The Empty Nesters Magical Mystery Tour *1/28* Link to New Girl's TR p141

[DaveinFallsChurch]

Love your updates on St. Augustine - makes me want to visit. Over the weekend I helped DD studying for her 2nd grade test on explorers and one of them just happened to be Ponce De Leon. DD had to remember that he explored Florida near St. Augustine - now I have pictures to go along with her studies

 

[POLY1985]

I'm enjoying your side trip to St. Augustine. The pictures are so beautiful, especially Flagler College. Your lunch looked so good!

 

[khertz]

The architecture you captured is just lovely. There's really no other way to put it! And the beach pictures look so peaceful. I'm not a big fan of actually being on the beach because I hate how sand gets EVERYwhere, but I do appreciate photos of a beautiful beach.

 

[annmarieda]

First, thank you for the link. I took a peak. I would far prefer a visit to something like than than a full day on the beach. I like history. Honestly though, I wish it was something more like St. Augustine.

Your pictures simply are amazing. They could be used as a travel promo brochure. I really felt like by the end I wanted desperately to go there! Especially the college tour. OMG! That was spectacular!!!

Love that you got the run in on the beach. I have never ran on the beach. I bet is is lovely.

Your food and the atmosphere of the restaurant looked amazing!

 

[teekathepony]

Wowwww, all the St. Augustine pics are gorgeous! What a beautiful place! Your visit there looks absolutely lovely, and the food looks yummy too!

 

[cstorm65]

Great update. How cool would it be to attend that school. What an experience!!

The food there looks great. I have a weak spot for fish tacos...I love them and those look really well done. Can't wait to read some more.

 

[MEK]

Just when I finally get caught up..............

Hey - can I help it that your timing is off?

Will have to come back and read later since you only seem to post after I finally get here to catch up. Don't want you to have to turn around and do another mega-update too quickly!

No worries about that. I usually update about once a week. I'm pretty consistent about that! I hope to finish up St. Augustine in my next update!

Oh wow! Wow! Wow! The pictures of the college and the town are simply amazing! I love all of the detail pictures that you took especially of the plaques so that we could read a little about the history ourselves.

Thanks! I'm so glad you like the pics and the history lesson. It's too bad St Augustine is out of the way for your driving route. It's a really cool town. I don't think there's another town quite like it in Florida. I loved it!

Yuck collard greens! I grow them and cook them but I ain't gonna eat them.

Really? You don't like them? I love all green veggies and we never get them up here in the south. I mean, I guess if I tried I could find them but its more fun to eat them down south.

Great updates and pics. The shrimp tacos and collard greens looked really good. Collard greens minus the ham (called a pork food allergy) Really looked good (even with the ham) The fried green tomato sandwich also looked good. Might have to try one someday.

Thanks!

The food was really yummy! Bummer about the pork allergy. No Bacon for you. It seems like nowadays bacon is in everything! I also love fried green tomatoes. It such a fun dish and something I never see at home.

Love the St Augustine pictures.

Thank you!

Getting caught up on TR's this weekend, work and life gets in the way sometimes. Lots of stuff going on, a new computer system at work I never thought I would say this because for years I hated it, but I really miss our old system, LOL

Life happens sometimes, doesn't it? I hope you are getting more adjusted to the new computer system this week. I'm not great with computers so I can definitely understand how a change like that would be disruptive. The good thing is it's got to get better!

Also I had a death in the family recently, I don't know if I ever mentioned it but my BIL passed away a couple weeks ago, he had adenocarcinoma of the parotid gland with bone mets. He fought it for 5 years and was doing well but this past year started to have issues and just went downhill since about Christmas. It was awful to see him just waste away, so it is a blessing that he isn't suffering anymore but he was only 41 and had 2 little boys 5 1/2 and 7.

I had NO idea and I am so terribly sorry. 41 is much too young to leave this world. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. My heart breaks for those two little boys. I wish you sister nothing but the best. It must be so hard.

So now that things are a little closer to being back to normal, I am escaping to my DIS TR's. St Augustine looks like such a pretty little town. Glad you lucked out with your tour guide at the college. Dinner looked yummy but I have to agree with Lisa and say no to the collard greens, not a fan.

A DIS escape is sometimes just what you need.

