There were 16 of us who made it out for our second annual camping trip to St. Augustine State Park. I for one never really camped as a kid, unless you consider sleeping out in the back yard in a tent with friends camping. Truly I never thought I would enjoy it much, but I have come to enjoy it more than I ever thought I would, possibly because what we do isn't really "roughing it". We come equipped with electric skillets, coffee makers, and the such. Probably another reason why I enjoy it so much being that when you are with the right people, anything becomes enjoyable. Here's a fun recap of our weekend. (All photos are a compiled collection of my own or borrowed from friends Facebook pages)
We made it out to the campsite around 6 PM on Friday night. Luckily E already had Christmas lights hung and mega tent set up which he so gratefully shared with us.
With 16 people drinking alcoholic beverages and sitting around a camp fire it was no surprise Ranger Joe had to come around and tell us to quiet down. Luckily he was super cool and didn't give us too hard a time, we respected him and tried to keep it down. I'm sure we weren't the first large camping group to stay up past "quiet time".
Here's a photo of me with Frosty, another campsites mascot found along a trip to the restroom. I also love how my vest resembled a disco ball in the dark. The vest quickly became the joke of the weekend as it was referred to as my bullet proof vest..but it sure did keep me warm!
Saturday morning we cooked an amazing breakfast and jumped on our bikes to head to the center of town. We truly did resemble a bike gang. I got the feeling walkers were not happy with us as we whizzed by them, could be because we were pretty much disregarding any sense of traffic laws.
We also ran into Santa along the way, we had to stop and take a group pic. Santa was not very excited for this photo op with a gang of bikers.
We locked up our bikes and began our fun in the center of town
First drink at the White Lion Restaurant and Pub
Second drink at White Lion Restaurant and Pub
At this point it became a bit difficult to keep 16 people together so we began to split up. Some bar hopped, some shopped, some ate lunch, etc.
St. Augustine is the oldest city in America, and one of the most haunted. I would love to come back one weekend for a ghost tour or for the haunted pub crawl. I'd probably be too spooked out to complete the tour! A cool cemetery we passed along the way.
Some of us stopped here for a drink and some grub. We needed it after a long bike ride.
This was right around the time where I claimed I wanted to be in a marching band, not sure why I claimed that, but the city was buzzing with spirit and I just felt the need to be a part of it.
The gals and I went into this fun vintage store with some really neat and some not so really neat dresses. It really reminded me of the scene from the movie "The Sweetest Thing" where Cameron Diaz and Christina Applegate try on all those hideous and hilarious outfits. The gals tried to convince me this should be my wedding dress instead of the one I really chose!
Once back at the campsite we washed up for dinner and then some of the group went to Christmas town, I am now regretting that I was too lazy to move from my camp fire chair and didn't go along.
Right before quiet time at 11 PM, we all hopped on our bikes once again and headed out to the beach, this pic was obviously taken earlier in the day. This experience was too adventourous and hilarious to even capture in a blog post. But to sum it up, some of us laughed so hard that we cried, some of us dipped our feet in the ocean, some of us got lost, some of us prayed, some of us got punched in the stomach (me) my pouffy bullet proof vest was just too inviting not to punch (playfully of course), and some of us lay in the sand and studied the stars.
After the laughter succumbed and the tears and sand were wiped away we headed back to our home for the weekend and tried our best to quietly sit by the campfire.
We woke in the morning to pack up, eat some breakfast and head on home.
The weekend was amazing and full of laughs and good times and I already want to start planning our next camping adventure. Thanks to all those that made this past weekend exactly what it was...perfect.
