Spring Break in St. Augustine {Day 4}

Happy Monday friends! Okay today I am wrapping up our Spring Break trip to St. Augustine Beach. I know you are probably tired of seeing all that sunshine and fun, right? Me on the other hand, I wish I could go back considering today Mother Nature is laughing at us all as I put back on my winter clothes again. Boo!

To see how we spend our other days at St. Augustine Beach, read here...

St. Augustine Day 1

St. Augustine Day 2

St. Augustine Day 3

The kids must have realized it was the last day of vacation because they woke up super early. As in early enough that a few of us were lucky enough to see the sunrise. 

The day before was our warmest day, and this day was our coldest. It was in the high 40's when we woke up and would only reach mid-sixties so I decided it would be an exploration day. The hotel had a million pamphlets on things to do so I let the kids decide what they wanted to check out. 

First vote was the St. Augustine Alligator Farm and Zoological Park. The vote on this was unanimous. All kids were excited about it. Me on the other hand...a park full of alligators sounds like the things nightmares are made of. 

We got their early, and I'm so glad we did because the place was quite popular. And after seeing it I know why. It was such a fun place, and had tons of animals and exhibits the kids could see. 

The first area you see is a large section with different varieties of baby alligators. The kids thought it was so fun that they were snuggling with turtles. 

L.C. determined the baby alligators were so cute and she needed one. N to the O. Because baby alligators turn into big alligators. And big alligators turn into HUGE alligators. 

This is how we all felt about that...

So sorry L.C., not now or ever will we have a baby alligator pet for you. 

I mean I knew it was an alligator farm, but I wasn't prepared for just how many alligators we would see. And the massive size of them. It was astonishing. In this area the alligators I think ranged from 10-12ft. And they looked almost nearly as wide. 

The kids instantly deemed the Alligator Farm their favorite find on the whole trip. Even more so than the now popular whirl pool tub. 

The park was home to a ton of other animals. From turtles to parrots to a wide variety of birds and even a large variety of snakes - it had a little bit of everything. 

But the two main attractions were the alligators and the Rookery, which home to a wide variety of wild birds. Tons of people were in this area. In the trees and all around were a large amount of birds and their nests. Bird watchers and photographers - both professional and amateur - set up camp everywhere to capture them in this natural habitat. 

But let's not forget where we are. The path through the rookery is also home to a ton of these guys. 

Again, my the things nightmares are made of. 

The entire path and bank had hundreds of alligators in it. And my kids LOVED it. You could also purchase alligator food for a quarter in this section. The kids thought it was so cool they fed a real life alligator. If they only knew what that alligator was really thinking...

We took a quick break from all things alligator. Hey Magnolia. ;) 

We grabbed a quick bite to eat at the restaurant on site. It had a great kid-friendly menu (hamburgers, chicken fingers, etc.) and the kids loved these fun cups that changed with temperature. It got crowded fast and seating was limited so just be aware of that if you ever make your way to the alligator farm. 

After lunch we checked out a few more exhibits we hadn't seen yet. 

| L.C.s skinny jeans | Cute's lightweight hoodie | Favorite Summer Shoes | 

I'm so glad to know we live in modern times. Especially once I learned prehistoric alligators topped at 40ft long and 20,000 pounds. 

I might never sleep again. 

Before we left we made our way to the playground area. 

This area is fun and perfect for toddlers and small children. Unfortunately a school on a field trip was on the playground and we running the place. The kids were a little bit older and I am all for kids of any age playing but the untamed wildness of some pre-teen boys was no match for small toddlers. 

The kids still managed to sneak in some fun though. 

We said our last goodbyes to the animals and then it was time to head to our second kid voted activity. 

Two adventures in one day. Yes, I'm totally crazy. 

The St. Augustine Pirate and Treasure Museum was something Cute spotted the first visit to the downtown area, and had talked about non-stop since. If I left St. Augustine without taking him, I apparently would have ruined his entire childhood. 

When you arrive at the museum you are giving a scavenger hunt map. Around the museum are hidden discovery boxes marked with a skull and crossbones. If you find all of them and correctly mark down the contents in each box you are allowed to pick out a gem stone at the end. The kids were all about this!

