Home, home on the range

♫ Home, home on the range

Where the kitty & the puppy play

We have emptied our terds & I've fed all the birds

what a wonderful past thirty two days!!!! ♫

77- Odds n Ends after we get home from FL. by Ayevangabond

Coming to an End

74- Starting to head home by Ayevangabond




75- Driving Home by Ayevangabond

St. August-ing

[caption id="attachment_1747" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Sleepy time spot[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1748" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Amazing coffee arrangement[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1749" align="aligncenter" width="300"] ...and these creamers![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1750" align="aligncenter" width="300"] LOVE this place[/caption]

We started our day pretty early, got Joon Van situated and paid the Flying J' a morning visit! And to the rescue it came. We had more coffee to choose from than we knew what to do with & when you turn around there's an entire creamer station. Whoever put this together was quite the coffee connoisseur. I don't drink regular coffee anymore so I put together my own concoction of decaf coffee & creamers and it was perfect!

[caption id="attachment_1751" align="aligncenter" width="300"] The girls are making the bed[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1753" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Whistles & walks away[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1754" align="aligncenter" width="300"] What'd you say to me?[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1755" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Castillo de San Marcos aka the fort…. & the old family picnic tree[/caption]

We drove back to Downtown St. Augustine or Old St. Augustine, whatever. We parked in a great spot, huge tree, privacy, we got pretty lucky. We walked around all of downtown. We walked down Avenida St., walking towards the fort to take some pictures. From there we wrapped back up around to St. George Street, a pedestrian mall.

[caption id="attachment_1756" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Flagler College[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1757" align="aligncenter" width="300"] The bridge we came in on (with Marina & Ocean)[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1758" align="aligncenter" width="300"] The Lightner Museum. MY favorite place here[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1759" align="aligncenter" width="224"] There's a BUG on the loose[/caption]

St. George Street is the street that has it all. You can book any tours that you want to take, after all it is the nations oldest city...& one of the most haunted! There are a few fudge & chocolate shoppes and they are the best. As kids, my sister & I would always get the Alligators on a stick, it was chocolate (or white choc. that's what I liked) Alligator molded onto a popsicle/lollipop stick, it was amazing. There are many different and unique stores with pretty good deals. There are tons of places to pick from to grab a bite to eat. We just picked up a map & started walking. We were going to go to Santa Maria's, it's a restaurant right on the ocean, we had never been there before. On our way we walked by this quaint little place that had a nice courtyard & the prices didn't look crazy so we detoured to O.C. White's. I had a very satisfying quesadilla & J' had, what he was craving, a french dip...although they had no 'dip'! Even though the server was a little disconnected the food was good and the sun was out and this was our last day touring, so we were taking it all in. We would be on the road soon, on our way home. Guess it's time to start gathering a plan for the next (longer) adventure!

[caption id="attachment_1761" align="aligncenter" width="300"] St. George St. "The Street"[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1762" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Lunch @ O.C. White[/caption]

PEACE

74- Starting to head home by Ayevangabond

Approaching: St. Augustine

Our drive through Flagler & the other beaches gave us time to figure out where we wanted to (& could) park for the night. We had heard that all Flying J's are free and through prior-reading we found there was one in St. Augustine, so we punched it into the GPS and flew on over. We arrived in St. Augustine right at sunset, so we did a quick run through of the city to get to the Flying J. We would be back in the morning to do some  walking, sticker shopping, picture taking and simple, historical fun! 

[caption id="attachment_1765" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Our festive welcome sign[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1766" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Coming over bridge into St. Augustine[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1767" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Atlantic Ocean[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1768" align="aligncenter" width="300"] One of my mom's faves! This cemetery is hella old![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1769" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Tourist Trap? Uh, yeah! haha but fun non the less[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1770" align="aligncenter" width="300"] The Ole' Chain Gang[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1771" align="aligncenter" width="300"] St. Augustine @ Dusk[/caption]

 Off for the night. This Flying J was a great idea, glad we thought of it! Meet you back here different time, different place.

PEACE

73-Arrive in St. Aug by Ayevangabond

Keep on Truckin': Flagler

We are just going to 'Keep on Truckin' up the coast. We've already hit New Smyrna & Daytona which are old stompin' grounds for us and as we go North, we hit Flagler. We used to do day drives and do this same exact drive when we lived here, just to get away, so we figured we had to do it again...for old times sake. And it's such a beautiful drive.

[caption id="attachment_1775" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Serenity[/caption]

We stopped by the pier to take pictures and go to the potty. After reminiscing, J' had the best idea of the day.... ICE CREAM!! Who goes to the beach and does NOT get ice cream...I don't know either! So we got the most bomb-ass chocolate milkshakes you'll ever have and started back on our journey, a much more delicious journey!

[caption id="attachment_1780" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Someone can be quite the cutie when she’s tired![/caption]

PEACE

 

"What does DB stand for?" ~ Aussie

[caption id="attachment_1783" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Daytona Beach Boardwalk[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1784" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Daytona Beach Pier
(now much shorter due to hurricanes)[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1785" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Nom, Nom...Pizzaaa[/caption]

Yay, it’s Aussie Day ♫ it’s really Aussie Day ♫ That’s why I feel so Gay, because it’s Aussie Day!!  ♫

I get to see my best mate! I’m super stoked, we haven’t seen one another in over a year. Even though she’s been here for years, she has yet to go to Daytona, so we thought what better timing than together. Duckie, (that’s my name for her. I know, cute huh!?) met up with us and we headed to Daytona.

