St Augustine, FL Day Trip

It has been awhile since we posted anything...and I have to apologize for not having lots of cool pictures. We will work on that but we have to recover from the deployment and CA trip. Things like camera power cables are still MIA.


Lindsay bought a Chrysler Town & Country minivan while I was gone. We needed something a little more carseat friendly than the Trailblazer when we added Ellie to the mix. That Blazer was the right car at the time we bought it last summer but there really isn't enough room for 2 carseats and people and strollers and stuff. The minivan is awesome! They have come quite a ways since the old Astro van days. I like having a car that is completely designed around making it easier to transport families. The doors can all be opened/closed with the remote or a button inside the car. It has a DVD system to keep kids distracted on road trips. We almost didn't get it because I was being cheap, but I have totally changed my mind. Worth it. Anyway, the van is great and Lindsay did a wonderful job of researching, finding, and negotiating for the right van at the right price. She didn't even need my signature...good thing we trust each other.

So we took the new van out on the road to test it out and work out some of the kinks. We have a couple potential road trips coming this summer and we want to be ready. We drove about 3 hours down to St Augustine, Florida, which is billed as the oldest city in the US. It is a really neat coastal town...lots of shops, museums, and of course, beaches. We had to stop about halfway there to try to calm the girls down. Ellie isn't a huge car fan, and Gracie had something going on and just needed a break. Gracie got to watch Leapfrog's Word Factory and had a great time with that. Ellie melted down several more times before we arrived but we just pushed through. I wanted to go to a restaurant for lunch that served turtle and alligator but when we finally found it, they weren't open...frustrating.



After lunch at a Greek/Italian/American place we went to the beach, thinking we would just hang out a few minutes so we could say we did it. Last time we went to the beach in CA, Gracie did NOT like the ocean one bit. This time I couldn't get her out of it. We started playing in the waves and she kept wanting to go out farther and farther. She wanted me to support her when the waves hit and she didn't like it when they splashed her face, but she got out to where the water was chest level! I was impressed! I didn't bring a change of shorts because I never imagined we would actually go swimming, but I wound up sitting with her in the water and having a great time. The water here is actually warm, unlike the CA beaches. Lindsay spent most of the time trying to keep Ellie out of the sun since she is too young for sunscreen. Ellie was not impressed with the ocean.


We spent about 2.5 hours at the beach, got a little sunburned, and headed home. Ellie had a rough trip but Grace slept through most of it. We had a great day and would love to go back there to check out some of the history and stuff we missed. It is hard to do much when you have to drive 3 hours each way. The van worked great, the DVD distractionary device was wonderful, and it was nice to get away from home for a day.