The museum is filled with tons of pirate memorabilia and recovered treasures. A large amount being from some of the world's most famous pirates. 

Apparently this flag is one of two existing originals from Blackbeard's ships. 

There were several rooms throughout the museum and each one had a different theme as well as something to interact with. From electronic treasure books that taught you about the world's most treacherous pirates to a cannon you can shoot - each room was designed to teach and to be fun. 

I thought we read somewhere that the museum was designed by some of the Disney designers. If that rings true, you can definitely see touches of that throughout the museum. Not only in the interactive exhibits but in the level of detail each one has. 

It's also astonishing to see how many recovered artifacts are in one place! 

Including pirate movie memorabilia. 

The kids loved it so much I let them go through a second time. Which was nice because the first time we were all about the scavenger hunt, the second was a little easier to read about everything. 

It was definitely a neat place visit, and fun for all ages. 

Cute was super sad I wouldn't let him walk through a third time. 

Once I finally tore him away from the pirate adventure, we decided to walk around St. Augustine again and do a little sightseeing and shopping before dinner. The advantages of waking up so early...you can do two major tourist attractions leisurely all before 3p.m. 

Around 4:30p.m. our feet were tired and the cries of hunger were beginning to come from the toddler set. So we decided to do an early dinner. The nice thing about that was there was literally no wait. The kids voted on pizza, and we stumbled into PizzaAlley's Chianti Room. 

This might have been my favorite meal of the entire trip. It was so yummy! Not to mention from 5-6p.m. it's buy one get one free happy hour. Considering the wine was about $6 a glass that was a great deal I just couldn't pass up.  

From here I let the kids hit up the candy store one more time and then we called our vacation a wrap. The next morning I had planned on going to the beach before we headed out, but then made the executive decision to just hit the road. I'm so glad I did because Spring Break traffic was already in full effect and it took us over nine hours to get home (typically it's about 7 from Atlanta to St. Augustine). 

The bright side was our iPads remained fully charged the whole time and there were plenty of Chick-fil-a's along the way. 

That's a wrap on Spring Break 2018. St. Augustine was definitely a fun little place to visit and I look forward to visiting again one day in the future. The kids had a blast and it's a trip we will all remember. 

Now to plan a mommy trip because two major trips into the year run by the kids and I'm feeling like I need a quite tropical beach with a spa somewhere in my future. ;)

Is St. Augustine one of your vacation spots? What should we see next time we go? 

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Spring Break in St. Augustine {Day 3}

Happy Friday! This week I've been recapping our Spring Break trip to St. Augustine Beach. You can read about our first few days here: 

St. Augustine Day1

St. Augustine Day 2

When I was thinking of our Spring Break trip on the beach, all I was thinking about was being warm and on the beach. I didn't realize we would have the opportunity to see and do so many things. I prefer to just chill out when I'm at the beach. Soaking in all the sunshine, and the the sounds of the waves intermixed with squeals of my children's laughter is my happy place. 

But Mother Nature decided to throw in a kink here and there, and fortunately we somehow landed at a place with plenty of entertainment to keep us occupied until it was warm enough to play on the beach.  

I knew this would be our warmest day of the week, and wanted to take full advantage of that. While it was still too cool in the morning to swim or play without sweatshirts on the beach, it was warm enough to keep the party outdoors. We decided to do a quick adventure knowing by lunchtime the weather would be hot enough to swim. So we made our way to the St. Augustine Lighthouse. 

There are a number of interesting tours and activities you can partake in at the lighthouse, but we wanted to keep it easy and explore ourselves. Even on our own there was a ton for kids to do!

We rounded the first corner and there was this fun ship playground for the kids to play on.

It even was equipped with costume weapons for the kids to play with. This was totally up my kids alley, and everyone who played on it instantly seemed to get into character - mostly of the pirate variety.

The inside of the ship was also fun for kids. It had a cute little picnic table and a ladder to take you below deck.

And fun portholes too of course. How else would you see other adorable pirates?

Somehow I managed to tear them away from the playground after a good half hour of play. We made our way over to the lighthouse itself. 

Now if you are under 44 inches tall you can't go up to the top of the lighthouse, and they don't charge you. So the girls were free. Cute was the the only one tall enough, but since my sister was with us they said one adult could be half price because we couldn't all go up together with the kids. So if you visit as a family and have to switch off, there is a bit of savings. 

