Where Did We Go?

---

Oh, Boy! When you think you have completed something and then realize you never did…..you have to wonder why. WHY??

I was starting to think about writing our next blog. I was sure we had published one about our St.Augustine trip. I searched through my 629 blogs……it wasn't there! Where was it? Where God, where? Had I deleted it during a crazed moment? Never! I was shaken and nauseous. Then the spark lit. I had put some of the trip photos on our Facebook page. I had never written a full blog about it with ALL the details, minutia and photos. Whew! I wasn't losing my mind. Obviously, I had not drunk from the Fountain of Youth when we visited it. It wouldn't have worked anyway. I am what I am. Lulu wanted to find the Fountain of Youth to help her memory but, sadly, she missed our trip to St. Augustine. She forgot to set her alarm clock and slept through our morning departure. Live and Learn, Lulu!

Lucky you! If you already saw our Facebook posting about our St.Augustine trip, you now have the opportunity to recap what you saw plus so much more. Hip-Hip-Hooray!!

Now….. I know this is way past due but remember, I thought I had already written it a month ago (but didn't). So hop aboard your trusty time machine and turn it back to December 12th & 13th. Ready? Okay….fasten your seatbelt.

Cory, Sandy Foreman and I decided a short adventure would be fun. Because it was the holiday season, the idea of seeing beautiful Christmas lights would be just the ticket. St.Augustine had their Night of Lights going on. Perfect. Of course, I also had an ulterior motive for giving my approval for this selection. I had seen advertisements for the Torture Museum in St.Augustine……I had to go…..this was right up my alley! I'm not really that morbid but the unusual does perk my interest. Plus, maybe I could find an idea if Cory gets out of line.

Yippee…..the three of us headed off on December 12th. We had reserved a motel for the night as we knew we couldn't do everything in one day…..plus the Night of Lights was obviously at night! Obviously!

Whoa….. what's happening…..where are we? OMG….Chauffeur Cory had pulled into a Buc-ee’s outside of Daytona. He knows how to please the ladies. DisneyWorld is not the only place where “Dreams Can Come True”….Buc-ee’s is right up there with it. We ran through its entrance. You could spend hours and hours in this place. Because we had places to go and things to do, we bought some tasty food and waved goodbye as he pulled out of the massive parking lot.

Next stop: St. Augustine. Thank God for our navigator Waze. We quickly found our motel: the Budget Inn. It advertised itself as being a fairly close walk to the center of the attractions. It had good reviews. It was a typical, vintage, one-story motel. The swimming pool had been filled in. No problem….the weather was cold! It was your basic, uninteresting room but it had been remodeled and was very clean. That's important. So we hauled our overnight bags into our separate rooms.

Time to travel to where the action was. Hmmmm. If we had decided to walk there (like the promotion said we could) , we would have had to hike a very long way over the Lion’s Gate drawbridge……with the cold air freezing us to death. Forget that! Too far and too cold. Cory returned to his role of Driving Two Miss Daisies.

Our friends, Joe & Bonnie, had recently been at an RV rally in St.Augustine. He gave us many helpful tips and maps. Cory maneuvered our car through crowded traffic, many pedestrians and very narrow streets. Joe suggested parking behind the famous Columbian restaurant. We did…it was perfect. There was no one to take our money but Honest Abe went in the restaurant to inquire. The receptionist checked for the parking attendant…..he was long gone! Cory gave the fellow the $10 plus Happy Holiday wishes. And we were off.

We knew we wanted to go to St. George Street. That was where most all the shops and restaurants were located. Sandy and Sam had visited this beautiful, OLD city so she could be our walking guide. We walked and walked. It was a fun area to roam and check everything out.

