I thought Florida was supposed to be warm…

It seems like every time we travel we run into some pretty nasty weather. Florida did not disappoint. We woke up Sunday morning to gray skies and cold winds. Despite this, we only had 24 hours left in St. Augustine and needed to make the best of it.

We made an effort to shower in the tiny RV shower (don’t even get me started…) and headed into America’s oldest city. There are several hop on hop off tours in St. Augustine. We chose the Old Town Trolley. Twenty-five dollars covered parking, stops at St. Augustine’s most popular stops, and a narrated tour of the city. You can also buy packages which include an entry fee to other attractions for an added cost. The Old Town Trolley company also boasted a free beach shuttle with stops at the Alligator farm, Lighthouse, and beach. I’ll get back to the “beach bus” later.

As we hopped on the trolley, the winds picked up and the rain started to fall. We chose to stay on the trolley for a full rotation. First, to avoid the rain, and second, to get the lay of the land and figure out where we wanted to stop. After making our way around, we hopped off at Castillo de San Marcos, the oldest and largest fort in the continental US. **Important tip: when the weather is nice, reenactors in Spanish Colonial clothing fire the cannons. Details can be found here. We walked around the fort checking out the cannons and the views of the city before heading to Columbia, a traditional Spanish restaurant, for lunch.

After stuffing ourselves with Cuban sandwiches and key lime pie, we were in desperate need of a walk. We headed first towards Flagler College, a private, Liberal Arts College in the heart of St. Augustine. The college was developed from the former grounds of the luxurious, Ponce de Leon Hotel, and boasts beautiful architecture.

A quick tour of the grounds and we made our way back to the beach bus stop. There were only two hours left for the trolley tours so we thought we would stop at the beach and the lighthouse. Once we were boarded, the driver asked where we wanted to go and gave us the timeline. Turns out the “beach bus” was the bus that brought everybody over from their hotels on Anastasia Island. It took nearly an hour to stop at all the hotels (I didn’t even know there were so many!) along the way before finally making it to the beach. Unfortunately, this meant we missed the lighthouse. But…the rain, FINALLY, stopped!

As we stepped onto the beach, we noticed an SUV buried in the sand. There were three women shoveling sand/pushing, and one behind the wheel attempting to push it out. We quickly rushed over to help. With our added strength and one big heave-ho, we were able to push them out. A few minutes spent picking up shells and taking pictures, to document that we had at least seen a beach on this trip, was about all we could handle. The wind was incredibly cold and we were unable to stand out there for very long. I thought Florida was supposed to be warm?! was definitely the theme of the day.

We made our way back towards the road and stopped for a drink at the Beachcomber. Imagine our surprise when we ran into our new friends from the beach who bought us some drinks!

We had to be back at the bus stop by 4:04 (specific) to make it back to the mainland on the trolley. Otherwise, we would have had to find other transportation back. On our walk to lunch we noticed a place called Auggie’s Draft Room where you could pour your own beer. We stopped in a for a few drinks (it was surprisingly quite pricey for DIY!), grabbed some Kilwin’s ice cream ( I know, I know…I said I was cold…) and made our way back to the RV.

I was frozen at this point. I put on several layers of clothes, cranked the heat and crawled into the bed to try to warm up. We had a low key dinner in the RV, watched whatever we could find on the TV, and headed to bed early. Luckily, we were in for a better nights sleep!