The Tail End of My Trip

Hey blog readers! Well, I am back home, and have been since dinnertime Sunday.

So where did I leave off when I last blogged? It was Wednesday, so I have Thursday-Saturday left to cover from my Jacksonville, Florida trip.

Thursday Claire and I had a fairly low-key day. We went back to the beach! This time a different one, which is part of a State Park and you can actually drive your car onto the beach. Here are a few of my shots from that day.

Claire enjoying a sunny day.

Ships going into the intercostal waterway.

Beautiful scenery

Birds

Lifeguards

Friday Claire, Patrick and I headed back out to St. Augustine, this time to to some more touristy stuff! I have to say I think it was the hottest day I experienced during my ten days there.

We started out by walking down the main pedestrian street with all the shops.

Isn't this the ideal place to stop for a cool drink? Or in my case, the best gelato ever!

From there we cut up to Flagler College which back in the day was the Ponce de Leon Hotel, it must of been a spectacular sight in its day. We only got to see the grounds and the main lobby as we didn't want to pay for the full tour.

The main entry from inside the courtyard

The fountain in the courtyard.

Do you think these cute guys will keep the stitching frogs at bay?

Claire and Patrick

The ceiling in the lobby.

Some of the spectacular windows (some of them are Tiffany).

Is that Hungry hanging out there?

After checking out Flagler College we headed out to the Island where I conquered all 219 steps of the St. Augustine Lighthouse on a hot day! I have to say there was a wonderful cool breeze when you got to the top!

The Lighthouse from the parking lot

The Lighthouse (it was hard to photograph since the sun was right behind it, but it did make for cool effects)

Oooh that's a long way up, 219 steps you said?

The stunning view from the top.

Saturday we had another low-key day, in the morning we headed out to Claire & Patrick's church where we helped to pain the new choir room (Claire sings in the choir). Of course we were appropriately bribed with pizza. After a rest in the afternoon, we went and saw the new Harry Potter movie, I quite enjoyed it. I know they left out a lot, but if you watch it not being critical of how it doesn't stand up to the book, its not bad.

Then, as all trips do, they come to an end an its time to come home! I was up at "freakin' early o'clock" once again! I had no problems at the Jacksonville airport, but when I got to my connection in Philadelphia... everything was okay until we left the gate. We boarded on time, we left the gate on time... then we waited, and waited in line! They only had one runway open for take-offs. I should of been in the air by 9:45am and in Syracuse, NY by 10:50... well that didn't happen. We spent so much time waiting in line that a severe thunderstorm rolled in. That's when the pilot turned the engines off. We were stuck in a small plane, on the tarmac until almost 12:00! That is wayyy too long to be stuck in a small plane! I didn't get into Syracuse until almost 1pm.

I have to say as nice as it is to go away, and it was fantastic catching up with my best friend, its just as nice to get home!

Tonight was weigh in day at Weight Watchers. I was quite shocked to find I was only up 0.6lbs, so that's a total 1lbs gain while spending 10 days in Florida, eating out at least once a day... and not always the best choices were made! I am now exactly at my goal weight, before this trip I was 1lb under, so this is completely acceptable for my maintenance. So I'm very happy with the end result, and now I can focus on getting that pound back off. I've been eating properly since I got home, I've been out for a walk, and tonight I did a Taekwon-Do class and a Cardio TaeBox class (which sorely kicked my ass after being off for 10 days!).

I am off work for the rest of this week, surprise, surprise my Mum and I are in the process of putting some plans together for Thursday/Friday. I never sit still for long!