Funk and Funky

The past few days I've been nursing a mild cold....I wrote about the scratchy throat I had a few days ago.  It eventually evolved into a runny nose, and last night into a minor cough.  I was feeling in kind of a funk yesterday morning, and was thinking about cancelling our plans to head to downtown St. Augustine for more walking around, and hanging out time.  It would have been easy to just sit at home nursing my cold, but Sunday was our last day in this cool town, so I got up from my recliner and took a long, hot shower.....that seemed to snap me out of my funk, and suddenly I was feeling more optimistic about the day's adventures.

We headed out in the T-Bird (way, way, way toooo cold to ride bikes....especially with me edging toward pneumonia....lol.....temperature at departure time was 48 degrees). Our first stop was CampingWorld to exchange the new lock I bought for the "tongue" on my trailer.  There is a little latch that you lift up on the end of the "tongue" when dropping it on the hitch ball, and I had lost the lock for it at Choo Choo Express Garage back in December.....okay, lost in the sense that I forgot to put it back on and it must have fallen off the tool box when we drove away from Choo Choo.  The one I bought yesterday was not long enough.  Once that exchange was completed we headed for downtown St. Augustine.

Parking most days in downtown is difficult, and can be expensive.  Fortunately, even though this was a weekend day, it was very cold and blustery which seemed to suppress the tourist turn out.  We managed to find FREE parking behind the Lightner Museum, and only a short walk to St. George and Spanish Streets.

Our first stop was the Rendezvous Beer Bar, which Yelp gives a solid 4 stars.  They have an amazing bottled beer selection from all over the world....hundreds of selections....some quite rare, and expensive.....up to $18 a bottle.  They also have about 6 beers on tap, and these vary from day to day.  We had a small lunch consisting of a Rueben, which we split, and some Coleslaw for TLE.  TLE had a Cherry Stout, and I had a Brown Ale....sorry can't remember the makers.  The food and service were exceptional.

Our next stop was the Pepper Palace on St. George Street.  This is the place where Joe of Kona Joe's in Cedar Key gets his Datil Pepper Sauce that we loved so much.  We wanted to get some more.  You see just part of the selection of hot sauce available.  

From there we headed to one final place, Monk's Vineyard and Restaurant.  There is only one review on Yelp for Monk's, and he gave it 3 stars.  For me it gets 4 stars on the FUNKY scale.  Some friends (Debby and Bill - Bill and Debby's Wild Ride) from Cedar Key had recommended this place very highly to us.  It is, to say the least, a very funky little bar......I mean that literally....the bar only has 4 stools.  There are a few tables scattered around amongst the antiques.  We didn't feel like any more beer, but the owner was pouring some Cab (Cabernet Sauvignon), so we each got a glass and found a table in the back room amongst the many antiques.  It was nice to just sit and sip the wine and chat about our day so far.  This is the kind of cool, funky place we love.....just like the GAS Full Service Restaurant the night before.

 This was our view

We sat there for about 40 minutes just soaking up the ambiance, and listening to the owner chatting up his customers at the bar.  By this time it had warmed all the way up to 50 degrees, but it was now around 3:45, so we decided to walk back to the car and head home.  

This day went exactly like I hoped it would.  We soaked up a little more of the ambiance of St. Augustine, and know it just a little bit better.  Monday we continue our northward trek into Georgia to the home of Ann and Elliott whom we met in Cedar Key....twice....the first time they flew their small plane in for New Years, and the second time they drove their Winnebego LeSharo motorhome down for MLK weekend.  They invited us to stop by on our way to Savannah....they are just 30 minutes south.

Thanks for stopping by!