January 1

January 1. Its time to start our trek south again. We’ve been here in Saint Augustine for 14 days and it’s finally time to move on.

Three of the kids were able to fly into Saint Augustine and spend 4 days with us between the holidays. We got here around the 19th of December and the kids didn’t arrive until the 26th so we had plenty of time to scope out the town and get the lay of the land.

Saint Augustine is the oldest city in North America and has been remarkably well preserved. Once the kids got here we did the tourist thing and saw the Fort and walked to the light house which I’m sure was quite like the Bataan death march. Then it was pretty much a drink and eat-a-thon with a little shopping thrown in for good measure.

After the kids were gone Christy and I spent the the next couple of days doing boat chores and celebrating the arrival of the New Year. We had New Years Eve dinner with Jon & Marcia who we’ve been traveling with and Pat and Eddie, the cruisers we met that had blown their engine in South Carolina. They showed up in Saint Augustine just this morning. Dinner was in an outdoor garden atmosphere with live music and bathed in the glow of a thousand tiny white lights, it was beautiful. We stretched dinner for a couple of hours before we went in search of a pub worthy of a fitting New Years celebration. We ended up at the Milltop which could be described as semi diveish but with a comfortable feel. There was a 4 dollar cover charge at the door so we felt for that kind of money something special was afoot. Plastic party hats, noise makers and the absolute worst champagne I’ve ever tasted. God, we had a good time.

It’s been great here but its time to go.