 First we grabbed a bite to eat, Duckie was hungry and needed to get a full belly…this would have been better earlier as I will update you as to why…

After our bite we started walking the boardwalk. We went into some stores to look for stickers, we tried to take pictures in a photo booth but it was broken. We looked at all of the rides they had. I don’t think anyone was working them (except maybe the Ferris Wheel, that thing is always running!) due to the off-season.

[caption id="attachment_1787" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Play time or Free Shower?
Both![/caption]

As you walk down the boardwalk (depending on the way you are going) you can go straight at one point to stay on the boardwalk or break-off up a couple of steps into the pavilion. It's pretty cool, this area is called the Ocean Walk Shoppes with a stage built in the North side and shops & dining built into the rest of it! They have a pretty great movie theater as well. As we were walking toward the shops, Duckie said she didn't feel well. Luckily, I knew where the terdlets are so that's where we went. Unfortunately, they sit at the back of the third story...so we went...quickly. To make a gross story short, she got sick, sick and sicker. After spending quality time with her porcelain God my Duckie recovered enough to make fun of J' in a 'shoe insert' shop that he, by no means, wanted to be in.

[caption id="attachment_1788" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Best Mates forever[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1789" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Do you have a minute?
Not really.[/caption]

As we were walking back down the stairs, there was another photo booth right at the bottom and it worked! Woo-hoo. This photo booth was definitely way more rad than the broken one we came across earlier. It was all digitized and played back a recording of you taking your pictures and it gave you two sets of pictures. Pretty rad stuff, man! Oh, and there was a super-creeper sitting with his little dog right outside of the photo booth...'Wanna pet my doggy?'....umm, gross.

 We walked back down the boardwalk over to Main St. We had to show her where all of the madness of Bike Week takes place. It's almost eerie walking down Main St. when it isn't Bike Week, due to there not being a single soul on the sidewalks or in the shops. Everything is closed down. It's strange but understandable. We went in a couple more stores and then started heading back toward Joon Van.

[caption id="attachment_1790" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Duckie asks,”Why are they selling Arabs at Daytona Beach?”[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1791" align="aligncenter" width="300"] My own Feng Shui Tortoise[/caption]

Duckie needed a little something to refresh herself so we stopped @ the same joint and grabbed a pepsi and some fries, then headed back to get her to work on time.

*Side-note: We learned that J’ was telling Duckie about these awesome pills (5-HTP-a building block of serotonin) and he gave her two to try, to see how she felt with it. Those two pills and no food earlier in the day is what made her sick! Nice inside joke, right? haha *

[caption id="attachment_1792" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Food. Round 2[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1793" align="aligncenter" width="300"] I don't even know where this came from??[/caption]

PEACE

 

Beach Blast from the Past

Daytona Beach,

the beach we frequented most while we lived in Florida. We took a gradual stroll down memory lane and wound up straight where we were about two years prior...on the sandy beach of Daytona!

Usually during the day & season it's 5 dollars to park on the beaches.

PAY: February 1- November 30.

FREE: Any other time.

(Volusia County Beaches)

I think it's quite the ganga for an entire day on the sand with your vehicle at your beck & call, ready to whip you into the 7-11 or just give you relief for the few moments...it's all right there on the beach WITH an ocean! Doesn't get much sweeter than that!

 PEACE

[caption id="attachment_1800" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Captivated by Mother Ocean[/caption]

69- DB here we come by Ayevangabond

It's the L.A.W.

Today was a rainy day and with a rainy day comes a little bit of sadness…well in this case. Since we were around where I grew up, I asked J’ if we could go by my old swim place and we went. It has been run down for some time now. I guess my coach sold the land (and the pool that was on it) many years ago and from there it just dilapidated. It’s sad going back and seeing so many things that you know so well just damaged or gone. It was very memorable to me though. I ended up “breaking in” (not really, just went through a hole in the fence) and taking pictures of the old place. So many great memories, friends and swim times were made here and I will remember it forever.

[caption id="attachment_1804" align="aligncenter" width="300"] THEN (1993)…that’s me beating my competition[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1805" align="aligncenter" width="300"] NOW (2012) Kinda eerie, huh?[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1807" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Then (1993)
I think we were supposed to be doing dry-lands[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1806" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Now (2012)
All dried up[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1811" align="aligncenter" width="300"] 1995 Underwater Pictures after practice[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1810" align="aligncenter" width="300"] 2012 Don't get in the water now![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1813" align="aligncenter" width="300"] 1996 About to get in for practice[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1812" align="aligncenter" width="300"] 2012 No practice today[/caption]

Crazy huh? It's good to be able to go back and see where you've been and what you have accomplished and this was one of those days for me. I've come so far and this is really where my life started, at this swim club. Thank you to my Coach, Dan Dittmer and for Longwood Aquatics to give me that great push into being the person that I am. Without swimming I would have missed out on a tremendously blessed life and am happy to be able to say that I didn't.

To all of the amazing memories, jokes, pictures, laughter, friendships, records and even the grueling practices and the painful tears.

I love you and will always cherish everything I was taught while being a part of this 'family'. I think a positive energy will always be woven into this land. And I'm happy to be a part of that vibe.

Love to the L.A.W.

[caption id="attachment_1814" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Ingrained in my brain[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1815" align="aligncenter" width="300"] If this hi-dive could talk!![/caption]

PEACE