St. Augustine Adventures: Day 3

Day Three is here. Our sweet daughter came barreling in the room and asked if we could go see the sunrise. I looked at the clock and bolted out of bed. I told her, throw on clothes quick!!! In under 8 minutes, we were out of bed, changed and at the beach... and thank God we did!

It's amazing to see your child in the shadows of the ocean that is so deep and wide. It's amazing to see the colors reflecting off her face in the awe of this big, beautiful world. 

I caught her singing a Christian/VBS Song. She was singing "Drops in the Ocean." My heart was so full. To see your child grow in their faith and truly "get it"... it's priceless. 

I took a couple more pictures and we headed up to the condo to make some breakfast. Today, we decided to go with a Pioneer Woman recipe that I recently saw on her show. Paige's Quiche is a great recipe, but probably not my absolute favorite. Thankfully, it made enough for two so we were able to bless a family in a small way for all the blessings they have given us. 

The past couple days and the gorgeous Florida sunshine fried us! Including the fellow Floridians! We wanted to spend a couple hours at the pool, the head out and just explore. Landree couldn't miss daddy tossing her in the water a time or 12. She is such a daredevil!! A couple bolts of lightning and it was time to bail. 

Showered up, and we were ready to head out. Our first stop (and don't worry, we had a cooler packed with ice!) was the seafood stand. We have tried several in the time we were there, but the The Seafood Shoppe is one is the closest to our condo.I honestly have no clue of her name, but there is a pregnant lady that works in there that is just the sweetest. She was WONDERFUL to Landree! Shout out to her and her patience to answer our seafood questions.

Our next stop was Broudy's. Y'all are going to think I'm crazy but we literally drove there to get one kind of beer. The JDubs Passion Wheat Beer is my absolute favorite beer on the planet. It is so balanced, light, but my husband also loves it that enjoys IPA's and other craft beers. I would give anything for this beer to be in NC! But, I may have also cheered.... loudly... when I found some clearance Shipyard there. Five dollars for my favorite pumpkin beer -- sold. 

Storms were popping up so we decided to venture across the beautiful Bridge of Lions and head to Vilano Beach. Somehow, they filled in all around us (including our condo!) but managed to miss us there. The renovated pier had opened and Erick wanted to check out how the fishing was. I didn't know it needed repairs, but it seemed nice! For travelers, it's a great, FREE pier you can walk out on. And, some awesome information from our friend Mikey, it was the original road across to Vilano!

As the skies darkened, we ducked into Beaches.. We had never been there before, but people said it had a nice view. Well... kinda. It appeared to have been hit hard from the storm and there was no side railing and it was blocked off to go down to the water with yellow tape. So... we sat back a little ways, but still on the patio, No railing, ocean and a toddler? That's a no go! The views are nice though even with the ominous gray skies. It ended up being happy hour -- $2.50 drinks -- so we each got a Landshark and colored with Landree. Peaceful and relaxing. I love just looking at Landree and Erick together. Landree truly is... curly hair, don't care!

We wrapped up the adventures at the Pavilion Beach. We were randomly driving around Vilano and ended up there. There is a turtle nest there Landree was so excited to check out. We had talked to the lifeguard there and he said sometimes he sees pods as big as 50 dolphins at a time! Landree was so excited to get her toes back in the sand! Vilano is a lot more "shelly" and less soft fluffy sand then at our condo, but it's still absolutely beautiful. You have to be more careful at that spot because of the rough waters where the inlet and ocean come together. It's crazy how rough it can be!

As we were pulling out, we got a message from our friends to meet them at Mango Mango's for supper. It's our favorite place and believe it or not... I took zero pictures. BUT, all the more reason to check it out!

..... Day four tomorrow!

St Augustine Adventures: Day 2

Day Two was a perfect one. We spent countless hours by the beach and pool and caught up with "Aunt Mandy" and Mister Tony (Mister Joni to Landree) and Tyler. It was a perfect time for me to sit back and soak in the memories and capture some simple shots of the beach. While many love going in town and exploring while soaking in the incredible dining scene, I love just simply sitting on the beach and watching my little family fall in love with this incredible beach all over again. PS. The town is amazing too, but sweating with a 3 year old can be a rough job.

