Around the World in 365 Days: Charleston to St. Augustine/ Crescent Beach

Day 53, Dec.9^th: The Hyatt had a great workout room – the treadmills had videos of trails to run, so I jogged through the South Island of New Zealand. They also had a heated indoor pool, so John, who’s ankle is acting up, swam and did water aerobics. The hotel also offered a really nice breakfast buffet which included an omelet and crepe station. The gym had a scale, so I stuck to yogurt and fruit. We walked to the waterfront, but with the fog decided against going out to Fort Sumter since there was almost no visibility.

We continued to walk along the river (and close by streets in the more industrial areas) to the parks and to Rainbow Row with each house a different bright color.

I pointed out the metal that protruded from some of the older building to help stabilize them from earthquakes (if you look in the photo above – you will see some nubs in the front of the blue building). In 1886 there was an approximately 7.0 earthquake that hit the city. In an attempt to stabilize the structure, metal rods were inserted through the buildings and the caps can be seen protruding from many of them (http://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/earthquake-rods/). I had last visited Charleston with my sisters in 2009 and had forgotten about the rods until I noted the irregularities on the facade. After our long walk, we enjoyed a Hobbit like second breakfast and ate really good cannolis at a bakery (and yes, this was after I had weighed myself. Later in the drive we listened to a TED talk about human behavior and immediate reward is worth way more mentally than later consequences, even when you know better, which is why people continue to smoke even though they know it causes cancer and lung damage, etc.). We had to leave Charleston behind and drove to our home for the next few days- a condo near St. Augustine on Crescent Beach – 10 miles from St. Augustine but an inexpensive place to hang out on the beach for a few days.

We arrived after dark, so except for a dinner at the Crescent Beach Bar and Grill across the A1A from the condo complex, we had to leave the exploring for the next day. Our waitress at the Grill was a former body builder and now going back to school to study nutrition, since the restaurant wasn’t too busy, we had a nice conversation about the importance of dietary balance.

Day 54, Dec. 10^th: With his ankles feeling better, John got in a run on the beach, my knee was feeling a little “wonky” after my jog yesterday, so did abs and yoga (still got to work on plank – not doing it nearly enough). Today would be one of the few really beautiful days in the forecast, with a high expected in the 80’s, so a day hanging out by the pool, walking on the beach and reading. I’m still working my way through Gulliver’s Travels – it didn’t help that when I was about 75% of the way through, when my Kindle powered off, I lost my place and it took awhile to find it again. The condo is about 700 square feet, on the first floor so on tiptoe you can see over the patio wall and see the water.

But it is on the beach, which is really nice. Crescent Beach is 4-5 miles from the closest regular grocery store, but the little Shell station across the street has many of the necessities, so we were able to grab eggs, bread, butter and bananas for breakfast. Later in the day we went into “town” for the remainder of what we would need for a few days. We grabbed lunch at the Red Frog and McToad – I ate some of the best red clam chowder I had in my life. It was thick, spicy and yummy. They also have nightly specials and Wednesday is lobster! So, the plan is to head back tomorrow. In the afternoon we went back to the beach, and a walk at sunset.

There was a Vin Diesel marathon on SYFY so we watched “Pitch Black” – the first Riddick movie which I had never seen, followed by “The Chronicles of Riddick” which I had seen about 10 years ago so it was like seeing it for the first time – we stayed up ‘til midnight watching fun bad movies!

Day 55, Dec. 11^th: I got in a thirty-three-minute run in the nearby community on the Intercoastal Waterway (ICW) side of the A1A, didn’t see many people, did see some egrets and other birds. The weather continued to hold off, so we decided to head into St. Augustine and see the fort. The Castillo was filled with school groups, so some of the fun was dodging 3^rd-6^th graders. We arrived just in time to see the cannon demonstration, with the re-enactors in full garb (which must be miserable in Florida most of the year. In this area, the humidity is intense – the dehumidifier in the condo has to be emptied every 8-10 hours).

We wandered the town a bit, then headed down to Fort Mantanzas which is just 4 miles further down the A1A, passed the condo. Unfortunately, hurricane Dorian last summer severely damaged their docks so we could only look at it from across the river.

Steve – an entertaining Ranger, gave us the history of the importance of the fortified watchtower. It was the key to protecting the “back door” to the Castillo de San Marcos. Still a blustery day, so we did a load of laundry and worked on getting the last couple of visas for the big trip (India won’t let you apply for the e-visa until 120 days prior to arrival. The cruise arrives at Cochin on April 11th, and Cruise and Maritime has been pressuring us for copies of our visas. Since they’re an English based company, I guess their visa requirements are different. Every time we explain this it feels like we’re beating our head against a wall). We headed back over to the Red Frog and McToad for the lobster – 1 lb Maine lobster for $12 (sides have to be added on) – I added a salad and some of their very good garlic mashed potatoes. We arrived just before 5PM (the start time of the special) and the restaurant filled pretty quickly. It sounded like a lot of locals from the greetings from the waitstaff. With no fun-bad movies to hook us in, we had a much earlier night.

Day 56, Dec. 12^th; Got up and did some legs and toning exercise while John did water aerobics. It stayed blustery, but not much rain as yet. We finished our laundry, walked the beach, caught up on email and again tried to apply for the Indian e-visa (technically, yesterday should have been 120 days, but no joy, we will try again tomorrow before heading out). John went to a Walmart about 20 miles away to pick up a printer – it turned out to be cheaper to go buy a printer than to go to a UPS store and print out and copy the documents we need for the big cruise. I played Christmas songs on my guitar for part of the time John was gone, then made linner – grilled tuna with salad and potatoes. In the evening we went to happy hour at the Crescent Beach Bar and Grill – they were hosting karaoke, and I couldn’t resist, so we stayed until 7PM so I could sing “Knee Deep” by the Zac Brown Band. The words they put up were correct until they got to this really fast part at the end of the song, when the words on the screen were most definitely not the words I learned playing the official Zac Brown song book. Instead of going ahead and singing the lyrics I knew – I sang the words on the screen and came out very awkward. Oh well, I’ll do it again and if they have that version I will sing the song as I know it. Tomorrow is a travel day, so we headed back to the condo to finish up the packing to be ready to head out in the morning.