A Little Getaway

This past week, Mitch and I ran away for a bit to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. Over those 25 years, we have grown a lot, learned a lot and had many adventures. As I reviewed our photos from the trip, I see many gray hairs and a lot more wrinkles.

While I dreamed of an international adventure for our 25th, life had other plans. So we decided to visit the oldest city in the United States, St. Augustine, FL. It is a city full of history, Spanish charm and delicious food. If you are ever looking for a Southern getaway that is tropical, but still within a day’s drive, St. Augustine may be your kind of city.

We stayed at a wonderful Bed & Breakfast right on the bay, Bayfront Westcott House. We took full advantage of the happy hour each evening, starting right when we arrived. They offered wine, beer, cold soft drinks, and plates of goodies like cheese, hummus and crackers. We enjoyed a drink on the porch of Westcott House while easing into the humidity of the Deep South.

One trick we have learned along the way in our travels is to ask the locals where to eat. Most inn owners and their staff are more than happy to share their favorites with you. There is nothing wrong with the touristy-type places. Often they are famous for a reason. But usually people are thrilled to share their own everyday favorites.

Armed with some suggestions, we headed out to find our first full meal in St. Augustine. The place we chose was one of those places that is popular with the locals AND the tourists. We got in a loooooong line for Harry’s Seafood Bar & Grille. Thankfully, some folks in line before us decided to bail out, and our wait didn’t end up being as long as predicted.

Another secret to our vacation success, as well as our marriage, is that we like to share dishes when we are out. This doesn’t work for everyone. But we like to share so we can try more good stuff. We decided to share an order of crab cakes with a side of sweet corn grits.

Harry’s is New Orleans style, so everything had a wonderful, spicy warmth to it. We dined on our meal in their outdoor courtyard, eating with the snails and tree frogs very close to us. The crab cakes were amazing, but the sweet corn grits were my favorite. I may have to figure out how to make those at home.

One of the reasons we shared an order of crab cakes at Harry’s was so that we had room left over to enjoy dessert from Cousteau’s Waffle and Milkshake Bar. This fun and unique little shop is a must if you visit St. Augustine. It is obviously themed after the deep sea explorer. You even can get a 10% discount if you come in wearing a red beanie. We ordered a Bond Company Stooge to share. It was a Creme brûlée waffle, topped with fresh strawberries and whipped cream.

I would have liked to sample even more, but I was very full. We may have gone back again to sample a delicious milkshake, too, but there were too many other treats to try throughout the city.

Our Bed & Breakfast provided full breakfasts each morning, which were easily customized to your preferences. We chose to start with fruit bowls each day and they were always a fantastic combination of fresh, in season melons, berries and peaches. The main food was an egg dish each day and we chose a sweet treat with each breakfast, too. The breakfasts were well-balanced and filling and set us up nicely for exploring each day.

We decided to take a trolley tour of the city the first full day, so we could see everything there was to see and do and plan the rest of our visit accordingly. After our tour, we were ready for meal number 2 of the day, and set out to find a local dive that came highly recommended from the staff at the B&B. We walked down St. George St. to find Burrito Works Taco Shop. This place is visually not impressive, but the food was unbelievably good. We got the UFO, which is a bit like a Taco Bell Crunch Wrap but sooo much better.

We chose to fill ours with Green Chili Pork and made it Baja Style. Again, we shared it and it was indeed out of this world.

After refueling, we set out in the pouring rain to tour Whetstone Chocolate Factory. Tours in food facilities are not what they used to be. We listened to our tour guide explain the process of making chocolate, then got to walk through the plant, which had no working chocolatiers or anything really in progress. But we watched some chocolates run through the wrapping machine, where they were wrapped in gold foil and handed right to us to enjoy. The chocolates are delicious and we purchased some to bring home, like good little tourists.

From there, we walked to St. Augustine Distillery for one of the last “tours” of the day there. Again, these kind of tours are not what they used to be. We walked up to a counter and received a small shot of a cocktail mixed with their rum and one of their mixers. Then we walked around to read about their process and ended up at a second counter for 2 more cocktail samples. We finally ended at the bourbon bar for an old fashioned sample and then free reign of tasting of all of their bourbons.

This is where the lion’s share of our souvenir money went. We helped support small business in a big way at this stop. We decided on a limited production bottle of their Saint label bourbon. Our bottle was 232 of 300. This is a special occasion bourbon for sure, but also a fun memory for our anniversary.

Having filled up on chocolates and booze, we didn’t need a huge dinner, so we ventured to another hole in the wall for pizza. Pizza Time is famous with tourists for having the reputation for being a bit like the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld. Know what to order or get out of line. We ordered 2 slices without incident. I ordered a piece of Pomodoro pizza, with delicious chunky tomato sauce, Asiago cheese and basil. Mitch got pepperoni.

Day 2, we decided to venture out of town before the rain rolled in. Mitch had discovered a local state park along the A1A in Palm Coast, FL – Washington Oaks Gardens State Park. On one side of the road, you can find walking trails and a beautiful, tropical garden with water features, citrus trees and wildlife encounters. We were lucky enough to see a small hawk take a bath in one of the ponds. It was really a welcome respite after the crowds in the narrow streets of the city.

After a lovely time in the gardens, we drove across the street to the beach side of the same state park. The coast line there was full of coquina rocks covered in seaweed, the largest grouping on the Atlantic coast. We dipped our toes into the water, but didn’t linger long, as another storm was making it’s way toward us.

We ran to find late lunch at a local resort that pleases locals and tourists alike, and features tables in tiki huts along the marina. Alas, by the time we reached The Conch House it was a torrential downpour. We got very wet heading inside. The food was worth the rain, even though it would have been much more fun in a tiki on a sunny day. We shared a tiki drink called the Goombay Smash and I got a Caribbean Shrimp Salad and Mitch got Pulled Pork Tacos.

After a late lunch and running in the rain, we decided to take advantage of the happy hour at the B&B again, then have ice cream for dinner. We found a local place called Mayday Ice cream. It is locally churned unique flavors. We ordered a flight that had 6 mini scoops of different flavors. We tried Sizzling Peach, which featured St. Augustine’s Datil Peppers and fresh summer peaches. It was strange but not horrible. We also tried Parent Trap, which had peanut butter ice cream with Oreos mixed in. That was delicious. We tried Coffee & Donuts, which had great coffee and very little donut flavor. We also tried Gillespie’s Bourbon Pecan which was very good, and Session Chocolate which was a chocolate lover’s dream. My favorite was Blackberry Earl Grey. I would definitely go back for more of that.

Our last day was spent trying to squeeze in a little more sight-seeing before we headed home, so no crazy food adventures, but we did make a second stop at a local coffee spot we found and loved – The Kookaburra. We tried 4 different coffee drinks there while we were in St. Augustine and wish we had one at home.

We dodged a lot of rain and a lot of tourists, but all in all it was a lovely time to get away for a little while. If you have the chance, I would recommend a visit to St. Augustine. There was still plenty more that we didn’t get to do or taste. We’ll have to leave that for another time.