Motel Livin’ in St Augustine
Karen:
Our first 2 weeks in St Augustine were amazing. While the boat was in getting some hull repairs done, we rented a beach house on Vilano Beach - a place we had checked out when we were anchored on the river awaiting our haul out. Vilano is stunning; white sand beaches for miles, with a great surf that is gentle enough for swimming. We did sunrise runs on the beach, then Michael would do homeschool in the morning and take the kids to the beach and pool in the afternoon. I would work from the upstairs bedroom overlooking the ocean. Pretty idyllic. We had some friends over for dinner and had many quiet nights enjoying space and comfort.
After the issues at the boatyard (see Flo’s post for more details), we moved to a motel for a week, not really sure how long we would be there. It was close to the library and a grocery store and had a pool and free breakfast! Great!
I had my last day of work. It was a very emotional goodbye, to my colleagues, they have been so wonderfully supportive and kind, and I saw how much it meant to me to be apart of such an incredible team. Michael and I celebrated with an evening out where I was treated to some excellent karaoke songs from my man.
A week later, we got an update that the repairs would take a little longer, so we moved to another Motel for a change of scene. This one we ended up staying at for 3 weeks, Michael going to the front desk every few days to extend our stay, each time we got an update from our mechanic that extended the repair timeline. The pool was a bit bigger and it had this great Live Oak Tree that was famous, ‘the Old Senator’. A little tourist train stops by every 15 minutes to tell the same jokes and allow people to take photos underneath, giving our days a ‘Goundhog Day’ quality. We picnic-ed in parks and I microwaved our dinners in the hotel room. We ate our meals al fresco under the tree and downed a few bud lights each night to keep our morale up ;).
The library was still very close by so we spent a lot of time there doing school and projects. Michael and I would research routes and weather and educate ourselves on our options.
We would head to the boatyard to show our face, check on progress, and do some boat projects. We had some zippers replaced by the ‘Irish Sail Lady’ down the road. It was a really friendly family run operation.
We went on walking adventures to visit the local monuments and back to Vilano Beach for some beach days. The streets of St. Augustine have a lot of character and history, and its a fun place to wander around.
One of our walks took us by a local fire station where I was able to have my wedding ring cut off. I haven’t been able to remove it for years, and its a hazard to wear rings on your hands when handling sheets and lines on the boat, so, it had to come off. It was actually a pretty quick procedure.
During this time we bought 2 awesome folding bikes on Marketplace - from a wealthy man living in a gated community. The bikes will really extend our range and are in GREAT shape! Sadly it was riding one of these bikes that Christian broke his arm for the 2nd time on our trip, this time the left one. So we spent time in the Children’s hospital and got to know some more uber drivers. He was stoic about it, and sadly he won't be swimming for the next 6+ weeks - at least he’s still able to use a mouse ;)
Flo and I took a field trip to the local cat cafe. She has been working on a unit on cats for her school project, so it was a great opportunity to spend some time with some real live cats! She is lobbying hard for us to get one. We’ll see….
We finally got the call that the boat was ready and we could plan for getting back in the water. What a feeling!! We reprovisioned and were ready to go!!
Hey Man, watch where you put those straps!!!!