I started off the morning on the patio. I didn't want to wake anyone so I snuck out the front door to watch the sunrise from the patio. Although it's not as beautiful as some of the others I captured, I was amazing just to breathe for a moment before the chaos started. Our new room at Ocean Gallery definitely didn't disappoint.

Before too long came the clack, clack of our 3 year old daughter, Landree Grace. She wanted to come out and have mommy daughter time. How can I resist?? We decided to create a new tradition to have a mommy daughter date in the mornings with homemade cookies and coffee. She literally was thrilled and I think that we will keep this tradition going for years to come. I made this recipe this time from the site "The Girl who ate everything" and it was awesome! Give it a try! Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

When Erick/Daddy woke up, we decided to venture out to the beach before Aunt Mandy came for a quick visit. (Please, please stay for awhile next year?) We came across beautiful skies and our amazing friend Mikey out fishing. Erick and Mikey have formed a wonderful friendship and he is such a strong, Christian role model for him. God truly led us to the right place!

Three minutes on the beach and we came across our first Ohio State Fans. Typically, anywhere we go one of us is wearing something Ohio State. And, sometimes we are unintentionally matching. Erick gets so thrilled when he hears that first "O H!" Landree even yelled back and I caught a couple pictures of her telling the dolphins good morning, and O H! 

After our quick walk, Landree and Erick headed for the pool and I headed to make breakfast, which, I promptly forgot to capture, but you need to try it! This Tator Tot Breakfast Casserole is delicious and it served us for two days! (Chew out Loud Cheesy Tator Tot Bake) At that point, Aunt Mandy arrived. We scarfed breakfast and may have gotten into the New Sarum Brewing Dunn's Mountain Cucumber Kolsch we brought.... hey, we are at the beach... and its 5 o'clock somewhere... ok or 930am.  We spent lots of time with Aunt Mandy before she had to leave for Orlando. Landree's song obsession is "da dip" so she had to learn to dance like Mandy. So fun! 

After Mandy left, Erick's friends from back in Ohio came for a visit. Tyler and Tony live in Jacksonville so we have been blessed to have them visit both years we have visited. The kids had so much fun making castles, chasing in the ocean, hauling water, and just having a great time. Did I mention how wonderful this beach is?

Erick is SUCH an amazing father.

When we were at the pool, I could hear people start yelling and making a commotion. I look behind me and see this little friend slithering right behind me... Eww. I didn't actually move off my chair in panic, but if I would have known we were near a poisonous snake habitat I may have moved more quickly.

We were so bummed when Tony and Tyler went home and Landree insisted she wasn't tired. Our friends invited us to have dinner with them, but my mommy gut said, NOPE. Abort mission. Well, that lasted about 5 minutes. She was OUT!

Two hours later, she was still zonked.  Our amazing friends sent up some of their dinner as our appetizer. To say that Jana is an amazing chef is an understatement. This Salmon and Rice was delicious. Can we get an invite next year pretty please? If any of you are visiting Fernandina Beach, you need to visit her at Ms.Carolyn's. The cake ya'll the cake... more of that later in the week.

Erick and I decided to just make dinner together and finish up the day with a nice bottle of wine (thanks mom!) on the patio. It was the perfect ending to the day. The shrimp here? It was the shrimp from the seafood market from yesterday!

Until tomorrow friends... 

St Augustine Adventures: Day 1 (GA BBQ, Ocean Gallery, and Creekside Dinery)

The Hartley's are back from another adventure. We packed it full of laughter, memories, ocean waves, and friend/family time. We have had SO many requests from friends and family on how we travel so much, on a budget and what we do.... so here it is! I'll share a day at a time of what our travels are like in Hartley world!

First off, St. Augustine has become "our place." Our place that we go to to regroup and to just sink our toes in the sand. We have truly fallen in love with it. I can't picture a more perfect spot.

