Monday, March 29, 2021.
Weather: Temp: 76/66, Humidity: 81/63%, Top Wind: N14 mph, Precip: None, Miles Traveled: None
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The funny part of the weather temperature above is that the high of 75 was at 1:00am this morning. It kept dropping, and finally stablized at 68 for the afternoon, and is dropping more this evening. We made the rounds to some of our favorite places today and got at least 10,000 steps in. First stop – the winery. They make a port wine that we both really love, and it’s hard to find in retail stores. So of course, we went and did the free tasting. We got to taste 11 different wines! For free! 😋🍷
Most of their wines use the Muscadine Grape, which is a southern grown grape. We learned that it has one of the highest antioxidant levels among fruits, according to the National Cancer Institute. Well there you go! Drink more muscadine wine. (People who like country music might recognize that term muscadine wine, since it’s a southern thing, like in Jason Aldean’s ‘My Kinda Party’, for example.)
And yes, we bought two bottles of the Ruby Port that we love, and one bottle of their other Port in the squatty jeannie bottle, since it was quite tasty as well.
Next we walked over to the St Augustine Distillery. On the way was this neat looking old barn with a rustic entry way. Ah-ha! It’s for the Farmer’s market! Neat idea.
We found the distillery right where we left it the last time we were here. They have a restaurant here called the Ice Plant, since these businesses are in an old repurposed building.
Originally built as a power plant in 1905 it became Florida’s first power and ice complex in 1907. The ice plant building was expanded in 1917 into the first Florida facility to generate commercial block ice.
We have done the distillery tour here before, and it is really very interesting. This time, we really were just looking for their bourbon. When we toured before, the bourbon was still aging in barrels. Then a couple of years ago, our friend Larry on One Eye Dog had a bottle of it and gave Kenny a taste and he liked it. So that’s what we were looking for, but dagnabit, they don’t produce that particular bourbon any more. We tried the ones that they have now, and the bourbon drinker of our crew wasn’t feeling the need to buy any of it.
They did have a shirt with a cute saying on it, but we didn’t buy it either. I tasted their rum, and it was a belly warmer, but in the end, we didn’t buy anything.
Back outside to wander around, we headed back east toward the water. This town is VERY busy with lots of people doing lots of things. This Old Town Trolley tour has trams going everywhere and they are all full and busy!
This is the Flagler College. I’ve researched it and written about it before. It’s a super cool old building, built in 1888 originally as a hotel.
And this is the Cathedral Basilica where the bishop came from for the Blessing of the Fleet after Palm Sunday mass. Here is some really cool history: Constructed over five years (1793–1797), it was designated a U.S.National Historic Landmark on April 15, 1970. Its congregation, established in 1565, is the oldest Christian congregation in the contiguous United States.
Then we found the next place we were looking for. We have not been to the Ancient City Brewing Taproom before, so why not complete our alcohol trifecta, and scope it out?! And then -Wow- would you look at that? A Grilled Cheese Gallery right next door? Our son would be in heaven – grilled cheese and beer are major food groups…well, maybe not so much since he got married. 😉
Kenny tried a couple of beers here. The Coconut Porter was supposedly only 22 IBU’s – which is a measure of the hoppiness of the brew, but it tasted really hoppy to both of us! It wasn’t a smooth coconut porter like we expected, but it wasn’t terrible.
It was a very dark beer! And $5 pints isn’t a bad deal.
For dinner, we took a stroll down the Colonial Village area. It is really a neat place with old colonial buildings from the 1600-1700’s! Lots of history here, and I love that the authentic old buildings have been maintained and not just bulldozed for more modern architecture.
We stopped at the Bull & Crown, an old English establishment, and had shepherd’s pie and chicken pot pie for dinner. Both were tasty!
On our stroll back to the boat, we paused to say howdy to ol’ Ponce deLeon, who apparently landed near this spot in 1513, and claimed the land for Spain. Florida was held by the Spanish for a long time, from 1513 until 1763, then Britain took control for 20 years, then it went back to Spain for 38 years. Finally in 1822 it officially became a territory of the U.S., and then Florida became the 27th state in 1845.
It’s been nice to just mosey around and relax. Another looper boat came in and docked next to us, and we chatted with them breifly. They are from Cape Coral, near Sarasota, and just starting their loop. Their boat is “Life’s Short Live It”. They came in during some rippin tide and did a great job getting backed into their slip. I hope we cross paths with them some more, because they are really nice peeps.
When we went to bed tonight, it sounded like little tiny sea creatures were tapping on our hull with teeny tiny little ball-peen hammers. It was pretty loud! We’ve heard clicking sounds on the hull before, but these were really loud tapping sounds. I wonder who is down there sending us morse code messages?