St Augustine to Darien

Getting ready of a morning with five women takes longer than we thought but finally we were on our way to brecky and starting today.  Actually before that Kathie, Esther and I dived out of bed at about 6.30 to take photos of the sunrise.  Just a lovely view from our balcony of the St George Inn, which also overlooks the Castillo de San Marcus.

Our gorgeously quaint Inn that we stayed at...

We visited the Castilla de San Marcos.  This masonry fort is the oldest and best preserved example of a Spanish fortification in the continental United States and for many years was the northernmost outpost of Spain's vast New World empire.

Such history and some wonderfully dressed soldiers re-enacted aiming and shooting over the water.

Some pics and a chat later had me taking a selfie with one of the soldiers...

We all voted this an amazingly good time exploring the fort and then we next visited the stripey lighthouse.  For ever so long I have looked at pics of this on the web and it was every bit as good as I imagined.  

And how cool that the lighthouse cat is black and white too!  Kathie, once again, took some incredible angled shots...

Terrific view from the top...

Onward north and soon enough we were in Georgia.  Stopped for some lunch ... somewhere ...

And after a detour to Brunswick which wasn't exactly what we thought we got to Darien before dark.  Oh my goodness, the Blue Heron Inn is tucked way way into the marsh and we were soon sitting down by the camp fire with the other guests chatting with them, enjoying their company waiting for the shucked oysters.

We then headed back into Darrien to Skippers Fish Camp for dinner.  Mike will be very disappointed in me, not having shrimp or crab or oysters, but instead I had pulled pork with a side of baked potato and coleslaw.  Delicious.

Then we headed back.  Now let me explain, we are staying in what I have been told is the "boon docks" in a really charming Inn, in the middle of marsh lands, owned by a charming couple, with two dogs (Shadow and Sassy) and a couple of cats (including Ernestine the 6 clawed cat) who happens to be curled up on the couch with me right now purring like a train engine).  On the way back from Skippers we took a wrong turn, or we missed our turn and ended in the middle of nowhere.  In fits of giggles.  My map app just showed graph paper.

And Mollie took a photo of our surroundings.  Actually she took about ten photos of the surroundings, in case we were lost forever more and they found our withered bodies in the car in months to come!  This of course had us in fits of giggles, wondering if we did a u-ey would we end up down in the marsh!  

Finally found our way back and then Mollie decided to take a shadow pic which she decided "well that's just silly, now we look like a four headed monster"!!!  Now if you are reading this and know Mollie I bet you can just hear her saying that.

A big day, Lynnie the "rev head" is doing amazing with the driving, doing some pretty great maneuvers with Mildred the GPS (and let's face it driving on the wrong side of the road every maneuver looks pretty incredible to us) and the others have taken to bed as Esther and I have stayed up tapping on our screens updating our blogs.  Very intermittent reception here so this blog post may not be published until tomorrow.  And Ernestine keeps wanting to crawl up on my lap and is getting a bit insistent so I'm thinking time for bed for me too.

But before I go have I mentioned how much I love these ladies...

Beautiful Kathie

Lovely Lynnie

Darling Mollie acting like a little koala in a tree

And my dear friend Esther who put this all together, thank you soooo much Esther

And away we go...

The Thelma, Louise, Mabel, Dotty and Delores road trip has begun in earnest and today we travelled to St Augustine in our rented red Dodge.  Move over drivers, we have Lynnie at the wheel.  We fitted all our cases and baggage in and away we went.  

Got to St Augustine about 3 hours later and found our very quaint lodgings for the night right slap bang in the middle of the historical district, on the top floor with a balcony on two sides with rickety old rocking chairs.  Actually I'm writing this blog post from that balcony listening to a band playing up the road.

So we arrived here at the tail end of a two day Annual Pirate Festival, and even though it was mid afternoon there were still pirates wandering around.

We went for a wander up this lane way street that we are situated on which houses some absolutely wonderful shops, quaint, artisans, specialty shops, all amazing.  I bought a number of goodies, hmmm just as my case was looking a bit better having unloaded Tim Tams and pressies for people.

