Day 1 - St. Augustine, FL

Started the day from Anastasia Inn with a beautiful walk over the drawbridge. Great way to see the city.

Wax Museums are for chumps... unless you can stand outside and get your picture taken with  an evil overlord.

No the cannon won't shoot Uncle Todd off the fort.

If only every surfer had a valet.

Seems to be a gator theme everywhere I go but where are the gators?

Great start to the vacation, even though we slept until 9am! Put us a bit behind but a nice walk around St. Augustine - much more interesting and smaller than I expected - but I guess we needed the sleep. Wandered over to the old fort (Castillo de San Marcos) and was pleasantly surprised. Not just the fort but that Wendy's bro and family were there to surprise our kids. Cousins thought it was total happenstance. Oh youth! Fort history was really interesting and they even fired off a small cannon off the top of the fort in full costume. Thing was the smallest of canons (6 lb. cannonball) but made you jump even though you knew it was coming. Can't imagine one of the big guns going.

All the time they were setting up for the shot and giving the history of warfare and the fort, there were dolphins feeding in the waterway. We couldn't take our eyes off of them. Couple must have been there for 15 minutes and every now and then they'd corral fish up to shore and then jump out of the water to feed. Nature & history at the same time.

Ate lunch in the touristy shop area at A1A Burrito Works Taco Shop. Belongs in Athens. Had the UFO and can only describe this burrito hybrid as something like a Mexican pita sandwich. Muy delicioso! Weather gave us a couple hours on the beach and much boogie boarding ensued. Of course, I'm mildly pink now but that's to be expected.

Dinner was at O'Steen's. Place looks like a small Denny's from the outside. Don't serve beer. Closed Sunday & Monday. Don't take credit cards. They had a line of 15+ from about 1-7pm. At 645p, wait was 1.5-2 hours. Figured there must be something about this place because this is a destination. There's nothing else around. Fortunately, our neighbors (Benjy & Jennifer) are down here for their vacation and invited us to dine. Key is to order take out. Learned a bit about N. Florida fried shrimp and that you should always check your order BEFORE leaving the restaurant. Great dinner next to St. Augustine's haunted lighthouse either way.

Tomorrow we trek down to Daytona to spend the night. Wendy's never been so I wanted to give her a good taste of the Atlantic. Hopefully, the Hilton won't disappoint.