Tuesday morning we left for St. Augustine, Florida. We had a few objectives for the trip, all of which we met successfully. First, I have never been to St. Augustine and have wanted to visit there for a long time. Second, my cousin, Mary Lee, used to live there and her son and daughter in law (Tom and Vicki) still live there, so we had a chance to visit with some family. And, third, Neil wanted some Dunkin' Donuts -- badly.
We first went to Pensacola Naval Air Station so I could pick up some prescriptions at the hospital and then we meandered down to St. Augustine. We stayed in Jacksonville Tuesday night since our reservation in St. Augustine wasn't until Wednesday. On Wednesday, the weather was spectacular - sunny and warm. We left the expressway in Jacksonville and traveled on US 1 (maybe?) where we found a Dunkin' Donut. Then we got to St. Augustine early and visited the historic district and walked around, bought some stuff, had some food, and had a good time. When Mary Lee arrived we went to the fort and looked around there. Then we repaired to the motel (a real, 1950's motel - clean but that's about all) and regrouped for dinner. Dinner at The Conch House was delicious and we had a great time catching up on family news.
Thursday was very rainy, so we went to the Lightner Museum for several hours and had a wonderful time looking at stuff and visiting - had lunch and so on and so forth. We met for dinner and drove over to Vicki and Tom's house where we had drinks and then went to dinner. I had not seen Tom since he was around 2 years old and since he is a couple of years older than Bryarly, we had a lot of catching up to do. I had never met Vicki, so it was a wonderful opportunity to get to know them.
Friday we had breakfast together and then we all headed home. We arrived in time to pick up Maddy at the Copeland Pet Motel and Grooming Salon, so that made us very happy, indeed. I had offered to go get her myself on Saturday and save Neil from the bother of driving over there, but he saw through my offer immediately and realized that it would seem as if I had rescued her after he abandoned her so he didn't accept my offer.
Anyway, we had a wonderful visit and we are looking forward to seeing everyone again in the winter.
