandbar's and tan, swim, etc. So, as we begin to kayak there are tons of fish jumping and a lot of birds. We then came along a couple of, what we believe, are porpoises swimming and jumping because they were obviously finding some good food! I got this great picture of them swimming and even got a great video! Check those out here:

Porpoises splashing!

It was such an amazing experience I was so glad to get to share that with my kiddo! We were even able to work the tandem kayak together really well....(last time was a nightmare lol). So, we kayaked for a while it was probably a couple of miles...we did a total of two full hours! We went all the way down to the lighthouse and close to the Conch House Marina. The kiddo an I were getting tired so we didn't go the full way to the Marina but my brother & sister in law did and they said it was beautiful. The kiddo and I just sort of floated around the run, enjoyed the quiet, and just the nice bonding time. 

Have to be careful in this area as there are "rocks"...obviously lol!

I approve of this activity! Tons of fun!

All-in-all I definitely recommend Anastasia Water Sports. They have the best prices I've found in town for renting and they seem to have plenty of kayaks to go around. The people who work the desk seemed very organized and super polite.

This was my favorite activity we did on vacation I think. It was peaceful, we got a lot of sun, I got to spend time with three of my favourite people in the world, two of which I don't get to see too often. I will say though kayaking isn't necessarily for the faint of heart. It takes a lot of upper body work so I wouldn't take anyone under age 10.