Now Cute had no interest in going to the top. I'm not a fan of heights either so I totally get it. 

The lighthouse was built in the 1800's and is still active today. It has been restored over the years, but for the most part is still the original lighthouse. 

My sister went up first, and came down and said she wouldn't take him either. I thought it was just because of so many stairs, but then after I saw it for myself I realized why maybe young kids shouldn't go up. 

You could see straight up, which meant you could see straight down. Eek! At this point I was already committed though. It also didn't help that the stairs weren't very wide. 

And then I was bummed I only burned 24 calories going up. That's a lot of stairs and and semi-panic heart racing going on not to be more than 35 total calories. 

As I climbed higher, I totally shouldn't have looked out the windows or down. It was such a pretty view. I stopped on the landings to take a picture or two...and to not talk myself out of going down before I got to the top. 

And then I finally made it to the top and realized I could see straight out. Like there wasn't a wall it was just a metal railing. N to the 0. 

I stood with my back against the wall in the doorway. I took one picture to send to Mr. Cute to prove I made it to the top, but I did it as quick as possible to get right back in the doorway to head down. 

For the record, heights didn't bother me when I was younger. But as an adult I get huge anxiety. When we did the Ledge in Chicago, it totally freaked me out, but since the clouds blocked the ground it didn't make me as nervous as the first time we did it years ago. 

Once I got my feet back on the ground, and caught my breath, we toured the rest of the lighthouse grounds. I had no idea they made wooden boats there, but there is a whole volunteer program where people can special order a variety of hand crafted boats. 

It was so interesting to see them in the process of making several.

There was a little wooden rowboat in the yard outside the boatbuilding area and a sweet volunteer gave the kids a little instruction on how to row properly. 

We then made our way over to one of the buildings and it had the cutest little interactive play area for kids. The center of this lighthouse model was built to be a puppet theater. 

The building houses replicas of  some of the world's most famous tall ships.

Needless to say the kids loved this area.  Between all the guided activities they could partake in and the free play we spent the better part of an hour in the one little section of the museum.

Once the kids were ready to move on we took our little party outside again. I died laughing over this for some reason...

My spoiled children would never have made it as lighthouse keeper's children. Although they could try...

All those "chores" made them work up an appetite, so we headed to the restaurant on site - Tin Pickle - for a quick bite to eat. 

It's super cute and has a limited menu, but all the necessities you might need for a quick bite. Including beer and wine.

| Swimsuit | Cover-Up |

Of which I should have partaken in before we left because after we ate we made our way back to the hotel so I could be everyone's beach and pool caddy. Thank goodness for this little invention or my kids would have been living like historic lighthouse keepers children at the beach. Just themselves and the ocean. I wouldn't have complained, but I know they would have put up a stink or two about it. 

| Cute's Swim Trunks | Girls Swimsuits |

The minute I unleashed them on the beach they were in their element. L. C. didn't stop running in the waves almost the whole three hours we were out there. 

The kids had so much fun, and it was the perfect warm afternoon. That was until the clouds and storms started rolling in. 

We enjoyed the beach as long as possible, but soon storms started rolling in from behind us. So while our view was sunny ocean, behind us was black stormy clouds. 

Eventually I made the call to pack up our stuff and head back towards the hotel to at least be safer if it go bad. The kids didn't complain though because I let them indulge in a little polar bear swim before officially heading inside. 

We weren't the only one with that plan. Other people were crazy enough to join in the potential frost bite too. I stayed in my cozy warm spot out of the splash zone.

| Frozen goggles | 

The kids had a blast though and didn't complain one bit about it being cold. Aside from the potential danger of lightning strikes they probably would have stayed in that pool all night if I let them.

While they did their nightly soak in the whirl pool tub (which by now was their absolute most favorite activity of all), I ordered food again for a repeat of the night before. We were all worn out and battling hungry rain soaked tourists for a dinner seat did not appeal to me one bit. A quiet dinner in the lobby followed up by snuggles in bed and a movie was way more my speed! 

Last part of vacation coming at you next week, but for now enjoy the weekend!!

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