Road Trip: Lazy Days in Tampa

After a great time in St. Augustine, we drove across Florida to Tampa to visit our grown daughter and two granddaughters, who live in Spring Hill. It's warmer here than in St. Augustine so we've been spending our days by the pool. We both really feel like we're on vacation here.

It's not easy to describe where we're staying in Tampa. The campground RV Resort, Lazy Days, is everything we always thought we would hate in a campground:  Crowded; small concrete-slab sites, mostly huge class A RV's, very few trees, no view, and attached to the biggest RV sales lot I've ever seen. Horrible, right?

When we first stayed here in 2013, we chose LazyDays because it was near USF, where our grandson was starting college. It's also fairly close to DH's daughter's home in Spring Hill. We thought it would be the perfect location for short visits, in spite of all the negatives we imagined.

Our little Casita amid all the "big guys" at Lazy Days

But - surprise - the more we've stayed here,  the more we like it. For $42.00 per night we have perfect weather, a huge pool, hot tub, tennis courts, restaurants, a pool bar, camping store, RV service on site, poolside entertainment and free educational programs on topics related to RVing.

 And the whole place is beautifully maintained.

DH loves the hot tub

The restaurant is right off of the pool area and enormous indoor rec hall.

And it's shaped like an RV!

The food and drinks are good and reasonably priced . I love that you can order right from the pool!

There's even a daily Happy Hour with tropical drinks and Margaritas for only $3.50.

Ironically, the clock by the pool has stopped  . . . at 5:33 . . .  proving that, at Lazy Days, it's always 5 o'clock somewhere!

We've really enjoyed reading, snacking, visiting and just relaxing at the tables on the pool deck. This is not at all like our favorite woodsy, waterfront campgrounds in Maine and New Hampshire but, strangely enough, we're having a great time here! Guess it pays to try new things sometimes.

Today our daughter and two granddaughters, who live in the Tampa area, drove to Lazy Days to spend the day with us. We don't get to see them as often as we'd like so this was a special day for all of us. We spent most of the day catching up by (and in) the pool.

DH with his daughter, Crystal, and granddaughters Taytum (L) and Hannah (R).

Tomorrow we'll be on the road again headed for one of our favorite places, Charleston, SC. 

Hope you'll follow along with us!

This post is linked to:

Homestyle Gathering 11 at My Wee Abode

Road Trip: Last Day in St. Augustine

Today is our last day in St. Augustine, Florida and the weather is perfect: sunny and warm. We spent the day in the Old Town and Lincolnville sections of St. Augustine with friends, Fred and Anne.

Our first stop was a return to La Herencia Cuban cafe on Aviles Street.. We'd been promised that the owner would be making a new batch of our favorite dessert, Tres Leches cake, by today.

This cake is very popular in Latin America, especially Mexico and Nicaragua. It'ss a yellow cake soaked in a mixture of three different types of milk: evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and whole milk or heavy cream. 

It's topped off with whipped creme frosting and a marischino cherry. In case you;d like to try making your own Tres Leches, here's a recipe. Delicioso!

After enjoying our fill of Tres Leches and Cuban coffee, we wandered the narrow streets of "Old Town", the oldest part of St. Augustine, first settled in 1565.

The flowers in Old Town are beautiful; walled gardens are everywhere.

I love the Spanish architecture.

The walls, and many of the homes,  in Old Town are made from Coquina, a very hard, and very old,  material formed from crushed seashells.

This old house is also on Aviles Street. Notice that the houses are built right on the edge of the narrow streets.

It actually looks as if it belongs in New England rather than Florida.

The Lincolnville Historic District is St. Augustine's most prominent historically black neighborhood and is associated with many significant events in the city's African American history. I love the little house, each with a shady front porch, that line the streets of Lincolnville.

Lincolnville was founded in 1866 by former slaves. During the Civil Rights Movement, Lincolnville was the base for activists who worked for the end of racial segregation in schools and public facilities in St. Augustine. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and activists from other parts of the country came to join local activists in non-violent protests.

The residents of Lincolnville are definitely not afraid of using color on the exteriors of their homes.

Most of them are small bungalows built on small lots covered in palms and bougainvilleas.

