St. Augustine to Orlando

For the last day of our little mini vacation we really didn’t have much planned other than getting down to Orlando and our fancy hotel. We got up around 9 or so and started to pack up the Bronco. Once we checked out we decided to hit a diner to get some breakfast. We had seen one on the way back to the hotel the day before right down the street and figured we’d stop there. Well, it seemed that the old people really loved that one, so luckily for us, there was another place even closer to our hotel that wasn’t that crowded and had a Sunday morning buffet. It was a cool little spot called Café 11 that most of the time was more of a bar/live music venue. They have a lot of band posters on the wall and had the buffet set up on their little stage. They still had their “PA” on either side of the stage, it was adequate for the size of the room, but I’m a snob so I wasn’t impressed. The food was good and the guy that owned the place made a damn good omelet. I talked to him for a while; he’s from NY and has lived here for 30 years. Still had the accent.

We finished up and figured we’d head back to the beach one more time before going inland. It was still nice out in the morning, but a little windy. I got my little RC truck out and ran it around the tire ruts in the sand for a bit, then we wondered closer to the water and just hung out for a while. It was windy enough that you could see the sand blowing across the surface like we were in Dune.

Once we were done with the beach, we then decided to head back toward old town to see the famous lighthouse. We did find it, but it cost like 20 bucks to walk up it and it was pretty crowded already. It was tough to find a spot to take a picture once you were close unless you went in, but we decided that we both had seen enough lighthouses in our lives that this wasn’t going to be a big deal. Kacie did still get a picture or two.

Then since we were close, we figured we would head back into old town St. Augustine to find these lion statues that apparently guarded the bridge into town. We did, but they were less than impactful. They were just sitting on the side of the road as you got onto the bridge. We saw them as we passed and drove over the bridge, back into old town and around Flagler College before heading back over the bridge and grabbing a quick picture as we drove by heading back the way we came. Hell, we ate dinner the night before right across the street from them and didn’t even know it. Bonus, we found Osprey Tacos, which was owned by my buddies’ old friend and couldn’t even stop in since it was so packed. Good for him.

After all this we finally decided to head south. On the way across the river, or right before, we hit it just right to be the third car in line as the drawbridge was going up. I don’t know why, but I think it’s cool to see the drawbridges work. After waiting for that for a couple minutes, we were on our way to Orlando on 95. I was worried about Daytona 500 traffic, but by now whoever was going to the race was already there. It was a windy day, so as we approached Daytona we saw a dust storm, which I’ve never seen in Florida, and a decent sized brush fire in an RV park. Exciting in a bad way. Around Daytona was were we hopped off 95 and jumped on I4, my least favorite road in FL. As we did, we could see the Goodyear blimp over the racetrack. I have seen it a bunch of times before, but it was a first for Kacie.

With our various slowdowns on 95 and 4, we got to the hotel right about check in time, so went right in. It’s a luxury hotel, the kind that you pretty much have to use the valet. The kid was cool though, helped us out with our ridiculous amount of luggage for one night, and tried to take it up to the room for us. There were a lot of cars behind us since it was check in time, so we took it up ourselves and left the Bronco with him. I’ve been to a few luxury places in my life, but this place kind of blew Kacie’s mind at first. Not that I’m so fancy or anything, I’m just way worse with money that she is.

The whole place is crazy. Very Florida. A few Michelin rated restaurants. Pool with private cabanas. Sculpture garden in the back. Crazy transparent keycards. The whole thing.

Then we get to the room. Everything is automated. Floor to ceiling windows in our corner room, with balcony. Auto curtains. Different lighting modes and a little tablet that controls it all. It is a really nice place. Even the bathroom is nice with a crazy automated toilet and one of those showers where the water just drains into the floor with no lip or anything between the shower floor and the rest of the bathroom. That doesn’t work so well. After checking it all out, we decided to shower up and go out to dinner. I could request the car on my phone as we left the room, so it was pulling up right as we walked out. What service. And there was a pimped out G-Wagon and a Lamborghini Urus at the valet this time. Probably close to a million dollars just in those two cars.

And since we were being so fancy, we found a Miller’s Ale House to eat at. Just kidding. There was almost no wait though, so it was nice and easy. And delicious as usual. We do have one of these at home, and back in the day I had one right down the street from college. Good food and good drinks. There was a brand new Ferrari SF90 sitting in the lot when we left. Kacie couldn’t believe someone who drove that car was at Miller’s, but rich people like good food too.

We headed back to the hotel and decided to look around more once we got back. The entire second floor was one of their fancy restaurants. We stood outside of it like homeless people and stared at them for a second before going down to the main floor and taking a quick stroll through the sculpture garden. It was dark by now and they had them all lit with various LED novelty lights. It looked pretty cool though, again, very Florida.

We were about done walking around anyway, and it started to rain on us. So we went back in by the main floor lounge and looked around a little more before heading back to the room for some Olympics and to just chill out for the rest of the night. Which is what I’m up to now. Kacie found the hotel robes and now lives in one. I’ll drop Kacie off tomorrow with her friends and head home. We’re both bummed that we will have to seperate for a few days, but she has her convention and I have shows. It will feel quick and we’ll be back together in a couple days. Hall out.