When planning how to spend one's Sunday, being part of the Laff-A-Lympics isn't generally what one thinks of yet there we were, mini golfing for the gold.
For those of you who got that joke...you are old, just like us. For those of you who didn't, look it up.
Being in a more northern part of central Florida than normal, we were finally within a reasonable driving distance to visit both Daytona Beach and St. Augustine.
We started our day at a local breakfast place, Cody's on 4th in Mount Dora, Florida which serves a fantastic smoked salmon bagel we chose to be accompanied by a light fruity champagne drink.
I love starting our days out exploring a local area like this when we have the time.
Then it was off to Daytona Beach.
Home of the Spring Break you won't remember, an LPGA International golf course, and some driving event that's eluding me.
It's also home to what has to be one of our more memorable mini golf experiences.
Who can resist this type of adventure? Not us.
There we were, breezing in near the front of the rush to enjoy 18 rounds of AstroTurf heaven. With only two groups ahead of us we really didn't expect it to take over an hour to play. We were wrong.
While this has to be the longest amount of time we've spent on mini golf course, it was amusing.
Somewhere around hole six the older woman in the lead group decided to pick a verbal fight with the older woman in the group behind her for "playing too fast." Never mind the, by now, four other groups behind the "speedy" family who were all waiting patiently for the leaders to move to the next hole...at every hole.
The family behind us had some serious sibling affection going on (or a bet was lost) as the son kept putting his putter behind the hole as his sister played just in case she missed.
Behind them was the toddler who gets the award for best player. He would move his putter around until it hit the ball at the beginning of the hole, then madly chase after it (as toddlers will), pick the ball up when it stopped and set it about a foot from the hole where he then proceeded to wildly move his putter at the ball until it sunk.
At least all the waiting gave us a chance to take pictures.
Pretty sure this guy was here even longer than we were.
Afterwards, we drove down the main street of Daytona Beach only to quickly realize for an early Sunday afternoon the streets were overly crowded. Side streets were blocked off and there were so many motorcycles with either loud mufflers or even louder music blaring everywhere.
We left as quickly as we could but it still took an hour before we left the crowd behind.
During our lunch stop we looked up what on earth was happening only to discover it was the first day of biker week at Daytona and the surrounding communities. At half a million attendees, this event rivals Sturgis.
We continued on toward the oldest city in the US, St Augustine, which was founded in 1565.
Arriving around 4 pm, we followed a, much smaller, crowd of people as there were enough of them to make us believe they knew where something interesting was.
They did indeed.
St George Street is a pedestrian walking area that is few blocks long with wonderful old world style buildings and tons of shopping and places to eat.
It even has its own torture museum for those who need a few ideas.
It's also home to MiMis Famous Crepes. I don't know about the famous part but we had one of the best crepe I've ever eaten. Fresh pears and brie cheese with a drizzle of raspberry sauce and whipped cream on the side.
The seating area for MiMis completed the moment. Wrought iron bistro sets on cobbled brick surrounded by greenery. What's not to love?
Shopping and eating aside, St George's Street has so many quaint offshoots that lead to nowhere, more random little stores, musicians, and more. The place is an experience that's difficult to describe.
At one end of the street, through a large pair of square columns, is the Castillo de San Marcos.
The other end of the street leads to historic buildings, the Governor's House Cultural Center, and a church with some lovely stained glass.
In the evening, a full moon drifted over the palm trees illuminating the Matanzas River while we enjoyed outside dining at an Irish pub off of the main street.
By now we were tired and ready to start the long drive home.
Showing up so late on a Sunday meant we really only had time to see St George's Street. Next time, we're definitely taking one of the plentiful historic or ghost tours and see more of the historic buildings the city has to offer.
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