3:30 pm Dorian Update: 9 '19

The center of Dorian is currently about 100 miles South of us -  approximately even with Jacksonville, Florida.  She is still a Cat II with 105 mph winds at the center and is moving north along the coast at 8 mph.  We are expecting the heaviest rain and winds to hit our area around midnight, and stay with us all through tomorrow (Thursday).  Even so, we are already getting some pounding bands of rain in our area.  As you can see from the forecast, the eye is likely to pass very close to our home so things are going to get worse for the next 24 to 48 hours before they get better.  By Friday,  Dorian will have moved on to North Carolina and the Outer Banks. 

St Augustine Florida - Last Evening 12'13

Our day trip may have been  a dud but that didn't put a damper on our evening.

 I had made breakfast and lunches every day, but every evening we had eaten out.  Since it was our last night in St Augustine we decided to return to our favorite restaurant of this trip: Salt Water Cowboys.

This hidden gem is a small  seafood shack built out over the the marsh at the end of a unpaved residential street. It's very popular with the locals, and for good reason.

The interior is funky and casual and inviting; the service is outstanding, and their seafood is some of the beast we've ever eaten.  And from where the the restaurant is located in the middle of a coastal salt marsh , we were able to watch Mother Nature's light show going on to the South of us all evening.   It was a great way to end the  trip.

Florida - Change of plans 12 '13

 We had wanted to visit  Cape Canaveral and tour the Kennedy Space Center on this visit to Florida, but the mother nature had different plans for us.   All started off well enough in the morning when we headed  south on Florida coastal highway A1A, but the further South we went, the rougher the weather got.  By the time we reached the Palm Coast we were hitting heavy rain, lightening and  were being buffeted about by some very strong wind. gusts.  A police car flagged us down.  He said the storm was predicted to get much worse and advised us to turn around.    It was Good Advice..  We heard later on on the news that a tornado had touched down in the area shortly after we left, and had ripped apart 6 or 7 homes and brought down power lines all over the area. 

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St Augustine Florida- The Bear & The King, 12 '13

Friday we decided to tackle the World Golf Resort's other two courses: The Bear & The King which is rated among Golf Weeks Top Resort Courses.   Named for its co-designers, World Golf Hall of Fame members Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, is the first and only course design collaboration between two of golf’s most respected and well-known ambassadors. Palmer and Nicklaus set out to create the 7,279-yard course as an eminently playable and picturesque course with memorable par 5s amid lakes, loblolly pines and 200-year-old live oaks.

 Like the other two courses on the resort, there are plenty of  obstacles but the fairways are wide and long enough to give even a beginner a challenging but enjoyable game

St Augustine Fl -Evening Visiting the City 12'13

While windy and cold the weather  looked like it would remain dry through the evening so we decided to do a walking tour of the old city of St Augustine.  It was settled by the Spanish on August 28th  1565 - 42 years before the English settled Jamestown, and 55 years before the Pilgrims settled at Plymouth.  That makes the City of St. Augustine is the nation's oldest permanently occupied European settlement.  

The Castillo de San Marcos

It's a beautiful place filled with historic sites like this stone fort with a mote around it. The Castillo de San Marcos' architecture and detail are distinctive and unique. It is the oldest masonry and only extant 17th century fort in North America. As such it is an excellent example of the "bastion system" of fortification.

and building with Spanish flair architecture

The British also briefly (1763-1784) occupied the site .  The old city has many British style pubs and public houses  to commemorate the period of British occupancy.

 

But things the tour got even better as darkness fell and the city began to light up with what it calls it's Nights of Lights. The whole city and harbor was aglow.  It was truly beautiful!

St Augustine Fl - Putting Around 12'13

Hall of Fame Reflecting  Pool

Next to the Hall of Fame the World Gold Resort offers a  18 hole natural grass putting green.

BJ on Putting Green
It seemed like a good thing to do on a cold winters day and again we both scored better than we would have on our home course.   Maybe because the greens are in better condition????

St Augustine Fl - Round 2 Slammer & The Squire 12'13

Wednesday was not a lot warmer than Tuesday, but was at least dry,  so we decided to pay another round of 18 holes on the Slammer & The Squire Courses.

As I said before, this course has a lot of obstacles, water,  sand traps, and deep rough where you can get into trouble.

But the fairways are long and wide  so if your aim is true, it is easy to avoid most of the hazards.  Both Bruce and I scored better than we do on our own home course.

St. Augustine Fl - World Golf Hall of Fame 12 '13

Tuesday,  we woke to temperature that were 25 degrees lower than the  day before.  Factor in wind and rain, and golf was clearly out of the question.  We decided to explore the World Golf Hall of Fame which was within walking distance of our back door.

The World Golf Hall of Fame & Museum provides an extensive look at the game of golf through stories, artifacts, videos, art and photography of its members within 75,000 square foot exhibition space

Of course we had to have our photo taken on the Replica of Swilcan Burn Bridge at St Andrews

 We spent  several hours touring the exhibits and watching many entertaining videos. One of our favorites was the exhibit on early history of the game.  I learned a lot from the displays of the original equipment used in the game

The even had a miniature putting green with wooden clubs from St Andrews and golf balls filled with feathers to play with.  That was fun. CC found she did a lot better with a left handed wooden putter than she does her own modern iron.

Bruce practicing putting with original equipment from 1800s

The museum has also done a great job on featuring cultural diversity of the players including  major exhibits on African American and Female players who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame for their achievements in the sport.

Nancy Lopez won 48 tournaments on the LPGA Tour and was player of the year four times.She has a whole room of the trophies, medals, clubs and photos in her at the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Also fun was peeking into the locker room golf lockers with memorabilia from all the individuals who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame.  I don't think it would ever have occurred to me to check out someone else locker, but when encouraged to do so... what the hey.... It was fun to find sequined evening jackets and golf caps in the women's lockers, and cowboy hats in the guy's.

