Nights Of Lights – St. Augustine
St. Augustine, Florida, one of our favorite destinations. Since 2005, we’ve visited this enchanting area, both on road trips by car and during our winter RV sojourns (see our previous posts, Exploring St. Augustine, A Distillery and Dining in St. Augustine, and Stepping Up In St. Augustine). Having visited here so many times, in terms of sightseeing, we’ve pretty much “been there and done that”. But that didn’t really matter, we just love everything that this unique city has to offer – historic landmarks, beautiful beaches, gourmet restaurants, eclectic shops and so much more!
On this trip, though, we would of course, visit a few of our usual favorite places but in addition we wanted to our focus some of our attention on visiting a few marinas that were within walking distance of the town. Why? Because next winter it is possible we will head south aboard Pivot instead of driving down in the coach.
However, in prep for that possibility we have a lot of upgrades (new refrigerator to replace our less than cold existing one, new hardtop installation, new washer/dryer installation, solar panel installation, engine updates, etc.) that need to happen as well as logistical issues to work out (where to store the coach, what to do with our car, etc.). Plus we want to gain more experience over the summer by doing some more coastal cruising around New England. Who knows how we’re going to fit everything in – guess we’ll have to wait and see how it all works out.
Upon arriving at our destination, St. Augustine RV Resort, around 1:00 p.m., we were impressed! What a beautiful resort!
With 145 sites, this resort was originally built in the 1980’s but has gone through major recent renovations which were completed in June of 2022. Today they offer their original Standard sites which are up to 72 feet long with crushed asphalt, full hook ups and high speed internet access at a daily rate starting at $69.53. Their new Premium sites which are 72 – 90 feet long, have compacted crushed asphalt, concrete borders, paver patios and landscaping, full hook ups and high speed internet access at a daily rate starting at $98.69. A 5% discount (AAA, Good Sam, Senior/AARP, Military, Veteran, First Responder, etc.) for stays up to 6 nights is available. Amenities included a beautiful club house, a gorgeous swimming pool, a fitness room, lakeside firepits, a dog park, a bocce court and more! For our four night stay, we reserved Premium site #57 on-line. The sites are pricy here, but this is one of the best designed parks we have experienced
The day after our arrival was Thanksgiving, so except for a quick trip to a nearby Publix grocery store to pick up a few last minute items, the remainder of my day was spent prepping for the next day’s dinner. No turkey for us (neither of us are turkey lovers) so instead it would be an encore performance of our favorite holiday dinner – an appetizer of rumaki followed by Honey Baked Ham, Delmonico potatoes, curried fruit and green beans. Yum!
The day after Thanksgiving our goal was to explore a few of the marinas in the area. There were quite a few options, but in the end, if we decided to stay in St. Augustine, the Municipal Marina would most likely be our first choice because of its close proximity to the center of the historic area. Second choice would be the Marker 8 Hotel & Marine directly across the Matanzas River on the other end of the Bridge of Lions.
As if all the food we had the day before wasn’t satisfying enough, that night we had dinner reservations at The Raintree Restaurant. Although we’ve eaten at a few other restaurants in St. Augustine, the lovely ambiance, excellent service and delicious food always beckons us to return here again and again.
For our appetizer, it was Baked Oysters Raintree (4), made with spinach, bacon and asiago cheese. For my dinner entree, I had their special – Mahi Mahi coated with a pretzel and parmesan topping, sauteed, topped with a mustard sauce, served with rice and mixed veggies, while Rob had the Pork Schnitzel, a pork cutlet breaded, pan fried and topped with a lemon butter sauce. Both entrees came with a side salad with their house peppercorn parmesan dressing. For dessert, we once again had the Warm Chocolate Dome Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream and Crumbled Heath Bar. As usual it didn’t disappoint, everything was delicious!
After we waddled out to the parking lot, to work off all those calories (ha), a drive through town to see the Christmas lights was a must do! Little did we realize St. Augustine was celebrating its 30th Annual Nights Of Lights from November 18th to January 28th, with more than three million dazzling lights adorning every corner of the historic district. Just as a note, in 2011 and 2012, National Geographic designated St. Augustine as having one of the top 10 dazzling holiday lighting displays in the world.
Wow! Lots of lights, cars and holiday revelers! Fifty feet forward, then stop and wait for the traffic to move, crawl forward another few feet, then stop again, sit and wait, crawl forward a few feet, stop again, sit and wait, crawl forward, stop, sit and wait, over and over again, well, you get the picture! It was barely a mile from the restaurant to the iconic Lions Bridge, normally a five minute drive but it took us about 45 minutes! Jeesh! Really shouldn’t have been surprised – after all, Nights of Lights was a major tourist event and it was a holiday weekend! The (somewhat boring) video below will provide a sense of how beautiful the lights were as well as how crowded it was:
No Title
No Description
Despite the crowds and the slow crawl in the car, seeing the totally dazzling light display was well worth it! Maybe during the week or during a non-holiday weekend, it would have been a lot more enjoyable.
The next day, we were off to WDW! Looking forward to seeing Mickey again!
More photos can be seen here.
Comments
Nights Of Lights – St. Augustine — No Comments