After an afternoon in Old Town, we drove back to North Beach to enjoy dinner and the sunset from the porch at Aunt Kate's restaurant.

Aunt Kate's is situated in a grove of live oaks on the banks of the inland waterway, adjacent to the campground. 



 Just a few steps from our campsite, it's the best place to watch the sunset while enjoying local seafood, . . . 

and maybe a Margarita!

 The sunset was absolutely beautiful. Perfect way to celebrate our last night at North Beach.

Until next year, that is!

Today we're off to Tampa for the next part of our adventure.

 Hope you'll follow along!

This post is linked to:

Best of the Weekend Party T Calypso In the Country
Saturday Sparks Link Party at Pieced Pastimes

Road Trip: St. Augustine, FL

This is our fifth year visiting our friends, Fred and Anita, in one of our favorite cities, St. Augustine, Florida. St. Augustine is not the typical city one would think of when imagining Florida; in fact, is is something of an "anti-South Beach". St. Augustine is very old, very Spanish, very artsy, and very beautiful. It brims with both flowers and history. Sadly, cancer took Anita from us much too soon, but we continue to come down to visit Fred each year.

Aviles Street is our favorite street in one of our favorite cities.

This is our favorite restaurant on our favorite Street, La Herencia ("The Heritage" in English). It's just a little bistro with a few wooden tables inside and three umbrella-topped tables on the sidewalk. 

We come here every year to enjoy the Cuban food and galleries along quaint Aviles Street.

Yesterday, DH decided to start us off with a couple of white wine Sangrias.

And, yes, he shared one with me!

We sat outside where we could watch sightseers, trolleys, and horse-drawn carriages go by on the narrow cobblestone street as we shared a Cuban sandwich and a bowl of rice and beans.

 Delicioso!

I have to admit, though, that the real reason we come to La Herencia each year is for their Tres Leches (cake with "three milks").

Just our luck, La Herencia was out of Tres Leches yesterday. The good news is that that gives us an excuse to return on  Wednesday, when they will have more. It's homemade and so worth waiting for!

Instead of dessert, we decided to take a walk along Aviles Street admiring the architecture, shops and gardens along the way.

We even saw grapefruit growing high behind an old coquina wall. 

Inside this gallery on Aviles St., a leathersmith was making belts and shoes.

 I loved this tray of old shoe forms.

Just as we left the gallery, this horse ignored his passengers and stopped right out front.

Out came the gallery owner with a bucket of feed for him. Seems this is their daily routine!

Aviles Street runs right off of the town green, La Plaza de la Constitucion.

Shaded by old palms and Live Oaks, the plaza is a good place to cool off.

The old Slave Market is at one end of the Plaza, a reminder of a sad time in St. Augustine history. It is now a quiet place to cool off and reflect about what once happened here.

On the opposite side of the Plaza from Aviles Street is St. George St., which is usually crowded with both shoppers and tourists.

 St George St. is old, cobbled and lined with historic Spanish-style buildings, Today, many of them are filled with upscale stores and galleries as well as cafes and souvenir shops.

In the evening the whole street is lit with tiny white lights, as is much of the city of St. Augustine.

As we left the city to head back to camp. we passed the iconic Bridge of the Lions, which crosses the inter-coastal waterway from the center of St. Augustine.

I managed to get a picture of one of the lions from our car, even though he is competing with a poorly-placed red yield sign.

Just past the Bridge of the Lions is . . .

El Castillo de San Marco, the Castle of St. Mark.

The Castillo de San Marco is the oldest masonry and only extant 17th century fort in North America. The fort was constructed by the Spanish between 1672 and 1675 and was used to defend their primary trade route to Europe.

After a busy day, we went to Fred's (much larger) RV for supper with him and Anne. 

It was fun sharing our day over a glass of wine and key lime pie!

It's a little cool and windy today for St. Augustine.

DH did get out to the beach early this morning but, alas, no shells yet again.

 So it's a good day to be lazy:  blogging, reading, and resting up for our next adventure.

Hope you'll follow along with us!

This post is linked to:

Wonderful Wednesday at The Eclectic Red Barn
Keep In Touch #60 at Let's Add Sprinkles
Thursday's Favorite Things at Follow the Yellow Brick Home