And  of course, Bruce had to have his picture taken with 

Old Tom Morris

St Augustine Fl _ Slammer and Squire Golf Course, 12 '13

For our Hanukkah Gift to one another, Bruce and I took a vacation to St Augustine Florida.  We stayed at the World of Golf Resort, because it was conveniently located on their two famous course: The Slammer & The Squire, and The King & The Bear.

On our first day there we chose to play The Slammer  & The Squire. This 18-hole championship resort course was designed by Bobby Weed with design consultants Sam "The Slammer" Snead and Gene "The Squire" Sarazen.  It features two distinct nines with generous fairways. 

contoured greens,

 and plenty of water and other  hazards along with impressive views of the World Golf Hall of Fame  

St Augustine FL 11 '08

St Augustine Lighthouse

 After a short drive across the state of Florida, we arrived in St Augustine quite early the next morning.

Fort Mantazas

  We had plenty of time for site seeing so we went to some of the oldest and most historic areas first... like Fort Mantazas.

St Augustine City Hall

 Then we headed off of the old Spanish portions of the city.  For the most part the shops were hawking  a boring collection of tourist souvenirs, but the architecture was worth the visit.

Flagler College

Staug Museum

After a really lovely lunch we headed to our RV campsite which was outside of the city positioned on a small barrier island  between the marsh and the Atlantic Ocean..

We had time for one more beautiful sunset before  settling down for a good night sleep before the long drive home

Kat changed thos plans on us, but that is a story for another blog post.

RIP, Harold Jacobs 11 '08

We departed New Port Richie late evening on the evening of the 23^rd,  and drove through central Florida  to Ocala where Bruce’s father is buried.  As soon as the National Cemetery opened its gates we went to his gravesite to visit and to pay  our respect.

In spite of the smile he put on for the camera,  Bruce was very somber for the remainder of the day.

RIP Harold Jacobs

Ft Lauderdale FL to New Port Richie, FL 11 '08

St Petersburg Bridge

Sunday morning we headed due west across the state.  The trip took us through the Everglades, where we saw lots of Alligators and American crocodiles basking on the banks of the highway.  Arriving in Fort Meyers, we turned and followed the Gulf Coast North to New Port Richie (just a little North of St Petersburg, FL) which is a Greek fishing port. 

Robin, Cheryl and BJ

It is also home to two of Bruce’s childhood chums: Robin Low Salis and Cheryl Coopersmith and their spouses Teddy and Hal.  We all met at the “Sponge Docks” for a delectable Greek seafood dinner and lots of reminiscing about growing up in Hull.

Dinner and reminiscing at Paul's Shrimp

For Bruce and Robin and Cheryl, the walk down memory lane was fun, for me (as an outsider) it was a fascinating live example of how one builds a “Memory Palace”.   First the three of them laid out the major geographic features of Hull:  Here is the ocean and here is the bay and here is Strawberry Hill. Then they would agree upon the major streets joining these features e.g. here is Beach Ave along the Ocean, and here is Kenburma Street crossing the peninsula.  Then they each added the street where they had lived and populated it with other mutually known families and chums e.g.  Bruce provided Touraine Ave and placed Alice Cohen as living across and down a couple doors from him. They coached each other on their neighbor’s childhood persona, and then caught each other up on any current news they had of that person.  Having agreed upon their own block’s population, they began to systematically work out landmark by landmark, street by street, building by building, and friend by friend.  They added lesser - known but agreed upon landmarks (like the Jewish youth center) as physical reference for where their childhood friends had resided e.g. Michael Colton lived across from the lot that was used for a winter ice skating rink Then they began to include other family and community members in the map.  Joey and Lenny Silvas’s grandfather, who built many of the houses on Touraine Street, lived in the house behind Michael Colton , and the high school history teacher, Charles Whiner  lived over nearby.  By the time the dinner was over, the entire town and all of its 1960s residents had been brought back to memory and their history lovingly updated.  To all those who grew and loved one another in Hull, may you live long and prosper.

Robin, CC and BJ

Key West, FL. Nov 20th - 22, 08

Nov 20^th- 22, 08 Key West, FL.

Bruce was wrong about the seas being calmer.  Small craft warnings kept the dive-boats docked all the way to Key West.  Fortunately, he was right about the weather being warmer so we were able to at least walk around and enjoy the sites.

Key West Light House

Key West is an artist’s delight….lots of beautiful vistas, unique architecture, and brilliantly pure light.   

Hemingway's House

Key West Fl Architecture

I had been there on a business trip some 15 years ago.  It had grown and become a little more commercial, but much of its laid back charm remained. 

Denny's Key west Fl.

  Even its Denny’s restaurant looked quaint.
Bruce had never been to Key West at all, so he was happy to walk around seeing all the “southern-most” tourist sites,

Southern most tip of contiguous USA

Southern most Key West Fl  Mileage market

Art Galleries and Shops in Key West FL

and visiting all of their art galleries.

 One of the things we enjoyed the most was seeing all the roosters wandering around loose.

 One of the things we enjoyed the most was seeing all the roosters wandering around loose.  They were everywhere.  I even saw one standing in an open door of a Catholic Church.  He looked so proud and red against the darkened interior.

The RV camp ground we stayed in at Key West was lovely and peaceful. 

BJ relaxing at our RV camp in Key West FL

Both of us enjoyed watching the fishing boats bobbing in the harbor,

Pelicans on the dock of the RV camp

  the pelicans begging for fish, and again some wonderful sun rises and sunsets.

Key West Florida Sunset Nov 21 '08