Tag Archives: lighthouse

The St. Augustine Lighthouse

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The morning after The Conch House, Ron and I headed out to visit the lighthouse up close.  But, we couldn’t get started until Ron found juice!  Ron has been juicing for, I don’t know, years and years I guess, and it’s all I can do to get him to not take the juicer with us on vacation. 

We ended up at Smoothie King.  It worked in a pinch but just as we were pulling away from Smoothie King, Ron spotted Smoothie Fresh!

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They were the real deal and had a Ron approved Champion juicer.  He got his normal kale, apple, carrot, ginger, and I don’t’ know what else.

And he even got a shot of wheatgrass juice!

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I stuck with the Chocolate Peanut butter smoothie I had gotten at Smoothie King.

Now we could head on over to the lighthouse.  I snapped and snapped away and really had a blast touring such a pretty lighthouse.

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The climb to the top was 219 steps and the perfect exercise to loosen us up for the next day’s half marathon.

Don’t miss the lighthouse when you are in the nation’s oldest city!

A Night in St. Augustine

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Last month Ron and I were headed to the Gasparilla Half Marathon and we made a stop along the way at the historic Conch House in Saint Augustine, Florida.

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The Conch House has been owned and operated by the Ponce family since 1946.  It’s located right on the Intercostal Waterway just down from the St. Augustine Lighthouse.

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I fell in love with this little motel, restaurant, and marina the minute we got there.

At first, Ron was in the mood to go out and explore and try to find a micro brewery but we ended up just moseying on over to the Tiki lounge.  Ron got a beer and I ended up with their famous Goombay Smash.

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It had coconut rum, dark rum, 151 rum, apricot brandy and a blend of orange and pineapple juices.  Man was it good!

This was our 26th wedding anniversary trip and Ron got me a new camera.  I spent the rest of the evening playing.

Here’s Ron shot in portrait mode.

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Check out this shot where I caught the pelican in flight!

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And these shots of the lovely marina.

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I just kept playing and playing.  I love the shots of the pelicans!

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And check out this shot of a dove.

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I’ve got a lot to learn in photography and I know I’m going to have a blast practicing.

Just when the sun was going down and they were lighting the tiki torches, we headed over to the restaurant.

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We sat in a private tiki hut just like one of these.

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Here was our view taken from our table.  I used the night setting.

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Dinner started off with some more drinks.  Another Goombay Smash for me! Open-mouthed smile

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The conch fritters!

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And the crab cakes!

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Since we had 2 appetizers, Ron and I shared the Florida Cracker Combo.

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And you better believe I saved room for their famous Key Lime Pie!

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On Yelp, you can see all kinds of reviews of this place.  A lot of people love it and a lot of people hate it.  I’m in the love it crowd!  Everything tasted delicious and the romantic tiki hut table was so cute!

The next morning I got my favorite shot of the lighthouse.  We had gone out just at dawn to try and catch the sunrise.  The lighthouse was still on and Ron helped me capture the beam of light.  (He counted so I’d know when to snap.)

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If you are ever in St. Augustine, give The Conch House a try.  You might be pleasantly surprised.