Adventures in St. Augustine

                Today we switched locations. We were originally staying in Jacksonville, but about 40 minutes away is a smaller town called St. Augustine. For our last few days in Florida, my mom had booked a hotel that was right on the beach. So this morning we packed up all our stuff and headed over to our next destination. Our hotel room wasn’t ready when we got there, but the hotel guy told us about this great Mexican restaurant called Casa Maria. We were, of course, starving and decided to try it. The meal, in my opinion was not as good as Chick-fil-a :) BUT however, the one meal that I ordered is enough for three meals! They give you SO much food. It was pretty good, though, so I don’t mind.

                          Like seriously, this is only a portion of what came with our meals at Casa Maria!

                Fast forward a few hours, it was time for us to go to church. We went to Mass at the St. Augustine Cathedral. The church was very neat, and I’m glad we chose to go there. There was actually a guest bell choir playing along with the organ for the music. So cool! The heritage was very interesting too.

                                                          The steeple of the Cathedral

         The front view of the church (this church was huge. You can't see it in the picture, but there was another sitting section on the right, and two other sitting sections on the left).

                                                     The back view of the church (entrance)

              The Cathedral is actually located in a very historic part of town. There were all these little shops around it, so after Mass, we acted like typical tourists  Window shopping, taking lots of pictures of ourselves doing different things. I’m so glad my mom is so awesome- she let me take off my shoes while we walked. Usually, my mom does NOT tolerate shoelessness. Like EVER. But these oh-so-adorable wedges that I had worn all day long were killing my feet, and we all knew that we could not tour the shops if I had to keep wearing them. So good ole’ mom told me I could go barefoot. Seriously, I’m sure the whole town thought I was an idiot, but hey, I’ve never had such happy feet!

                                                        Touring the town in my bare feet :)

                During our stroll around town, we stopped in on this goodie store. Bad idea! This place was top of the market; Carmel apples, truffles, pastries, and (get this) homemade waffle cones! Of course, we had to get some ice cream (you know how that is!). SOO GOOD! I decided on this delicious Raspberry sorbet flavor in those homemade cones… I was hooked. My tummy was so grateful to me- and I know I probably burned it all off walking around in my bare feet, so it’s all good :)

                                               Mom, Lizzie, and I with our delicious ice cream.

               When we finally checked into our hotel, it was almost dark. Elizabeth had really wanted to go to the beach, but there was a fine if you went out on the beach after sunset- something about the baby turtles on the beach. So Liz and I hurried outside, and we were in awe. The hotel was literally, right on the beach. The view is so beautiful- the ocean as far as the eye can see and the white sand that you think can only exist in movies. We were both in such a fascination over what we saw. The water was warm and I can’t wait to go back in again tomorrow. Just seeing the ocean was such a reminder of God’s power. I was a little scared to go out into the water. It was intimidating. These waters stretch so far that not even the eye can see its end. These waters are overflowing with colorful, interesting, and even kind-of creepy creatures that are all unique. The majestic picture I see in the ocean is the vision of God, the one who made it all.