Day 51 Home

Home at last! It was a really nice trip. The best part was visiting with all the people we don't get to see very often. The second best part was just seeing the country and how varied every part of the country is, except Texas, and that has it's own fascinating attributes.

The numbers:

51 Travel days
8466 Miles
24 Cities and towns
22 States
6 Sets of friends and families visited
21 Different hotels
36 Nights in hotels

Day 50 Wilson, North Carolina

It was another uneventful five hour drive from Bluffton to Wilson, NC. We got their by 2 o'clock, checked in our hotel, and immediately went to Parker's Barbecue. I normally get the pork barbecue, but decided on the Fried Chicken for a change, Sylvia did the same and boy was it good. I almost got chicken livers to go, but I really didn't need it. Didn't do anything after that, just went back to the hotel, we're heading home tomorrow. It'll be nice to be home.

Day 48 and 49 Bluffton, South Carolina

I started the day by going to by having a Fish and Grits breakfast at Anastasia Kitchen then picked up some Baguettes to take up to Jack and Carol's in Bluffton. We took our time, had an uneventful drive and, got there by 2 o'clock. We spent a good amount of time just catching up on things and meeting Carol's sister Ellen. For dinner Carol made a terrific Lasagna and Ellen brought a fantastic Spumoni for desert. I ate way too much and despite the fun conversation fell asleep way to early.

The next day we went over to Red Fish in Hilton Head for lunch. It's one of their favorite place and it's understandable why. We then went to old town Bluffton where Carol and Sylvia shopped a bit while Jack and I enjoyed a beer at Old Town Dispensary where we were soon joined again by Carol and Sylvia. Old Bluffton is a very quaint little village with several nice restaurant and pubs. It's one of my favorite little cutesy places around. On the way back to the house we stopped at Butcher's Market and Deli and picked up a few Meat Pies and Pierogi's and had them for a really good dinner. Butcher's is must stop shop for excellent deli foods.

We had another good visit with some old friends and hope they get up to Solomons soon. Tomorrow it's off to Wilson, North Carolina and a stop at Parker's Barbecue for Q and Fried Chicken.

Old Town Dispensary

Day 47 St. Augustine, Florida

I got up this morning and had breakfast at Little Margie's. Ordered Corned Beef Hash and poached eggs with a fresh made biscuit, and it was very, very good. Afterwards I thought I'd better bring back something for Sylvia (compensation for snoring), so I went up the road a piece to Les Petites Pleasures, an authentic French Bakery. I could tell it was authentic because I could see the old baker in the back room making pastries while singing old French songs. And I could really tell it was authentic when I tasted the the Peach Danish and the Croissants. I'm going back tomorrow morning for the Baguettes and something else, that's for sure.

We went downtown before lunch to walk around and see more of the historical sites before the predicted rain started. We spent an hour just wandering around before stopping at Casa Maya for a brief refreshment. Fortified, we did bit more walking and went to MOJO Old City BBQ for Brunswick Stew and Kansas City Burnt Ends. Burnt Ends are hard to find, and these were absolutely great and really hit the spot. As we were leaving MOJO's it started to rain. Undeterred, we had one more stop we wanted to make, The Tini Martini Bar. We had been there years ago and wanted to see if it changed. It didn't, it's still a small bar that makes great Martinis. We managed to get two of the only six seats at the bar and had an enjoyable conversation with two other couples that lived in the Old City. As we left the Tini Bar it was pouring so I got the car and we drove back to the hotel to watch the Super Bowl. It was a good game that was hard to get excited about because I really didn't want anybody to win.

Tomorrow it's off to Bluffton, South Carolina to visit our friends Jack and Carol.

Burnt Ends at MOJO's

The Tini Martini Bar

Day 46 St. Augustine, Florida

It was a short drive from Mount Dora to St. Augustine so we took the slow route and went directly over to Ormond Beach and drove coastal road A1A 51 miles up to St. Augustine Beach. It's one of the few roads along the Atlantic coast that you can actually see the ocean as there are very few structures between the road and the beach. Despite the dawdling, we still got to our hotel too early to check in so we headed a few miles over to the city part of St. Augustine and had lunch at Harry's. It's been a pretty long time since we've been to St. Augustine and enjoyed walking around the "Oldest City in North America". The hotel called around one o'clock and said the room was ready for check in so we did that and decided to come back to the city tomorrow.

After checking in we drove around the beach getting a feel for the area before stopping at Salt Life Food Shack, not to eat but for a few drinks. It seemed to be pretty active for this early in February, but it was Saturday and looked like a nice place to have a good time. For dinner we went to Sunset Grill which is next door to our hotel. It was crowed but we got a good table in the bar area. It seemed to be a goto place for locals and Snowbirds alike, lots of old people, with which we could easily identify. We had Mahi, Grouper, and Snapper fish bites along with Minorcan Conch Chowder. The fish bites were excellent and the Conch Chowder was unusual in that unlike most conch chowders it actually had conch in it.

We're here for another day and I think we'll spend most of it in town.

St. Augustine Oldest City in North America

Day 44 and 45 Mount Dora, Florida

The drive through horse country of Ocala to Mount Dora in central Florida was impressive for the magnificent horse ranches that consume the countryside. We arrived at our friends Toni and John's house mid afternoon and after catching up on things they drove us around and showed us the area. We got a bit thirsty so we stopped for a refreshment in downtown Mount Dora at "1921 by Norman Van Aken" who's a Florida artist that decided to open a restaurant to display various works of art. It's a beautiful place where we had a few drinks and ate some very good food before heading back to their house for the evening.

Mount Dora is charming little lakeside town with interesting shops and restaurants that's a lot of fun to just walk around in. I'm not sure it's exactly on a mountain, but if you start at the lake and walk towards the center of town you can almost tell you're walking uphill. At it's highest point it's 185 feet above sea level, and for Florida, that's a mountain. We really enjoyed the evening.

The next day we spent more time walking around town with a brief stop at One Flight Up for a glass of wine. A very pleasant waiter named Michael from Maryland took care of us and described some of the more interesting events going on around town. For dinner we went back to town and stopped first at Pisces Rising for Happy Hour, then at Goblin Market Restaurant for dinner. Sylvia had Rainbow Trout and I had Chicken Paprikash with Nokedli. It was fabulous. There seems to be an abundance of good restaurants in Mount Dora and we'd love to get back here.

It was a great visit with Toni and John with fun conversation and lots of good eats...and drinks. They were excellent hosts. Tomorrow we go to St. Augustine Beach for two days.

Hiking Up Mount Dora