St. Augustine was absolutely lovely! I think its probably my favorite Florida town. I'm so glad we took the time to visit.

What's with all the collard green haters?

 

[MEK]

I love touring colleges, there are so many beautiful ones. I am putting Flagler College on my list!

Disney Madness! Thanks for joining in!

College campuses are so unique and diverse! Flagler College was absolutely stunning. What a very cool place to go to school. It must be cool to be on such a historic campus.

We will be there October 18 - 25. We are doing a fireworks cruise on the 21st. Perhaps you and DH would like to join us?

Wow! So we are there similar dates and will be there on the 21st. Which cruise are you doing? Do you have other folks joining you? That's definitely a possibility. Definitely share some more details about your trip.

Could you imagine fellow airline guests' reactions if you'd bought a seat for that lady in the window??? At least she looked like she knew how to party and have a good time.

Yeah. I would have been quite the spectacle. But it occurred to me as I was writing this that our Delaware friends (who haven't made an appearance yet) drove down. I could have sent her home with them. I look at that picture and I just remember how cool she was. Definitely a party girl!

Wow, Flagler College is much prettier in your pictures than I have always thought. I actually considered applying there back when I was college hunting, but I can't remember why I never did. Think they didn't have my major...anyways, I love how gorgeously designed the interior of those main buildings were. They were almost too opulent for a bunch of kids. I wonder if all the 18 year olds attending the school realize how beautiful all the architecture and history of the place is?

I was wondering the same thing. I am sure some of the students appreciate the amazing architecture. I know that Carson was absolutely passionate about it. I think they do have limited majors because it is a small liberal arts school. The amazing thing is the tuition is not at all crazy high. It's very reasonable. Carson said half the kids are from Florida and the other half are mostly from the midatlantic / northeast. Lots of Jersey kids per Carson.

Love your early morning beach pictures. There's nothing like waking up to the sand and the surf.

Even though our condo was exactly on the beach it was a quick walk away. It was lovely to spend a little time each morning on the beach. Very quiet and peaceful.

Okay, your collards cooked with bacon/ham had me laughing. When I was a kid, I got the shock of my life when we moved up north and I ordered greens with a meal and they didn't have any bacon grease on them. I remember saying, "Something's wrong with these collards. They don't taste right." Here in the south, we can take any nutritional food and turn it into something unhealthy.

That is too funny! The way I look at it - it's a wash - you get all the nutrition from the greens and cancel it out with the pork fat. No wonder they didn't taste right.

 

[Leshaface]

Flagler College is just gorgeous! The Tiffany glass and the chandelier pics were my favs.

Ooh the fish tacos look good! Now that I think about it, I don't think i've ever had collard greens. And if I did, I don't remember. But I only hear good things about them.

 

[FrozenOne16]

I am usually a lurker on the boards, and I have read a few of your reports. I decided to finally start posting! I am enjoying your report so far, and I hope that one day I can get up the courage to have DisMeets of my own!

 

[MEK]

All the lovely pictures - I feel like I have been on a little trip this morning!

Saint Augustine is an awesome place to visit. If you ever get a chance you should check it out. Unfortunately its not on your route to WDW which is too bad!

I'm not much of a seafood person, but the tomato sandwich and corn looks interesting. That was such a pretty setting to enjoy the meal.

I love fried green tomatoes and looking back I'm pretty sure we shared which is always a win-win for me! The restaurant courtyard was so lovely!

Love the pics of St. Augustine. I clearly did the city a disservice when I only stopped for a lighthouse.

Hey - that's what do-overs are for! It really is a great place and I would love to go back in the not so distant future.

I think I have added a new city to the list for when my DH retires in a couple of years.

It would be fabulous to retire there, especially with wow only 2 hours away!!!!!

The pictures of the beach were very nice too. I love getting up early when we travel down the shore with friends and just walk along the beach at sun rise. That reminded me of what I am going to miss this year.

I love how everyone from Philly calls it the shore, but its the beach here in Delaware. I grew up new Chestnut Hill PA and it was always the shore. Took me a little while to get used to say the beach. So no summer trips to "the shore" in store for you? I usually wait until September to do some day on overnight trips. I don't really enjoy the crowds in full season.

St. Augustine is absolutely stunning! I would have loved to go to college there, such a beautiful campus. Lunch looked wonderful.

It really is a lovely town. Probably my very favorite Florida town so far. I can't imagine how cool it would be to go to college there. Really cool architecture and being so close to the beach with awesome weather year round. Sounds perfect to me!

Flager looks GORGEOUS. What a neat place!

It was really gorgeous. I'm so glad we went for the tour. Well worth the time and money and I would definitely do it again!

Lunch looked delicious, especially those crab cakes. Yum!

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed their food. It was a great pick for lunch. I just wish I could figure out the name of the restaurant.

Had to go back to the MK after Dark chapter, but I am officially caught up!

Yay!

Yes, you're right -- that guy on Spaceship Earth is totally stoned. No doubt about it.

Because animatronic men can get stoned, right?

Thanks for the report on St. Augustine. So many great pictures. There were a couple of gorgeous ones from your morning jog, and Flagler College and all of that glasswork is just amazing.

You're welcome! It was a great visit. I'm so glad we decided to stop there for a few days. Flagler College was definitely a highlight! I would go back again in a heartbeat!

 

[Ravens girl]

The fireworks cruise is the one in the MK. We were told it would probably be the Halloween fireworks show. The cruise leaves out of GF. The boat has room for 8 people and we figured it would be fun to invite other anniversary couples. You guys would be our first guests. PM me and I'll give you more information.

 

[MeMom]

Saint Augustine is an awesome place to visit. If you ever get a chance you should check it out. Unfortunately its not on your route to WDW which is too bad!

I've been a couple of times, and I am enjoying seeing it again through your pictures. Some future trip when we have a car, we'll take the girls. We usually fly, though, so I'm not sure when that day will come. I figure eventually they will beg us to take them off Disney property to do some things, and this can be one of them. I think they'd love seeing the Wonderworks (?) museum or science center or whatever that is in Orlando, and I want to take them to St. Pete and to Busch Gardens, too. There's much to see, but we have a hard time leaving Disney World to see it. We very much enjoyed our Sea World, Vero Beach, and Brevard Zoo journeys last summer, so that was a baby step in wandering off Disney grounds.

 

[MEK]

Gorgeous photos of St. Augustine and Flagler College! I remember those old historic streets/shops well. It really makes for a beautiful walk.

It really does and the walk was made even better by the fact that we were there in October and the weather was heavenly! Loved every outdoor minute! :good vibes

I never went inside the college, but now I wish I had! Just amazing buildings and artwork.

It really was very amazing, but totally a reason why you and the family need a do-over visit to Saint Augustine. I'm not totally sure the kids would appreciate it, but you never know.

mmmnnn fish tacos!

They were quite nice! The whole meal experience was a good one. I will definitely be a repeat customer once I figure out the name of the restaurant.

Love the pics

Thanks!

They look like they are a distant relative to some certain chairs in a Disney resort.

Well, now that you mention it I guess there is somewhat of a strange resemblance!

I agree. With everything. As much as I love the connectivity and ability to do things with my smart phone, things never work as quickly or as smoothly as I ever think they should.

But for that dessert... well worth it.

Exactly. I find the whole process annoying as heck, but the dessert was definitely worth it and it was cool that I could redeem the coupon right then and there! Gotta love that! No gimmicks!

The tour of Flager College looks interesting. I definitely learned something new today. I don't think I'd ever even heard of it before.

I had heard of it while researching colleges for Nick. But that doesn't mean much because I probably looked at every college up and down the Eastern seaboard. But I had no idea about the history behind the college. Definitely a unique place.

Oh my goodness, the architecture is stunning. The whole area is just so cool. I can see wanting to spend some time there.

It was a gorgeous town. Really one of the prettiest I have ever visited in the U.S. I look forward to returning one of these days!

Beautiful photos Mary Ellen.

Thank you!

 

[MEK]

Thanks for all the pictures and info on St. Augustine.

You're welcome. I'm glad the information was helpful to you! I know I really love reading about areas before I visit them and sometimes on-line travel guides just don't do the job.

Maybe you should forward that portion for your TR to the St. Augustine Tourism Board. Since so many responses indicate many of us now plan on visiting maybe they should send you some money for all the referrals!

How great would THAT be? Money for more Disney adventures! I will post one more update on Saint Augustine before I wrap up that portion of this TR. Hopefully it will be this weekend again.

What an amazing tour, all those details are just gorgeous!

Thanks Pam! I am glad you are enjoying my travels through St. Augustine. It's a wonderful little town.

Love your beach pictures. Would have had no idea they were with the phone if you hadn't said.

I was lucky with how well those pics turned out. I think it was just such a gorgeous morning. I was surprised how dead it was in October, yet the weather was spectacular.

Lunch looks delightful. All these secret hidden away places in old towns are such fun.

Lunch was wonderful and the town itself is full of eye candy. I just love places like that. It reminded me a lot of Savannah and Charleston, but on a much smaller scale.

St. Augustine is very pretty!!! Thanks for sharing all those great pictures!!

It was a gorgeous little town. I'm so glad you are enjoying the pictures!

I thought the same thing about those chairs!

I promise my next TR will have NO creepy chairs in it!

Love your updates on St. Augustine - makes me want to visit.

You would love it! With your photography skills you would walk away with some spectacular pictures!

Over the weekend I helped DD studying for her 2nd grade test on explorers and one of them just happened to be Ponce De Leon. DD had to remember that he explored Florida near St. Augustine - now I have pictures to go along with her studies

It's so fun when history and real life intersect. It makes it so much easier to appreciate and understand history!

I'm enjoying your side trip to St. Augustine. The pictures are so beautiful, especially Flagler College. Your lunch looked so good!

I'm so glad you are enjoying St. Augustine. It is such a great town and Flagler was amazing. Lunch was right up there, too!

 

[nowellsl]

Great pictures of St. Augustine! We'll be there for the week of the Fourth of July. They have the best fireworks display over the water at the Fort! Best I've ever seen! Then going back for a family reunion a couple of weeks later and staying very close to those two condos in your pictures on the beach! We've visited so many times we don't do a whole lot downtown in the historic district, might have to visit the fort this time - it's been a while! You would probably like Fernandina Beach/Amelia Island as well. DD lives there. Lots of beautiful beaches and history! I highly recommend the area!

 

[MEK]

The architecture you captured is just lovely. There's really no other way to put it! And the beach pictures look so peaceful. I'm not a big fan of actually being on the beach because I hate how sand gets EVERYwhere, but I do appreciate photos of a beautiful beach.

Saint Augustine was full of the most beautiful buildings. It was literally full of gorgeous buildings.

I hear you on the sand. My feeling exactly. As much as I try to minimize the amount of sand that touches me and my possessions, I always end up sand everywhere!

First, thank you for the link. I took a peak. I would far prefer a visit to something like than than a full day on the beach. I like history. Honestly though, I wish it was something more like St. Augustine.

It's really a cool spot. Completely free and you could easily spend a hour there. There is also a cool network of paths that surround the memorial. But I know what you mean - Saint Augustine was a lot cooler.

Your pictures simply are amazing. They could be used as a travel promo brochure. I really felt like by the end I wanted desperately to go there! Especially the college tour. OMG! That was spectacular!!!

The Flagler college was really amazing. I definitely recommend that. Just the whole history of the college and the spectacular furnishings were so worth seeing. I know I keep saying this, but I'm so glad we took that tour.

Love that you got the run in on the beach. I have never ran on the beach. I bet is is lovely.

Running on the beach can be really cool if you hit the sand when there is a good portion of it that's hard packed. If not, forget about it. The sand is either too soft or you end up running in and out of the water to stay on the hard packed sand. This beach was actually pretty good for running.

Your food and the atmosphere of the restaurant looked amazing!

It was a great lunch. I really enjoyed it.

Wowwww, all the St. Augustine pics are gorgeous! What a beautiful place! Your visit there looks absolutely lovely, and the food looks yummy too!

It was a wonderful visit. In retrospect I realize its probably my favorite Florida town at this point. However, I still have quite a few more towns to visit.

Great update. How cool would it be to attend that school. What an experience!!

I know, right? That college was amazing and what a cool experience to be a student there.

The food there looks great. I have a weak spot for fish tacos...I love them and those look really well done. Can't wait to read some more.

The fish tacos were really good and the entire dining experience was a lot of fun. It ended up being a great choice.

 

[KatMark]

I know you know why I've not been here and I'm behind. I'm caught up now. The pictures of St. Augustine continue to be wonderful, including the college area.

Can I just say that those crab cakes have my mouth watering (all I had for dinner was mac and cheese)?

 

[MEK]

Flagler College is just gorgeous! The Tiffany glass and the chandelier pics were my favs.

It was a spectacular school and all the glass windows and Tiffany glass were so gorgeous. I'm so glad we took the time to tour it.

Ooh the fish tacos look good! Now that I think about it, I don't think i've ever had collard greens. And if I did, I don't remember. But I only hear good things about them.

I love my lunch. It was one of my favorite of the entire trip. The collard greens were really delicious and I love trying foods I can't normal get in restaurants here.

I am usually a lurker on the boards, and I have read a few of your reports. I decided to finally start posting! I am enjoying your report so far, and I hope that one day I can get up the courage to have DisMeets of my own!

FrozenOne! Thanks so much for joining in. It's great to start communicating with other DISers. Much more fun than lurking (although that can be fun, too).

I have found that once I started doing TR's and started reading other people's TR's it became really easy to have DIS meets. At first it was a little scary, but now its nothing. It's a great way to meet people!

The fireworks cruise is the one in the MK. We were told it would probably be the Halloween fireworks show. The cruise leaves out of GF. The boat has room for 8 people and we figured it would be fun to invite other anniversary couples. You guys would be our first guests. PM me and I'll give you more information.

That's right - its a Halloween party that night. I wasn't sure if you were doing Illuminations or MK. Very cool. It's neat that you booked it for your anniversary. What a wonderful way to celebrate. Are you and your DH traveling with anyone else. I will pm you to learn more. I'm definitely intrigued!

I've been a couple of times, and I am enjoying seeing it again through your pictures. Some future trip when we have a car, we'll take the girls. We usually fly, though, so I'm not sure when that day will come. I figure eventually they will beg us to take them off Disney property to do some things, and this can be one of them. I think they'd love seeing the Wonderworks (?) museum or science center or whatever that is in Orlando, and I want to take them to St. Pete and to Busch Gardens, too. There's much to see, but we have a hard time leaving Disney World to see it. We very much enjoyed our Sea World, Vero Beach, and Brevard Zoo journeys last summer, so that was a baby step in wandering off Disney grounds.

For some reason I thought you guys drove. I don't know why I thought that. I know you had a great time venturing off site last summer. I definitely think its cool to check out the surrounding attractions. We will be doing that in October. I think we are finally going to make it to Seaworld after all these trips!

Great pictures of St. Augustine! We'll be there for the week of the Fourth of July. They have the best fireworks display over the water at the Fort! Best I've ever seen! Then going back for a family reunion a couple of weeks later and staying very close to those two condos in your pictures on the beach!

OMG - What a wonderful place to spend the 4th of July! I am SO jealous. I would absolutely love to see that fireworks display.

And yay for a family reunion! We stayed at a complex right near those two condo buildings that were in the picture. I really wish I could remember the name. I have pictures of the pool for my next update. It was very reasonable and I would definitely stay there again.

We've visited so many times we don't do a whole lot downtown in the historic district, might have to visit the fort this time - it's been a while! You would probably like Fernandina Beach/Amelia Island as well. DD lives there. Lots of beautiful beaches and history! I highly recommend the area!

You must live fairly close. How fortunate for you!

I have heard Amelia Island is beautiful and it is another place I would really like to visit. Thanks for the recommendation! I'll have to work it into another trip. If I'm not mistaken its actually north of Jacksonville.

 

[MEK]

I know you know why I've not been here and I'm behind. I'm caught up now. The pictures of St. Augustine continue to be wonderful, including the college area.

Yay for getting caught up! Sometimes that's tough, isn't it?

I'm so glad you like the pics. I have one more round of pics in my next update. I probably have enough for two full updates, but I'm going to streamline things a bit. I know - hard to believe!

Can I just say that those crab cakes have my mouth watering (all I had for dinner was mac and cheese)?

Never come to the DIS boards hungry! That should be a rule!