Forts, Family, and Friends

On Saturday the kids each earned at least three Junior Ranger badges. Our first stop was Fort Frederica in Georgia. Our second stop was Kingsley Plantation in Jacksonville, Florida. The plantation owner's wife was a freed slave. It was definitely surprising to hear that as a free woman she owned slaves herself. Our third National Park site that day was Fort Caroline which is also part of the Timucuan Ecological and Historical Preserve. My friend, Jo, whom I met online in 2003 lives less than ten minutes from Fort Caroline. Over the past years we've met in person three times in Pennsylvania and now twice in Florida. The last time we met at the Jacksonville Zoo in May of 2013. I had previously met her husband and two eldest children, but this was the first time I met her five-year-old daughter, Eden. We spent a few hours at their house and had a lovely time. The kids played games together and also enjoyed meeting their kittens, and the adults enjoyed chatting together. Jo served a delicious dinner. Over the last nine years I've seen my Aunt Tina twice in Florida, once in Virginia (my dad's wedding), and twice in Maryland (funerals). Nine years ago, we spent time with Tina at the zoo, her apartment and swimming pool, and a beach near her home in Ponte Vedra Beach. On this trip she was originally planning to meet us on Sunday in St. Augustine, but due to car trouble, she asked her best friend to drive her to our hotel on Saturday evening. She and Janice spent about two hours visiting with us at the indoor pool at our hotel. It wasn't exactly the most photogenic place for photos, but we got some. Sadly, I forgot to take more pictures at my friend's house. I only snapped one showing Noah, Ian, and Nadia playing a game together. I had originally thought of trying to also connect with two friends from my childhood who live in Atlanta on this trip, but when it turns out they live west of Atlanta. I'm thankful that we were able to spend time with dad, Margie, Tina, and Jo's family. 

We visited forts #14-15 on Sunday. The kids enjoyed these two the most of the five we saw on this vacation. Our first stop was Castillo de San Marcos, which was a Spanish fort built in St. Augustine over 300 years ago. Oliver just earned a badge. Ian and Nadia earned both a badge and a patch. And they each received a Spanish "gold" doubloon after they played a game the soldiers played hundreds of years ago. On both Saturday and Sunday mornings we had a very nice hot breakfast. We typically don't eat lunch on vacation. We had packed sandwiches for our first day, and we had lunch with dad and Margie the second day, but since then we haven't had lunch. It's much easier to skip lunch when we have a nice breakfast. You could argue that our lunch yesterday was chocolate because we participated in a chocolate tasting tour at Whestone Chocolate from 11:15-12:15. We learned about the history of chocolate and this company in particular, walked through the factory (which wasn't in operation since we were there on a Sunday), and tasted five different kinds of chocolate plus one kind of fudge. Our tour guide was hysterical! Paul's favorites were the San Marco blend white chocolate and the cookies and cream fudge. Nadia's favorite was the De Leon blend dark chocolate that contained 47% cocoa. The healthiest one we ate was the Menendez blend dark chocolate that had 72% cocoa. My favorite was the Aviles blend milk chocolate, which had 31% cocoa. Paul and the kids each purchased a treat of some sort in the gift shop after our tour concluded. There are so many different sites one can visit in St. Augustine. The kids wished I had included the Alligator Farm on the itinerary. I hadn't because we visit Reptiland near our home once a year. I'm going to try to keep that request in mind for future reference now that I know they would have enjoyed that. We had planned to visit the lighthouse, but it was closed for renovations. Our last stop in St. Augustine was Fort Matanzas. It was a smaller fort, but we rode a free ferry out to the fort, climbed up a steep ladder through a very narrow hole to get to the top of the fort, and enjoyed seeing a variety of animals on a nature trail such as gopher tortoises, lizards, crabs, etc.  Oliver just earned a badge. Ian and Nadia earned both a badge and a patch. I should also add that it's such a relief not to need to wear masks at National Parks like we had to in 2021. COVID hasn't really been a factor at all on this vacation so far, which is a first in 2+ years.

We had an early dinner at Texas Roadhouse and played miniature golf before we checked in at our hotel at Daytona Beach. Paul came in first at miniature golf, I was second, Ian was third, and Oliver came in fourth. The kids each made at least one hole in one, but Paul and I didn't accomplish that feat. This hotel doesn't include a free breakfast, so we'll be stopping at Dunkin Donuts this morning. Since this place also doesn't have a swimming pool, we let the kids swim in the ocean last night. I picked a suite that had two bedrooms plus two sofa beds. Since Nadia usually has the sofa bed on our vacations, we let her have one of the queen size beds, and the boys each slept on a sofa bed in the living room. They usually sleep together in the same bed on vacation, so they enjoyed having their own beds last night. 

It has rained a few times during our vacation thus far, but it's never rained when we've been outside for which we are thankful. It was really hot on Thursday and Friday, but since we were at the beach on Friday, the only time it really bothered us was on Thursday. Despite using sunscreen many times that day, Ian and Nadia both got sunburned pretty badly on Friday. Today is our next day at the beach. We're using different sunscreen and hoping they don't get any more sunburn today! As for my ankle, it bothered me quite a bit when we were walking on the beach last night, but in general it hasn't been much of a factor at all on this trip! I'm so thankful that unlike our last vacation I'm not wearing a boot, using crutches, using office chairs as wheelchairs, etc. I'm not taking my mobility for granted!!!

Fort Matanzas