March 10-13, 2022 St Augustine and South Dakota friends

3-10 Thursday When we were ready to leave the anchorage, we were actually touching bottom.  We had to wait for the tide to rise before we could move again.  We were only about 12 miles north of St Augustine, but that is 2 hours by boat.  We arrived about noon, but had to wait until 12:30pm for the opening of the Bridge of Lions.  We had reserved a mooring ball at the city marina and it was south of the bridge.  Our mooring ball ended up right next to a boat that we knew.  Zydeco was on our dock at Brunswick Landing Marina for the past 3 years.  They were moving south to the Florida Keys and hoped to stay there long tern.  Sam does contract work occasionally and his grandson, now legally his son, is about 12 and homeschooling, but may attend public school if that works out.  We meet people with all kinds of stories on the water. 

 





After securing our boat and packing an overnight bag, we took the hourly courtesy shuttle to shore at 2:00.  That way we could leave our dinghy at our boat and not at the dock overnight.  We checked in at the dock office and headed to the street in front of the marina where Gene Schneider picked us up.  He took us to their condo on Vilano Beach on the north side of the St Augustine inlet.  They had been coming here with their RV for several years.  Last year they decided to buy a condo and spent some time with a few renovations.  It was great.  They leave and old pickup here and drive back and forth with their dog.  It gives them so much more flexibility than being at a campsite without an extra vehicle.  And it’s great to have friends and family visit.  It has 2 bedrooms, but the guest bedroom has 2 doors and a partition can be put up in the middle of the room to provide semi private rooms with a blow up mattress.  Usually you would be sharing that room with family or friends, so it works well.  Best of all, Gene can still walk to the beach to fish.
We had a fun afternoon catching up with each other.  Colleen made us a beautiful dinner of lam shank, potatoes and asparagus.  I taught them a favorite card game, What’s Wild, and we had a fun night. 

Colleen had cut the meat off the bone and was going to throw them away.  I stopped her and gave them to the guys to clean up.  I knew Dave would like it.  Obviously, Gene did too

3-11 Friday. Rain was predicted for the whole day, so we decided to spend another night.  Dave helped Gene install 2 motion sensor lights in their car port under the condo.  Colleen and I went to the grocery store to buy the fixings for tzatziki and tabouli (and more beer).  Gene fried whiting fish and a flounder for us on his electric grill on their deck.  Another great dinner.  
We had another late night of drinking beer, playing cards.  Good old SD pastime.

 

tzatziki sauce, tabouli

spanakopita and fried fish

3-12 the weather wasn’t the best for traveling yet, so we stayed one more day.  Luckily, we had brought some of our laundry with us and had a few changes of clothes.  Colleen and I went to an Asian market she had been wanting to check out in St Augustine.  We made egg rolls and used their air fryer to cook them.  They tasted pretty good that way.  Gene also made chicken wings with his secret rub in the air fryer.  That night, Dave and Colleen were our DJ’s sharing their favorites music.  Colleen is about 15 years younger than us, so fun to hear some different music.  Gene and I started cards again while we all visited and Colleen joined us later.  We were up past midnight 3 nights in a row.  That is very unusual for us.  But good friends make the time pass quickly.   

 

 

3-13 Sunday.  I borrowed Schneider’s car to go to the Basilica in St Augustine for the 9:00am mass.  When I returned, we had breakfast and packed up to return to our boat.  Gene dropped us off in time to catch the 12:00 shuttle back to our boat.  What a fun visit!!

We had a few projects to do before going any further.  We hadn’t stored our dock lines or fenders from being tied up at the marina.  We had to make water, etc.  Zydeco, that was moored near us had left that morning.  Other friends from Brunswick stopped by in their dinghy as they were headed to shore for dinner.  Shamrock was owned by Steve and had been on our dock in Brunswick.  He had a friend, Susan, join him to go to the Bahamas.  Through friendships at Brunswick, they invited another friend to join them, Rhonda.  They were just returning from 3 months in the Bahamas. Fun to say hi.