STOP! STOP! Right before my eyes was a sign for the Torture Museum! Wonderful! We debated about visiting it now or later. After my jumping up and down, the consensus was NOW! Hallelujah! There was just a small entrance to go through. Up an old staircase and we were in a “Shop of Horrors.” Cory paid our way as one fellow explained some of the exciting things we would see. My eyes were dancing. Cory and Sandy were much less enthusiastic but followed me through the doors. Sandy was able to get their “Talking Guide” on her phone so we were able to have a live description of each device and apparatus. The first room we entered was dreary and gloomy….so fitting. It had several mannequins displayed on various torture machines…..all looking very realistic. Blood, Gore, Pain…..it was so evident how these devices were truly torture and killing machines. We thought (and maybe my two companions hoped) that this was the only room. WRONG! We went from room to room to room……viewing 43 jaw-dropping forms of torture. I took pictures of them all. I wish I could share all of them with you but I know I have to contain myself and my desires. Sorry! But from the pictures I have included, I think you can get a good idea as to what some folks endured for whatever was their crime. What a place…..what a museum. I know The Louve and The Smithsonian Museums might be the epitome for some…..me: I had found mine on St.George St. In St. Augustine. YippiKaiYay. My two good-natured compatriots were happy to move on to our next point of interest.

We hadn't eaten so that was our next priority. We knew there was the original Harry’s Restaurant in St. Augustine. With no problem, we found it. We arrived like Seinfeld’s parents: early…so we beat the crowd. We had a great meal and an excellent server. Cory sucked down his Manhattan’s and raved profusely about them……kind of like what I did over the Torture Museum.

We needed to move our car closer to the site where we would board the tramcars for the Night of Lights tour. It advertised Free Parking but after we circled the city four times, Cory decided he had enough. He went to the parking garage where we thought we would have to pay $20. WOW! The stars were aligned correctly this night for us. After hearing Cory’s sad story and seeing my old handicap tag (remember my knees!), the guard waved us right through. Nice!! Torture Museum, Harry’s, Free Parking……what more could we ask? We were three very happy Musketeers.

We had ordered our tour tickets on line so we were good to go with our smartphones. We knew the weather was not the typical Florida heat we were used to. We had dressed appropriately for cold weather…..fortunately, we did ‘cause it was freezing! We had a good wait before boarding time but people watching made it pass quickly….well, kind of. Once on the tram, we were glad we had the clothing on that we did….it was all open air! Brrrrrrr. The tour was excellent. The trillions of lights were fabulous! They gave us little glasses to wear that enhanced what we were seeing…..lights became stars, and snowflakes fell all around. We were truly in a Winter Wonderland. After this magnificent tour, we were greeted with warm cider and a cookie. A very nice touch to a festive evening.

The next day started out kind of tragic. As many of you know, I love coupons. I had an envelope full of coupons in our car door holder. Well, somehow….this envelope fell out of the car when we were loading it up. My coupons were blowing all over the parking lot. I screamed hysterically. We all started running around like crazy people trying to catch them as the wind blew them all over the place. It was not easy but with all of us working together, I think we got them all. I'll never know otherwise. We were exhausted after this exercise.

After settling down, we decided to take another tour. This one would take us all around the City of St. Augustine with a guide pointing out all the highlights in the daytime. We met the Tram at the Old Jail area. We visited their General Store and Spice Store. The General Store had the hundreds of alligator heads that you can see in my photos. The weather was a tad warmer than at night. We saw many places we had heard about: the Fountain of Youth, the Fort, Flagler College, the Oldest House and so much more. Cory and Sandy sat in one seat and I took the one ahead of them. I could slide from one side to the other to take my photos. It was a fun tour.

It was time to leave this FunSpot that we had found. Cory headed south. One more stop to make. Driver Cory decided to drive our car on Daytona Beach. A while back, Cory and I had done this after the bad Hurricane to see the destruction along the shoreline. Because the weather was still chilly, very few people were on the beach. We saw where some repairs and reconstruction had been done but there was still a lot of devastation left untouched. Sad.

And that was our trip. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. Making memories…… that's what it's all about. We have another trip planned for the future but that's for another blog. In the meantime, I still owe you one about the rest of December and half of January. Luckeeeee you! It will be arriving fairly soon. Rest up! Check out the 26 photos….scroll way down.

---

Comments

[John Perry Peterson]

Pictures
Thanks Sandy for the wonderful pictures.

[Sandy and Cory]

You are welcome!
Glad to know you are still following us.