Anniversary celebration in St. Augustine

J and I celebrated our six year wedding anniversary by taking a 30 minute drive south to St. Augustine. Even though St. Augustine is one beautiful A1A drive away, we certainly don't enjoy it as much as we should! Truthfully, neither of us have ever spent the night there. Thanks to both our  parents, we were able to enjoy a toddler and dog free evening.

While booking our accommodations, we did not realize that our anniversary fell on Easter weekend. Rooms were scarce. Many of the rooms that were available had a 2 night minimum. We lucked out though and found a room at the Bayfront Marin House. We had not stayed at a B&B since our trip to Amelia Island in 2011.

The Bayfront Marin House was lovely. The room was well appointed. The bed was up so high, I had to use a stool to get in! They had a somewhat random Jacuzzi tub right next to the bed. I suppose for honeymooners, this would be a bonus!

View from the balcony

We did a little shopping before cocktail time. We picked up some spices, teas and saffron rice at The Spice & Tea Exchange. I wanted to bring home some datil pepper sauce as well. J remember The Pepper Palace, which has more hot sauces than any one could ever need. I found my datil pepper sauce and a couple of other items, including pickled okra.

We headed back as we didn't want to miss the cocktail hour. The cocktail hour (typical at most B&Bs) was impressive. They offered red sangria, white sangria, wine and beer. There was lemonade and sweet tea. They also offered an array of appetizers, including warn spinach dip, bruschetta, puff pastry with savory filling (cannot remember what they called them), and a relish tray with the best bread and butter pickles I've had in a while. They had a delicious looking chocolate rum bundt cake. We passed on the cake, as we were heading to dinner.

One of my favorite parts of St. Augustine is that it is very walkable. We headed to dinner, which was a little less than a mile away. With so much to see on the route, it made for a pleasurable and quick walk.

We had dinner at The Floridian, known for their local ingredient sourcing. They don't take reservations, so we gave them our contact info so we could get a text when our table was ready. It was an incredibly busy night, so we weren't seated for over an hour. However, the text messaging notification gave us a lot of freedom to walk around St. Augustine while waiting. Thank goodness, as waiting is not something I'm very good at anymore. Ha!

The Floridian was amazing. We enjoyed fried pickles, posole, and a cornbread stack with blackened mahi mahi. The decor was a hoot. I felt like I had been transported to a house in the late 60's/early 70's. But it really worked, in my opinion.

I was most excited about dessert. We headed over to Cousteau's Waffle & Milkshake Bar. After much deliberation, I settled on an Old Kentucky milkshake, which was made with butter pecan ice cream, candied pecans and bourbon whipped cream. J had a Wonut, waffle on the outside and donut on the inside.

Wonuts!

We ended the evening in a dessert coma. After a refreshing night sleep, we enjoyed breakfast, watched a little Barclays Premier League football, and headed back to pick up Truffle and Jack.

Yay for anniversaries!