Wandering amongst this quaint cobblestoned area meant our cameras were primed and ready to do business, here's a mix of photos from today...

Beautiful Mollie, always up for a good shot...

Kathie was worn out and decided to have a snooze!  Ha.  Kidding.  Anything for a good shot.  And let me tell you, the shot was gooood!!

So good in fact, she celebrated with one of the locals... Oh Kathie!!

The amazing Lynn who is doing the driving this trip, just quietly she says she's a granny driver, but I'm calling her a rev head!!

It got dark quick and we found a great eating place and sat up on the balcony feasting like Queens ... shivering Queens when the breeze picked up. 

Mollie shocked us all when she couldn't resist sliding down the bannister!

On the way back we stopped at a small market and saw some really lovely paintings, listened to a fellow playing music on the kettle drum, and wandered back, stopping for takeaway cake at a cake shop.  Yep, we needed dessert for sure.

And now it's time to recharge our batteries (cameras included!!) for tomorrow, including the Remembrance Day service.  

Last night shenanigans - part 2

Let's see if I can do part 2!!  Some more pics.

Bailey giving sweet Mollie some words of advice...

Sam and the pocket rocket Mel who has the most radiant smile she lights up the room...

Lori and Pam, love both these girls...

Kayleigh and me with my boob being photo bombed by Katie's hand...

Check out these smiles from Kim and Beckie, no one could stop smiling all night...

The three amigos Joanne, Nancy and Linda...

Amy who has the sweetest voice (I could listen to her all day) and the amazing P, I have so much awe for this lady...

Lyn, who had us in awe, move over Dancing with the Stars, this girl can cut a rug on the dance floor...

And the amazing, wonderful, beautiful, incredible, Katie, the woman who brought this group of talented women (and those that couldn't make it) together.  All these scrapping sisters.  We love you Katie.

And that's it. There have been many tears since both last night and this morning as people this morning have been leaving.  But once we check out our road trip begins ... Thelma, Louise, Delores, Mabel and Dotty!!! 

Last night shenanigans

Last night with the Designer Digitals group and we went on a dinner cruise.  We took over the dance floor, we did a Congo line throughout the tables, we laughed and a few tears and there will be more than a few headaches tomorrow.

Here are some photos of my beautiful scrapping sisters.

Amy and Linda...

Nancy and Joanne doing a pole dance...

The beautiful Kathie and Myra...

Esther and Lori and Esther's daughter Zoe on FaceTime...

Sam with me, just adore Sam...

Florida on the run ... literally!

Ok this is a post on the run. I will add as I go so I don't miss anything so this may be disjointed.

Started this morning with an early morning run.  How surreal to be running on this glorious beach but certainly balmy weather early on.

I happened to run past Nancy, Mollie, Pam and Joanne all looking out to the Gulf.  I had a peek but couldn't see what they were seeing.  I was hoping it was George Clooney swimming in the buff that their lenses were zoomed out to, but alas they told me later it was a pelican!

Had a bit of brecky and then a group of us found the Jolly Trolley to take us to Dunedin for a look see.

Couldn't help but a stack of pics later here's some for your viewing pleasure!!

Amy, Mollie and Pam...

Esther, Lynn and Bailey...

Pam and I ...

Me and the amazing wonderful beautiful Katie...

And I couldn't help but compare temps with Mike right now courtesy of the weather app.

And right now we are waiting for the trolley ride back so we can start the photography scavenger hunt that Beckie had set up for us...

Back again, the scavenger hunt was hysterical.  We had team names such as Young Moms, Rocky Mountain Oysters, etc.  three to a team.  And items to find and photograph (and will show you a couple of our ideas ... Team Amy, Beckie, Carol)

Valet...

Paper for Katie to make... (Ok and we went in by stealth, this unsuspecting butt had no idea he was flashed)

And someone worthy of being on Sports Illustrated, we found some guys playing on the beach and built this young fellow up so much we got him to take his shirt off with a bit of coercion and Beckie laid on the sand so he could hit the ball over her. Smoooooth Beckie!!!! 

And now we are off to a dinner cruise, last night with everyone!