The St. Augustine Adventure Begins

77 delicious degrees.  That was the temperature yesterday here in St. Augustine, much to my delight.  Slightly humid, but not uncomfortably so.  The perfect weather for breakfast at an outdoor cafe

while watching the horse drawn carriages and trolley trains go by (both of which we will be riding before the week is out):

A quick look through the antique shop across the street from the restaurant:

followed by a visit to the local flea market.  An online reviewer described it as follows: "St. Augustine's St. John's Flea & Farmer's Market leans much more towards the "flea" than the "farmer" side of things. It's located in the boondocks and the vendors and other patrons make you feel like you're, well, in the boondocks. You can get lots and lots of... stuff... here. I'm not saying it's nice stuff, or useful stuff, or functioning stuff, or safe stuff, or clean stuff, but you can definitely get your fair share of stuff at this place."  Of course, that type of review just made me all the more keen to go.  It was exactly as she described and I didn't buy much but I did find some treasures that made the hour and a half we spent there well worth the trip, like these Xmas ornaments I picked up (one for me and each of my travelling companions) that someone had made out of vintage ribbon, fringe and Lady Liberty images:

Plus it was worth the price of admission (free) for this photo alone:

After that, we had coupons to put to use at Hobby Lobby (so many more craft supplies available than at home, at much more reasonable prices) and Barnes & Noble, followed by a trip to the grocery store for provisions.

We had dinner at a Cuban restaurant a few blocks over from where we are staying.  Our waitress recommended we try the mojitos and the roast pork dinner (complete with saffron rice, black beans, fried plantains and fried yukka).  We did and enjoyed them both immensely.

Lorraine had never tried key lime pie before, so we ordered a piece to share:

We strolled along the main street after dinner, which was crowded with holiday revelers enjoying the light displays, open shops and galleries and artisans displays in the pavilions before heading home for an early night.