Florida has been great. The town of Palatka is small but fun, the weather has been great, we are close to St. Augustine, and our two bedroom condo affords us room to have visitors. Chrysa and I decided to move back east so we could be closer to our east coast family and friends for a while. Over the last two and a half years of travel we have found reasons to visit people, but we were long overdue to make the east coast our home base for a while. Now that we are here, we need to make up some lost time.
The first thing we needed to do was arrange a visit with my brother, Pat. Believe it or not, we haven’t seen each other since Chrysa and I lived in Indiana! That’s way to long for brothers to be apart. And so it happened that my bro came to historic Palatka for a visit.
Pat took a half day off of work, a couple of Fridays ago, and made the drive from Macon Georgia. Owing to the fact that he drives a sports car, he actually got into town a little sooner than expected. This was cool with us. We were ready to go with wine and cheese so we could make him feel welcome right off the bat. After a bit of catch up, we headed out the door once more, to get a more substantial bit to eat. Chrysa and I had been wanting to try Nico’s Pizza for a while now, and this was a good opportunity. The pizza and the company were both wonderful. We even had a bit of good luck. Friday was buy one get one, perfect for lunches later on.
Now crammed full of pizza, we decided to continue our local business trend, by going to Uncorked & Unwind. Uncorked is a fantastic local bar that features great regional beers on tap. It’s the kind of place that Chrysa and I like to become regulars at. It’s one of the first places we ducked into upon moving to Palatka and it never disappoints. This Friday night was no exception. The owner came over, we introduced Pat, and everyone was fast friends. We capped of the night over awesome local beer and friendly conversation with the other patrons. The visit was off to a good start.
Saturday was going to be the only full day with my bro, so we wanted to make it a great one. We decided to take him to St. Augustine. Full disclosure… my family has a checkered past with this city. When I was about 12 and Pat was maybe 10, we took a family trip to the oldest city in America. As I recall it was a side trip while we made our way from Buffalo to Cocoa Beach. Pat started the trip injured. I think he had stitches in his foot. My mom decided to stay in the hotel with Pat while my dad and I went to explore the fort across the street. This was after dinner so the interior of the fort was closed, but the grounds appeared to be open. If memory serves, I was walking somewhere near the drawbridge when my foot must have hit a sensor of some kind, because suddenly all hell broke loose. All manner of spot lights started swirling, alarms began blaring, and sirens began to wail. I distinctly remember freezing in place, turning to my dad and pleading with my eyes for instructions. He had just one, “run”!
I took off like a rocket! Although I have grown to be a pretty tall adult, I was in fact, kind of short as a kid. I shot past my dad, my little legs a blur of speed and terror. I didn’t get far though. I was running along the top ridgeline of the rise that leads to the moat. As my father explained it later, I was there, and then I wasn’t. I had run off the edge of the sidewalk that was cut into the rise. I remember a moment of free fall prior to hitting the pavement. I sat there confused, contemplating what to do next. Should I get up? What if dad didn’t see me fall? What if the cops show up? How would I explain this? My fear dissipated as my heroic father made it safely, bum knee and all, over the mini cliff. With strength and agility that can only be attributed to protecting ones child, and a fear of impending arrest for trespassing, my hero snatched me off the ground and ran with me in his arms to the hotel. At the Best Western, with curtains drawn and in hushed voices, we recapped the whole tale to my shocked mother and injured brother.
So, how much drama and threat of arrest happened on the current family visit to St. Augustine? I’m happy to report… none. In fact we had an absolutely lovely time. We successfully walked with Pat around the fort, showed him Flagler University and the other historic sites, and had a wonderful lunch. All of this was done under the beautiful Florida sunshine. We really couldn’t have asked for a nicer day. We ended our trip with a nice beer in a shaded courtyard, content with life prior to returning to Palatka.
Sunday was departure day for Pat but we were still able to squeeze in one final activity. Ravine Gardens State Park sits right in the middle of the city of Palatka. It boasts a wonderful garden setting completely unlike the surrounding area, a jungle gym for workouts, and a 1.8 mile paved loop. Pat is a triathlete and we figured he would want to get some physical actively in prior to driving the five hours back to Macon. We wound up the visit working out a bit, but mostly enjoying being together, and exploring the park.
We had a lot of fun with Pat on this long overdue visit. Hopefully we get some more visits from friends and family while we are here. We would be thrilled to show people little old Palatka, and even take them into St. Augustine. Yep… we really have a pretty good thing going here. Come and visit us in Florida, the likelihood of injury or arrest goes down every day.
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