Our Staycation

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So another year has crept up on me and we found our birthdays once again approaching very quickly. I say we because my birthday and my husbands birthday are exactly one week apart. He is exactly one year and one week older than me. Maybe it was just me, maybe the hours were getting shorter, or maybe it was the fact that it was my first birthday since I had baby and most days are just a blur. Regardless of the reason, I was turning another year older faster than I could ever remember before. Normally I would plan an adventures out of town trip to celebrate our birthdays. However, being that we just had a baby that wasn't happening. So my husband suggested taking the baby to grandma's house and just the two of us going to St. Augustine. We would still be leaving town, and only be a hop, skip, and jump away from the baby. And so we did just that.

So much had been going on leading up to the days of the trip that I still had not yet booked a hotel. We had looked at a few on line, but at the time was unable to decide on which one to go with. So I found myself on Priceline booking the hotel in route to our destination. I was so scared to look at the rates at this point. Booking last minute is usually not very economical. Instead, we scored a room at the Hilton Inn & Suites which regularly starts at $159 a night for only $89 a night. Since we started out the box saving money, I had a good feeling about this trip. We went to the hotel first to unload our luggage. I was very pleased with our room. It was more than I expected with marble tops and duvet covers. The only down side was that they only had double queen bed rooms left at that rate. Besides that, we was very pleased with our room.

Afterwards we went to the Sans Sebastian Winery. Here they offer a complimentary tour and wine tasting. Once we arrived the last tour had already began. We was still invited to be apart of the wine tasting, upon which we eagerly accepted. We learned that they use two kinds of grapes to make their wine. Hybrid grapes made at the University of Florida (Go gators) and Muscadine grapes. Out of the 6 different wines we tried the Vintners White was my favorite. We decided to go back the next day to actually take the tour. I'm so glad we did because the tour really gives you a great behind the scenes look at how they make their wine. On our last day we went back to the winery to purchase a few bottles as gifts for family. While we was there we noticed the next tour was going to start in 5 minutes. What else were we to do but go for it again. In total we took the tour twice and participated in the tasting three times. I must say each and every time it was a different experience. Each time we got a different tour guide, and each time we learned a lot more than we did the time before. On the third and final tour we did the wine tasting down in the cellar where the wine was actually aging in the old whiskey barrels. It was a great experience and I highly recommend checking it out, whether you are wine lover or not. After all, it's free and very informative.

As a Jacksonville, Florida native I've been to St. Augustine so many times. And in all my times, I had still not yet seen the iconic lighthouse. So this was a must do this time. Climbing 219 steps didn't sound bad at all, especially when the payoff was a magnificent view of St. Augustine and the Atlantic Ocean. Your admission includes the climb to the top and entrance to the museum. They have a lot of artifacts that I found to be very interesting. Seeing the Keeper's house, learning about the ship wrecks of St. Augustine, and seeing the actual lens which consists of 370 hand cut glass prisms was an experience I'm glad we didn't skip out on. Just a little tip, check the visitor's center at your hotel. They usually will have attraction books that contain coupons. It saved us 10% off our admission to the lighthouse. By the way the climb to the top was seemingly painless. That is until the next day. We was definitely feel the burn then.

Next we decided to check out Whetstone chocolate tour. They also give you a behind the scenes tour along with chocolate tasting. From the start of cacao bean to the melt in you mouth piece of chocolate. They explain to you step by step on how they make their fine artisan chocolates. As well as show you all the fancy machines they use to make them, and even how they wrap them. My favorite chocolate was De Leon Dark. My husband thought their milk chocolate was just decadent. It was another informative tour that lead to the purchase of some divine chocolates. Trust me, it's so good that even if you not a chocolate lover, they may just make you into one yet.

We also got really lucky on our choices for dining. On our first night we visited the A1A Ale Works. the service was less than par. But where that lacked the food made up. I ordered the Cedar Plank Pecan Crusted Salmon. I can't even describe into words how delicious and perfectly cooked it was. It was so good that one bite and my husband was immediately jealous of my choice selection. He ordered the Fisherman's platter which just OK in comparison to my dish. For the rest of the meal he kept eyeing my plate and he very intently watched me savor every little bite. Another great place to catch a bite is Aunt Kate's. We started our dinner off with an appetizer of Gator Tail. Fried in panko bread crumbs and served with a creamy orange sauce made it oh so good! This time my husband made the better selection on food. He ordered the New York strip and I ordered the Baby Back Ribs. Don't get me wrong, my food was good. But one bite of his tender, juicy, flavorful steak and suddenly knew what he had felt the night before. Plus, our server was on point. he didn't miss a beat. I recommend sitting outside during the evening. From there you can watch the sunset over the water. The view made for nice romantic end to the evening.

Over all we avoided all the major tourist things. Which by the way, all of the ghost tours we seen looked very fake. After seeing how they are conducted, we decided we would never spend our money on that. We did do a lot of walking. Which didn't bother me any because I absolutely love walking in downtown St. Augustine. Seeing historic buildings, visiting unique shops, and trying different foods makes the walking pleasant and enjoyable. Also, we had a coupon for just about everything so we saved quite of bit of money on our trip. On our last night we took a blanket and a bottle of wine to the beach which was right across the street from our hotel. It was so calming to just listen to the waves crash while looking up at the millions of stars in the sky. I won't go into any more depth about our time on the beach, instead I'll let your imagination do the rest. We really had a great time on our trip and was sad to leave. However, we was also extremely anxious to see our baby again. That concludes our staycation to St. Augustine, hope you enjoy your stay as much as we did.

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