Let the St. Augustine adventures begin.

We took off from our house at about 5:30am. We had planned on 5, but well... life happens. We had to make 3 stops in the first 5 hours. Word to the wise, no protein shakes and coffee when you travel. I was the reason for the pee breaks!

We made it to our first stop, St. Simons Island, GA. This area has a special place in my heart without ever setting foot there. My grandma used to go there every year on vacation and she had always raved about it. I was so excited to finally see what she saw, even if it was only for a couple hours. For lunch, we chose Southern Soul Barbecue. I had heard about it on Food Network and it was one of the highest rated restaurants in that area on Yelp. We also knew that we would be eating seafood all week, so we decided to try something different. It definitely didn't disappoint. It was voted "Best BBQ In the South!"

As we were arriving we passed it the first time. It's in an unassuming spot that used to be gas station, but once you drive up and see the line out the door and the people sitting outsize, it's hard to miss.

Needless to say, it's been on a lot of shows, and we understood why. The lines were long so we ended up getting our food to go. We tried to go eat at that beach, but since it was nearing 100 degrees, we decided to pull into the parking lot of our next stop and picnic. 

The brisket was my absolute favorite. Incredible smoke ring, just the right amount of fat and oh... that Sweet Georgia Soul Barbecue Sauce people rave about? It's legit. I could have drank the stuff and literally was licking the drippings off my arm. Buy it. Drink it. Savor it.

We ended up getting a pork and brisket and splitting it. The pork was definitely delish, but anyone that knows me know I'm a brisket girl!

The mac n cheese was good, but the brisket definitely outshined it by far.

Slathered with the Sweet Georgia Sauce,,, mmmmm good. 

Our next stop was the St. Simons Seafood. Prior to leaving, it crossed my mind that nothing was going to be open on Sunday for seafood (and Lord knows... when we go to the beach, we eat seafood EVERY SINGLE NIGHT) so we decided to stop here and put it in our cooler. The owner BJ was so sweet to us and Landree and helped us make a great decision on some ultra fresh Georgia shrimp that I forgot to take a picture of. They were HUGE!!! So glad we stopped there.

On the road again we go... the last two hours of our trip down 95 to St. Augustine were a breeze. Landree fell asleep and it was a peaceful trip.  When we pulled in, Erick told me to take her to the beach and let her roam for a little bit while he unpacked. How could I pass that up? 

 I walked over the dunes and there it was. The beautiful powdery sand in all it's glory. I sighed and took in the salty air. 

I captured Landree staring at the ocean and simply saying... thank you Jesus!

We made it back up to the room and of course, I cracked one of these bad boys.  Vacation had finally begun. 

We have an amazing unit at The Ocean Gallery. The owner is absolutely fabulous and does everything she can to make it an amazing experience. Her condo is simple and cozy. We are actually going back again next year. Here are a couple shots from our condo... 

 You can tell that I snapped after Erick started bringing stuff in!!!

We went for a quick dip in the pool and knew we had to wrap it up to go to dinner. We ended up at an amazing spot called Creekside Dinery. I found it on Yelp and it was known to be a place where the locals go. We made a great pick! Our server was absolutely incredible and I'm pretty sure Landree was flirting...

It has the most laid back, wonderful atmosphere. They even do call ahead.

Over the edge of the patio are these little friends. They are so crazy and stand up waiting for food. Landree said the baby was her friend. 

We did find out they don't care for garlic bread or lemons...

The most beautiful, peaceful view. 

So, I completely forgot to get a picture of Erick's dinner. Landree was getting a little busy. She split food with Erick and I. These were incredible rock shrimp, potatoes and beans. Erick had a seafood platter (all grilled) of crabcake, mahi, shrimp, and something I just can't remember. Even the beans were delish!

We ended the night out on the patio. It had just rained and the band was playing again. Landree met a new friend (the lady in the black) and she had a great time listened to the music. Overall, a successful dinner!

Day 2 coming soon!