The Year 2013: A Review

Hi friends,

Well it’s that time of year again — the one where everyone takes a couple minutes to take stock of how the past 12 months have gone? This year has been a particularly important one for myself and Chris. It was our first year of married life. It was a year spent celebrating our marriage around the world with family and friends. It was a year that we made some pretty big decisions about our future (not yet shared here!), and one that had a lot of amazing traveling in it …

Continue reading “The Year 2013: A Review”

St. Augustine Follow-Up

Hi guys,

Since I ran out of photo space on the blog when I was trying to post about Chris’s birthday trip to St. Augustine, I feel like I somewhat short-changed the update. I wanted to just add a couple more photos here from our time spent in Florida a few weekends ago, and to give another big shout-out to Mike’s Yacht of Fun, which we did the Saturday we were there. That whole experience on the yacht really helped make our trip …

^^ You don’t have to be 12 to enjoy a good handstand on the beach.

^^ Bros.

^^ Mike’s yacht of fun. Seriously. Lots of fun.

^^ Manatee! I mean honestly, look how close we were!

^^ Pulling up to the Conch House for lunch.

^^ LOVE the Conch House. It’s right on the water.The food is tasty and on Sundays they have live jazz music and a great bar.

^^ Lunchtime views.

11DChrisAtConch

11ESeaSign

11FGroupAtConchHouse

^^ Moustaches were put  up all around the city to match the "Gentlemen of the Road'" theme.
^^ Moustaches were put up all around the city to match the “Gentlemen of the Road'” theme.
^^ And another.
^^ And another.
^^ And another. (If you look reallllyyy hard you can see it!)
^^ And another. (If you look reallllyyy hard you can see it!)
^^ One more.
^^ One more.
^^Last one. Sorry -- I love a good moustache.
^^Last one. Sorry — I love a good moustache.
^^ John Fogerty of CCR stepped in when Fun. backed out last minute. He was really, truly great.
^^ John Fogerty of CCR stepped in when Fun. backed out last minute. He was really, truly great.
^^ The grounds.
^^ The grounds.
^^ Stage view.
^^ Stage view.
^^ Hey Mumford. How's it shakin'?
^^ Hey Mumford. How’s it shakin’?
^^ A little lightening in the background made things pretty scenic.
^^ A little lightening in the background made things pretty scenic.
^^ After the concert we met up with Jon and Rachel and our newfound friends -- Mike of Mike's Yaht of Fun's son and his girlfriend. He proceeded to buy us shots of Absinthe, which was fun to watch the bartender make, but kind of gross to drink. Tastes like black licorice. Ick.
^^ After the concert we met up with Jon and Rachel and our newfound friends — Mike’s (of Mike’s Yacht of Fun) son and his girlfriend. He proceeded to buy us shots of Absinthe, which was fun to watch the bartender make, but kind of gross to drink. Tastes like black licorice. Ick.

Okay friends, now I’m done with my St. Augustine updates. Thank you for bearing with me.

Have a great weekend! Bis bald!

A Birthday Trip for the Books: Part I

Hi friends,

So this past weekend we headed off to my old stomping grounds, St. Augustine, Florida, to take in the Gentleman of the Road Stopover Tour for Chris’s Super Secret 30th Birthday Trip. Two of our friends (who are currently dating, thanks to us 😉 ), came with us and surprised Chris on the plane. He had no idea they would be there. It was sort of amazing.

The entire package was booked through CID entertainment, including our hotel (The Holiday Inn Express Hotel and Suites St. Augustine North — which was fantastic), the 2-day festival tickets, two t-shirts, two posters and shuttle passes to and from the festival grounds until 3 in the morning. They made everything so simple for us, and I was SUPER impressed with them. If you’re ever thinking of booking a package through them, I’d highly recommend it!

Anyway, back to last Friday, our friends Jon and Rachel had surprised Chris on the plane, and we were off! We rented cars in Jacksonville and drove the 45 mins to St. Augustine. Friday we started with some delicious seafood at Mango Mango’s near the beach (try their famous Corn Cakes with Monterrey Jack … to die for!), then we hung out on the beach for a while (where I played touch football for my first time ever … yikes), and got some drinks at the Beachcomber Restaurant, which is right on the beach.

^^Cute little houses on the way to the beach
^^Cute little houses on the way to the beach

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4AJon&Rachel
^^We changed into our swimsuits in the public restroom across the street from Mano Mango’s. Classy people we are.

4AReadyfortheBeach

4ReadyfortheBeach

5Shoes&Shirts

^^View from the Beachcomber. Not too shabby.
^^View from the Beachcomber. Not too shabby.

After our early afternoon beach visit we headed to Publix to pick up drinks for Saturday’s boat trip (oh Publix, how I’ve missed you!), then went back to the hotels to shower and get ready to catch the shuttle to downtown for the festival. 

A word about St. Augustine’s downtown area. It’s gorgeous. So cute, and a lot of fun to explore. Every street you turn down has a different and interesting feel to it — art stores, cafes, bakeries, bars, it’s just really fun. This trip was not, however, a site-seeing trip, so I won’t be talking much about the downtown area other than to say that if you go to St. Augustine, you must visit it. The concert venue was in a park that was literally in the middle of the downtown, but it was late both Friday and Saturday when we got out, so we pretty much picked a bar both nights and hung out.

On Friday night Chris and I were excited to catch Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes. And they definitely did not disappoint. Neither did the venue, actually …

^^Check out all the wrist tags we needed! Shuttle. Concert. Drinks. Boat. Check!
^^Check out all the wrist tags we needed! Shuttle. Concert. Drinks. Boat. Check!

7A

15B

^^This last photo was actually from Saturday night's show when Mumford was playing and it was lightning in the background. But we'll get to that ...
^^This last photo was actually from Saturday night’s show when Mumford was playing and it was lightning in the background. But we’ll get to that …

After the show we did get to take in a little bit of the downtown area while waiting to meet up with our friends.

^^Chris with the Castillo de San Marcos fort in the background.
^^Chris with the Castillo de San Marcos fort in the background.
^^Chris thought he needed to take 150 packets of cheese from the pizza truck at the festival. Ask if those made it home with us ...
^^Chris thought he needed to take 150 packets of cheese from the pizza truck at the festival. Ask if those made it home with us …
^^ Chris and the oldest wooden school house in America.
^^ Chris and the oldest wooden school house in America.

Something else that was really fun was that the city put gigantic moustaches all around, in random places, in honor of the Gentlemen Tour. They pretty much cracked me up. I wanted to post some photos here, but since I’m out of photo space, I guess that’ll have to wait until I upgrade the site.

Okay friends. I’m off to upgrade this WordPress package of mine so I can hop back on here soon and finish up info from our St. Augustine trip before we head out to Australia this Tuesday!

Bis bald, everyone! Hope you all have fun weekend plans!