A Florida Vacation PhotoJournal

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I've shared a bunch of Disney vacation pictures, but we did see a few other things on our recent Florida trip. We stopped in St Augustine for a couple of hours on our way down. I love this charming city with its rich history and lovely old Spanish quarter. We strolled through the historic shopping district and stopped at the Spanish Bakery and Cafe for lunch. (The Cuban sandwich is amazing!)

I'm not sure we would have realized that the Cathedral Basilica of St Augustine is open for visitors to see if a friend hadn't recommended it. We did step inside for a few minutes to admire the gorgeous Spanish-style architecture, beautiful murals and stained glass, and enjoy a bit of reflective peace and quiet. 

From there we walked back to the Castillo de San Marcos. We didn't have time to go inside, so we contented ourselves with walking around the outside of the fort's walls, and we did get to see the reenactors fire cannons!

And yes, this did count as a History field trip. It actually fit perfectly, because in our American History class, we had just discussed the early settlements in North America and St Augustine was mentioned. In fact, St Augustine is the oldest European settlement in the United States. (I wrote a High School Lesson Book post about it a few years ago: From the High School Lesson Book - St Augustine and St Mary's)

These pictures are from our 2008 visit to St. Augustine, when we did explore all of the castillo. 

Her face though. 😂

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That was on Sunday, and we spent Monday at the Magic Kingdom. On Tuesday, we relaxed at our condo, enjoyed the pool, and in the evening, we drove to Tampa to watch a preseason NHL game between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Florida Panthers.

pre-game selfie

 She's decided to cheer for the Lightning, so this was a bucket list item for her. And for real, when she insists on going to a hockey game, who are we to argue with that? We are delighted. We have hope that we've raised her right after all, since she's been a bit ambivalent about hockey sometimes. Now it would be ideal if she'd decide her favorite team was one of our favorites - especially if it was her dad's team, the Canadiens, since that's who she's named for . . . - but it could definitely be worse. We'll take it. (Train up a child in the way (s)he should go . . . 😉)

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Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were Disney days, and Saturday was another relax at the pool day. On Sunday we headed back north. We made a stop in Jacksonville to have a late lunch with good friends of ours. They recommended a place called Kickbacks Gastropub and it was easy to see why! Not only is the food amazing, the building itself is fascinating. There's a three-level addition to the original building, with steampunk style sculptures adorning the walls, which are covered with 1.1 million pennies.

View of the bar from the second level seating area:

 

Sculpture and pennies everywhere!

 

Our friends knew the owner, who happened to come by and greet them, so they asked if we could see the basement area. He kindly obliged, and we got a bit of a tour. We saw the refrigerated beer "catacombs" and the private beer lockers and private dining room.

 This is the small private room with the beer lockers. 

Over 200 beers on tap, and none of the tap handles on the ceiling are duplicates!

This post will be linked at Sometimes Wordless Wednesday, hosted by Tots and Me . . . Growing Up Together!

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