St. Augustine Adventure

Monday we went on a quick camping trip with the Miller's to St. Augustine, FL (about 2 hours north of us). We stopped in Daytona Beach on the way up and spent a few hours at a Children's Museum. The museum had some fun exhibits, although most were geared towards older kids. Aubree enjoyed making her own pretend pizza, building with blocks, riding a motorcycle, and going in and out of a black light-lit room. We decided to get a year membership to the museum, partially just to have an excuse to go up to Daytona Beach. We didn't get to see much of the town, but it seems pretty neat. We drove past the Daytona 500 speedway and it is HUGE.

We got to our fantastic campsite on an island near St. Augustine around 4pm. The weather was gorgeous - around 75 degrees. We set up camp, made dinner on the campfire, roasted s'mores, and put the kids to bed. Aubree kept begging to put on her pajamas and go to sleep. I'm not sure if that's because she was really tired or if she was just excited to sleep in the tent. Once she got in the tent, though, she had a hard time falling asleep because the "shadows were bothering her." The adults stayed up later than we should have chatting, but even after going to bed around midnight the rest of the night seemed so long! Our tent is perhaps a bit too small so every movement or noise woke me up. Bryce also woke up a number of times and was up for good at 6am! He beat the sun. Boo.
The morning was fairly chilly, probably around 55 degrees would be my guess. I can't complain, because it is winter; it's hard to imagine most of the country is buried under that cold white stuff (what's that called again?) We huddled around the fire and had a very yummy breakfast: eggs, bacon, English muffins, orange juice, bananas, and hot chocolate, mostly thanks to the Miller's. We celebrated Aubree's best friend Ella's 3rd birthday with a special breakfast cake. Then we started the long task of camp clean-up. While the adults cleaned up, the kids got dirty. Very, very dirty. In fact, that's the dirtiest I think Aubree's ever been! She and the Miller kids had a blast building castles in the dirt using Ella's birthday princess regalia as props. This was my kind of camping, though, because bathrooms with showers were only a stone's throw away. Overall, we had a lot of fun, but decided that from now on camping trips must last at least 2 nights in order to make all the set-up and clean-up worthwhile. We didn't even have time to go to the beach or see the sights in St. Augustine. Oh well, I suppose we'll just have to go back!