mickey916
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2009
4/3 Traveling to Ormond Beach, stopping at St. Augustine
We woke up early again and were on the road by 7:30 am, heading to St. Augustine. As we drove down I-95 it started to rain as hard as it could possibly rain. Driving was slow and treacherous. Our four hour drive ended up taking five. We arrived in the parking lot at Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine around 12:30. It was still pouring.
Here’s the view from our windshield:
![Screenshot (50).png Screenshot (50).png](https://www.disboards.com/data/attachments/863/863265-d2cd751e426c96107b084d8a39c26033.jpg)
We decided to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in the car as we waited for some relief from the storm.
My DH had recently read a biography of Henry Flagler so I booked the legacy tour at Flagler College at 2:00 to see inside his original St. Augustine hotel. After our lunch it became clear the rain wasn’t letting up and we needed to make our way to our tour. So, we donned our Tevas and raincoats, grabbed umbrellas, and made our way to Flagler College. There was so much rain that some of the streets were completely flooded and we had to wade through water at least a foot deep. It was crazy!
The tour was led by a Flagler College sophomore who was a marine biology major. She did an excellent job showing us around the “hotel”, describing in detail the symbolism of all the ornate decorations. It was definitely the Gilded Age at its peak. It was a rather inexpensive tour and definitely worth a stop if you’re in St. Augustine.
The skies had started to clear a bit so after our tour we walked around the historic district of St. Augustine. The crowds were pretty light due to the bad weather so it was easy to get around. After walking around for a bit we stopped at Peace Pie for dessert before dinner. We shared two different Peace Pies and the server cut them for us. First we had the key lime pie, ”Our Delicious Key Lime Pie Mousse with a Scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream Served Between Our Crunchy Cinnamon Shortbread Cookies.”
This was very good! The cinnamon shortbread cookies were delicious and the key lime flavor wasn’t too tart.
Next, we had the Chocolate Peanut Butter Praline, Chocolate Ice Cream, Peanut Butter Mousse, Caramel, Pecans, Chocolate Shortbread Cookies.
This was excellent! The caramel added a nice sweetness and the pecans added crunchiness. Who can argue with chocolate ice cream and peanut butter topping between chocolate cookies? Definitely our favorite of the two, but both were very good.
The rain had stopped so we walked around the grounds of the Castillo de San Marcos before heading to our car.
As we were planning our trip we knew exactly where we were headed for dinner. Last year we had attempted to eat at the Gas Full Service Restaurant but it was closed the couple days we were there. A little after 4:00, we drove to the restaurant to find it was closed but a sign said it would re-pen at 4:00. A server saw us outside and let us in. She explained that the heavy rains had caused a roof leak so they had to close for a bit to fix the damage.
We decided to try two different burgers and share them. First, the Island Burger: seared with island steak sauce, island slaw, grilled pineapple, Thai chili aioli, lettuce and tomato.
Sounds and looks incredible, right? It wasn’t. First of all, it was really hard to eat, just way too tall. Also it had very little flavor. Looking at the photo now I don’t know how that’s possible but we were both disappointed. I think the issue was lack of seasoning on the burger itself.
We also ordered the Half Tank burger: ½ pound chargrilled burger topped with housemade pimento cheese, full service slaw, applewood smoked bacon, fried pickles, lettuce, tomato and onion.
This too was very challenging to eat and lacked flavor. When we look back at these photos, we can’t help but wonder why we didn’t love these burgers but they were “all show no go”.
We had many burgers on this trip and these two ranked at the bottom of our list. The fries also weren’t great, also lacking in seasoning.
In addition, the service was very slow. Overall it wasn’t a great experience despite excellent reviews online. The only thing we can figure was that the roof damage earlier in the day had thrown things off for them a bit.
After dinner we headed to our VRBO for the next few days in Ormond Beach. We are usually “hotel people” but I couldn’t find too much in the Ormond Beach area. Last year we stayed in the Hampton Inn Palm Coast which was awful. (See details here: 2023 Road trip). VRBOs make us a little nervous as you never know what to expect, but we decided to give it a try.
Up next…how was our trip’s first VRBO rental at Ormond Beach?
Edit to add: Total step count: 13,646
Last edited: