The Hunger Games

If it's a book that has been out for only a few years, chances are you've read it before me. That's especially true if it's a series.

I tend to favor works of literature that have stood the test of time, or, if it's a new book, I read it because it's a critic's choice, not a best seller. The latter of which has sometimes led me astray and left me disappointed.

I usually don't get caught up in all the hype surrounding new best-selling books. I prefer to get lost in them after the hype (which is often no fun because no one wants to talk about them at that point).

It was true for Harry Potter - sort of. I began reading Harry Potter about the time "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" was published.

It was true for "Twilight." I read the books two years ago. Like everyone else, I was completely obsessed with Edward Cullen for a period of time.

It was also true for "The Hunger Games." I started and finished "Mockingjay," the final book in the trilogy, while in St. Augustine.

I probably wouldn't have read this series if one of my best friends hadn't kept after me about it.

While they weren't Harry Potter or Twilight good, I did enjoy reading the books.

The storyline was equal parts philosophical, science fiction and relational. Peeta was by far my favorite character. The sweet, yet often messed up love story kept my attention more than anything else.

I had nightmares the night I finished "Mockingjay," so I'm not sure how recommendable a book is if it gives you bad dreams?

It's Been A Long Time

The hubby and I did something last night we hadn't done since before baby girl was born.

We went out to eat without any children.

I was wanting to try a new restaurant - new to us even though it's been open for months. We stopped by one Saturday for lunch, but when I looked at the menu and realized the brunch was probably not something the little boy would eat, I vowed to return.

We ended up making it a double date with the hubby's sister and her boyfriend. Going out with her was something else we hadn't done in a long time.

My favorite thing we ordered ended up being our appetizer. It was a batch of homemade fried pork skins. They arrived at our table warm and still crackling. Yum!

The food was good, but re-connecting with each other was better.

I'd like to say we will make this a monthly habit, but I know better. Football season starts soon and the Saturday nights we aren't at a game we'll either be out of town or at home watching an out-of-town game.

Oh well. I'll take these nights out whenever I can get them. Even if it ends up being only once a year.

Places to Eat While in St. Augustine

The hubby liked the fort. The little boy loved the alligator farm. I liked the food.

One of my favorite parts about traveling is finding great places to eat, and it's super easy to find the best places with the Yelp app.

All the food we had was good, but there are three places that stood out.

1. The Floridian

This place is located on Cordova Street and was so good that we went two nights in a row. The little boy got the kid's fried shrimp both nights. The hubby got swordfish both nights, but they were different dishes. The first night I had the meatloaf sandwich. I've found that when a new, hip restaurant has meatloaf on the menu, it's usually worth ordering. This sandwich, with the cilantro mayo, was delicious. It came with a side salad with a homemade vinaigrette. The second night I went for the vegan dish, a black bean and
sweet potato burger. I'm a meat lover, so the meatloaf was my favorite of the two. The cool thing about this place was that there were a number of dishes that cater to the meat lover, the vegetarian and the vegan. Our first night we sat outside and struck up a conversation with the couple behind us. It turns out that the guy's brother owned the restaurant. When his parents arrived a bit later, his dad was so eager to show us how good the chicken waffles were that he offered me the food off his wife's plate. I politely declined, but the chicken waffles did look tasty.

2.  Sea Oats Caffe - I didn't misspell cafe. That's how this diner spells it. We were riding around looking for places to eat lunch, and we pulled into a strip mall to turn around. The hubby stopped so I could check out what Yelp said was nearby. The first recommendation was this place, right where we were. I would have ignored it if it hadn't of been for the recommendation promising it was not the typical strip mall kind of place. It was a local favorite that served breakfast and lunch. We all had sandwiches for lunch and ventured back to this place the next two days for breakfast. There's nothing like a good diner breakfast of fried eggs, bacon, breakfast potatoes and coffee to get your day started right.


3. The Hyppo

This gourmet popsicle shop (yes, I said gourmet popsicle) had funky flavors like strawberry basil, pineapple cilantro and even a mango habanero, among other things. We're plain kind of folks, so we stuck with basic strawberry. These popsicles were thick, cold and sweet. It was a healthy dessert after lunch our last day in town.

A Note on Where We Stayed

When booking our St. Augustine trip I had no clue where to stay, so I went to VRBO.com to see what it offered.

I found a great condo located on a golf course. The property had a walk-in pool, and it looked promising. That was until I realized the owner didn't accept payment through American Express. This points junkie had to look elsewhere.

We ended up staying at Junie's Lighthouse Cottage. It was near the Lighthouse Museum, so I guess that's where the owner came up with the name. Not sure who Junie is???? The owner's name is Emilie.

The upside:
It had a kitchen
Plenty of room for us to move around and store all our stuff
Free passes to the Lighthouse Museum are included in the booking fee
Close to downtown and the public beach
The owner and property manager were super nice and easy to contact
It was tucked away in a neighborhood
I paid with my AMEX

The downside:
The public beach was a short drive - The beach within walking distance was not the kind of beach to sit around and relax at
The cottage is attached to an upstairs unit where someone apparently lives - We could hear people moving about above us each night, and one night it sounded like someone was drilling
No laundry room though there was a laundromat located nearby
I had to pay for the entire stay up front which makes me kinda nervous

My two favorite things about this place:

There were three of these books published in the 60s on the coffee table. They included short essays and articles on culture, art and history. They made for some interesting late-night reading.

I loved this chair! I seriously considered calling the cottage owner to see if she'd sell it. I would have if there had been room in my car.

Here are a few more pics of the place:

I forgot to get pictures of the kitchen and the second bathroom. There was also a nice yard with a lime tree and a hammock. The hammock was another upside, but the downside was we didn't want to get in the hammock for all the mosquitoes.

St. Augustine

We had three whole days to explore St. Augustine.

On our first day we were able to walk from our vacation rental to the Light House Museum.

 

It was free for us because a pass for the whole family was included in our vacation rental. We didn't climb the 200 + stairs to get to the top of the lighthouse - too hot for that.

The little boy loved the playground there.

 

After we left the lighthouse we took a walk to the nearby beach. We started on the pier before venturing out onto the sand (where he later cut his foot). All smiles here though.

We watched the mini sailboats and the small kids steering them (I'm not a sailor so my terminology could be all wrong here).

The next day offered a chance to take in some history. We started at the Fountain of Youth.

This is it folks: The Fountain of Youth. Not much more than a drip.

I loved the old trees in St. Augustine. This is one in the Fountain of Youth Park.

 

It was hot and steamy whenever the sun was out, but in the shade under a tree or when the sun went behind the clouds, it was pleasant. It was especially nice before the rain shower at Castillo de San Marcos.

Here is baby girl sporting the wind-blown look!

 

Touring this old fort was probably the hubby's favorite.

 

 We made the most of the overcast skies on our last day. It felt great outside. 

We started at the public beach where I noticed another difference in this ocean and the Gulf. Cliffs separated the sand from the water below. 

 It may look like the sand is connected to the water here, but it's not. I'm used to being able to walk right into the ocean. I had to slide down the sand to get to the water (I took a cue from the surfer's entering before me). Getting down was the easy part. I thought the hubby was going to pull my arm out of socket trying to help me back up.

And what's a trip to Florida without some putt-putt? Some of my favorite childhood memories of beach trips include playing putt-putt with my brothers.

 

We ended the day at The Alligator Farm. 

I mentioned in a post before we left that I was sure we would find something to do even though I didn't have anything planned. You can tell from these pics there was plenty to see and do. 

I'm just sorry I didn't get any pictures of the beauty of the buildings downtown. The history behind the European settling (some might say invasion) of this town is apparent in the old-world Spanish structures lining the main streets of St. Augustine.

A Rocky Start

Our first 24 hours in St. Augustine were not the beginnings of a laid back family vacation.

It started with something small. About two hours after leaving the house, while we were still driving, I realized I left my computer at home. I was hoping to blog about our trip and get a few things for work done while I had extra time on my hands. I tried to take it as a sign that blogging and work could wait. This was a vacation after all.

Later that night, after we arrived in St. Augustine, the little boy was crawling into bed when he found a nice surprise in the shape of a lizard on his pillow. The hubby, little boy and I spent the next 25 minutes trying to no avail to trap the lizard. In the end, the hubby pulled the mattress out of the bedroom and plopped it on the floor in another room. Again, nothing big. No catastrophe. The little boy thought it was fun looking for, finding and then not being able to catch the lizard. He just didn't want to sleep in the same room with it.

The next morning it continued when baby girl took my blush case and smashed it on the floor. She loves doing this, so much so that a few weeks before she did the same thing and the powder crumbled to pieces. Maybe letting her play with the case on the carpet in a vacation rental home wasn't the best way to occupy her time. All those crumbled pieces went spilling out onto, or should I say into, the carpet. We scrubbed and scrubbed and were able to dim the huge spots of Nars peach blush, but they were still noticeable. I'm keeping my fingers crossed we won't be receiving a bill for carpet cleaning.

A few hours after this it got worse. Much worse while the little boy and I walked on the nearby beach.

This Gulf-Coast girl is clueless about the Atlantic. In my ignorance, we both took our shoes off and walked around by these:

Barnacles and oyster shells were scattered all along the shore. You think it would have crossed my mind they could be sharp and dangerous.

Nope.

I was chatting away with a local girl about restaurants when I peered down and noticed what looked like blood on a rock in front of me. I quickly spun around, but the little boy seemed content and kept walking along as if everything was fine.

I resumed the conversation, and when I looked down again, in a different spot this time, I saw more blood.

I knew he'd cut his foot. I just wasn't prepared for the site that met my eyes.

I scooped him up and made a beeline across the parking lot to the park where my husband was sitting with our sleeping baby girl. I don't think I said anything to the girl I was chatting with. I just took off.

The hubby immediately had the good sense to take him to a coast guard booth nearby where they cleaned his foot. Luckily, the cut wasn't as deep as it initially looked.

After he had cried it out, the little boy sat down on a bench with the hubby while baby girl and I went to retrieve our shoes. Another mother was warning her girls about the sharpness of the oyster shells. When I told her that my little boy had just cut his foot, she told me of how dirty and full of bacteria the oyster shells were.

If I haven't said it before let me say it now. I am a worrier. I freak out over little things. So this tidbit of information was not exactly the best thing for me to here. Needless to say I've spent a lot of time cleaning, doctoring and staring at that foot.

You might think things went downhill fast after that, but the rest of the trip was actually fun. I'll be posting about all the good stuff, and there was lots of it, the rest of the week!

Fatigue

It seems each day as a mom brings obstacles to my path that desire to trip me up and keep me from being the kind of mom I desire to be for my children.

Like words that don't flow well so as to confuse a reader, there are those daily struggles that seek to leave me baffled.

These days, fatigue is this mother’s greatest struggle.

When tired I too easily become frustrated with anyone or everyone around. I’m more likely to lose my temper and yell. I’m more likely to make unreasonable demands. I’m more likely to say something nasty that I must ask for forgiveness for later.

At some point during each day, I feel so tired I wonder how I’m going to make it a minute longer. It's that bone-tired feeling mothers of young children know all too well.

Then the little boy asks a question or needs help with something. The baby girl needs to be fed or picked up or played with.

I continue on, as every other mother in the world does, through the fatigue.

I heard a comment a few weeks ago about how fatigue can often be Satan’s greatest weapon against us mothers.

I believe it.

Self-doubt rears its ugly head in those moments. Negativity abounds.  I grumble and complain about these precious beings that God has entrusted to me.

Fatigue is par for the course at this stage in life.

While often I'm so tired I don’t know what I’m saying or doing a good portion of the day, I also seem unquestionably confident in my decisions regarding life and my children. It’s a wonderfully strange paradox.

We leave tomorrow for our next trip and I’m hoping for some R&R. In fact, that’s one of the reasons I chose St. Augustine.

It dawned on me about two days ago that I had nothing planned for us to do in St. Augustine. I felt guilty until I remembered that’s exactly what we all need.

It’s great to schedule trips like the one we took to South Dakota where you set out to see and do everything. It’s also great to take trips where you can do whatever you feel like, even if that means you sit in a hammock while the children run around or you spread out a blanket and barely have to move for hours because the children are mesmerized by playing in the sand.

I'm sure we'll find a few things to do, but the best part about this trip is that nothing is scheduled.

This tired mother, and father, need time to unwind, relax and enjoy the company of each other and our children without the pressures and demands daily life at home so often requires.