Florida
- Day 5
Tuesday 28th October 2025
Participants: Tam, Kev, India, Georgia and Charlie
Wake up from 6 to 7ish so not too bad. I do a bit of knitting whilst waiting for the others to surface. [Kev - please remember that Tam is writing this part of the trip report. My knitting skills are limited to say the least] The weather today is set to be overcast and cooler so the plan is to go to a state park and do a hike or two. Breakfast of coffee and toast'
We drop into CVS as Ind has been badly bitten by mosquitos,she stocks up on anti histamines,repellant and a liquid dabber to stop the sting. Suitably dosed up we head to our first stop Anastasia State Park. $8 park entry for car. We drive to the farthest parking lot near the beach and take a look around. The sea is quite rough and there's a red flag flying, which isn't surprising and there's lots of seaweed due to the conditions. We look at the online map and see the first trail the Ancient Dunes trail which is 0.7 miles long. Ind states "You know you're in America when you say let's drive to the other end of the parking lot" as it's so much nearer the start of the trail. So we do. The trail has a few signs showing various facts about the flaura and fauna but apart from using my Merlin app to identify a Blue Jay, Downy Woodpecker, Northern Cardinal and Carolina Wren we don't actually see much wildlife. [Kev - the Merlin app let's you record the sound of bird song and then tells you which species it is] Oh I've forgotten the thing we did see in abundance are those pesky mosquitoes. We soon realise this when, in spite of wearing long sleeved tops and trousers due to the cooler weather today, they manage to sting my face and neck and Kev's face.
We finish the trail and try to find the Marsh trail. But it's just not obvious and we all agree it sounds like the mosquitoes could be out in force on the Marsh trail so decide to skip it and give up looking. As we exit the park we actually see one of the ways in to it. We all agreed that had the weather been better the beach would be ok, but it did have weird grey sand.
We head to Butler Beach as this was also on our list. Again very rough and lots of seaweed, but at least the sand was the proper colour.
Kev's decided we may as well do a spot of shopping, don't faint, it actually turns out he wants to visit a golf shop. We drive to one but it's not very big and has limited choices. I mention that there's an outlet store at the end of the parking lot and it proves to be a good idea as Kev buys a golf shirt, trousers and a belt at a good discounted price. [Kev - there's no doubt at all that these items of golf attire will reduce my handicap by at least 2 shots.]
Back to the house as the plan, as it's cooler, today is to do San Sebastian winery and St Augustine distillery. At the winery we opt for the $5 tour. There's a short wait for the next one so we browse the cute gift shop while we wait. There's some lovely wine related items and also bottles of their own wine, port and cream sherry for sale. The cutest bottle is in the shape of the lighthouse and a donation of each sale goes towards it's upkeep. The tour starts and we're led upstairs to a small room with wooden pews where we watch a video about how the winery came to be and what happens from planting of vines to harvesting. Then we walk through a section where you can see the casks where the wine goes and the barrels it can be aged in. We're then taken back downstairs for the wine tasting. About 8 of us sit around a bar whilst the guide pours a sample of 5 wines and 1 port. Our favourite was probably the port. We all agreed that the tasting seemed very rushed, we hardly had time to sniff the wine let alone savour it before the next sample was ready to be poured into the same glass. We'd read that there is an excellent restaurant on the 3rd floor of the winery. We go up and decide to sit outside on the covered veranda. It's quite chilly so we move from the table near the edge into a more sheltered spot. You can still see the inlet though as it's just round the corner from where we had breakfast the first morning. We all have a beer and order a glass of port to share to go with the cheese from the charcuterie board we ordered and we also have salmon tartar tacos. The food is very tasty.
[Kev - The winery wasn't as good as I thought it would be. It's not bad and it's cheap enough, it just feels a bit rushed. The wines weren't as good as I'd hoped either. Still, you can't really complain for $5.]
Next stop on our drinks tour is the St Augustine distillery. This is a free self guided walk though the facility with stops to sample tiny cocktails made with the spirits they produce and the mixers that they also make. So we have a vodka, gin, rum and bourbon cocktail. All of which were very tasty. It is fascinating reading about the different chars on the barrels that make the difference to the bourbons. At the end in the shop where you can buy all the spirits and mixers, together with lots of other items, there's the chance to sample neat spirits for free or pay $10 to sample a proper size shot in a cute glass you can keep. Ind and Kev were keen to sample the premium bourbon. I had a sip but it was a bit strong for me. I tried the oaked gin as well, which was very unusual. India decides to buy a bottle of bourbon for later in the holiday. The lady who served Ind kindly gave her 3 sample sized bottles of the old fashioned mixer for free.
[Kev - Now this tour was much more our cup of tea ..... or more accurately, our glass of bourbon. Anything that's free is good in my book, but this was informative and interesting.]
For supper tonight we'd decided to try and get in at Prohibition Kitchen. It had been rammed on Saturday with a long wait time for a table. This time it was only 5 minutes. It's a cool place with live music, good themeing and an extensive menu. We split a poutine, French dip with fries and a small beer cheese soup. The poutine was quite disappointing as there wasn't much curd, but the soup and dip are tasty.
[Kev - Yeah, the poutine wasn't the best, but the dippy sandwich was nice.]
It's raining lightly when we leave and we try to get in at Anne O'Malley's where there's music but it's quite tiny and packed, so we go to Tradewinds again where there's a rock band fronted by a lady singer, singing all the classics.
[Kev - we all liked this neon advertising sign. It would look great in our conservatory.]
A fun night and a fair few drinks later we stumbled out at 11.30pm to head home. [Kev - Tam has a few less drinks than India and I as she promptly falls asleep soon after we sit down. She did rally a little later on to finish the night with us.]