Couple of Coffees

History is good!

On this trip so far, we’ve seen the world’s longest fishing pier, the world’s longest unbroken sidewalk, America’s oldest fort and America’s oldest European settled city. I’ve also seen three men in the women’s restroom.

Friday we finished visiting with Becca and Simon in Boca Raton, which means rat’s mouth in Spanish due to the shape of the coastline. We had breakfast in Ft. Lauderdale with Janett and Shane at the Floridian diner, then headed up to Jupiter where we had a meal with Lee, our former next door neighbor in Lincoln City. We spent the night again with Marjorie and Doug and Kyle, who were so kind to let us use their guest bedroom as home base for a few days.

Yesterday was a packed day as well. On our way out of Winter Park, we visited the Morse Museum, which has a huge collection of dazzling Tiffany works, then headed up the coast. Some of the museum’s usual exhibits are actually in New York, where they will be on view starting in November. I recommend tracking down where the exhibit is and seeing it for those of you who are in New York. The range and breadth of his oeuvre astounded me. Who knew he could paint?

In the afternoon we spent a few hours in St. Augustine, Florida, the aforementioned oldest European city in America. The architecture is really picturesque, and the shops on St. George Street offered an air conditioned respite. We saw the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, which was a really cool fort (the oldest in America) with coquina walls. We could see the broken shells within the building material. It was beautiful. Plus we watched a really loud cannon go off.

To cool off, we popped into St. Augustine Coffee Co., a business that opened about a year ago in downtown, and my green tea frappe was the perfect blend of chill and flavor without being too sweet or artificial.

In the evening, we rolled into Savannah, Georgia, a beautiful southern city, where we explored and found a hole-in-the-wall barbecue joint, Wall’s BBQ, which had been running since 1963. Margaret helped us at the counter. She’s the daughter of the original owners, and now her daughter owns the business. I had barbecue chicken, fried okra and tomatoes, and blackeyed peas. Jonathan did the rib platter, with red rice and potato salad. We took our dinners to the local park, where we saw on a bench, savored the breeze and the last wisps of sunset and devoured our food. While we were eating a ghost tour started. Then we took a drive down busy River Street, which was like Bourbon Street in New Orleans, but with less of a smell of drunken people. Still crazy, though.

We also saw about three weddings yesterday. It must have been a good weekend for love.

I’m writing from Port City Java in Charleston, a similar old-south city to Savannah. Last night we stayed in Hardeeville, South Carolina, in the same Super 8 as a class reunion from 1956. A sweet weekend, indeed.

posted by Laura the Writer @ 10:38 AM