Gunfighter: A Modern Warrior's Life

How I Spent My Summer Vacation (3)







I know that I told told you that I was going to talk about our departure from Georgia and our drive to Orlando for the next leg of our vacation, but I’m not going to do that today.  Sorry.  The reason that I am not going to do it is that we had another stop to make before got to the land of Mickey Mouse and happy-happy, joy-joy!

 

Once we left St. Simons Island, we were on I-95 south in no time at all, and shortly after that, we crossed out of Georgia, into The Sunshine State! Please note that the sun was shining just as much in Florida as it was in Georgia.  Anyway, we were in Florida, mighty glad we were, because we were about to do something really cool… we were going to St. Augustine!

 

Crickets.

 

Oh, I know what you are thinking.  You are probably thinking: “What’s so cool about St. Augustine?”  Well, I’ll tell you, this:  It ain’t the beach.  Okay, St. Augustine isn’t a bad place, but it isn’t the place that makes people jump up and down either.  So why do I say that it was cool?  Because St. Augustine houses a few treasures that not enough people know about.  The first is the Castillo De San Marco.  The Castillo (pronounced cas-tee-yo) might be a place that you aren’t familiar with, because of the crappy history that is taught to our young people.  Most of the history of exploration and colonization of North America is taught from and Anglo-centric view, which frequently downplays and sometimes outright ignores not only the role of France, but also that of Spain to an even greater degree.

 

The town of St. Augustine was born in September of 1565, when Don Pedro Aviles claimed the place in the name of the Spanish King, Phillip II.  Anyway, after driving out some French settlers on the St. John River, he fortified that town.  It should remembered that the Spanish that Spain established the first permanent settlement in North America more than forty years before the English established Jamestown, and more than 50 years before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth.  The town flourished and after a number of raids by English pirates the Spanish crown, in 1702, authorized the building of a stone fort.  The fort protected the town, and despite sieges and attacks, it was never conquered.

 

Okay… history lesson over… for now.  So the Castillo is still there and it is really a great place to see.  Not only does it have a covered walkway (a place where troops could serve artillery, or where infantry could move from place to place without being exposed to enemy fire), it has troop berthing spaces, a church to see to the spiritual needs of the soldiers, and an impressive deck for the placement of the great 32 and 42 pounder cannon that were the Castillo’s main armament.  It should be remembered that this town and it's fort represent the geographical high-water mark of Spanish colonialism in North America

 

Isn't it a beauty?

 

 

 

 

 

OK, so… we didn't spent too much time at the Castillo on this trip, as we had other fish to fry (do you love fried fish? I certainly do… as a matter of fact, I think that I am going to cook panko crusted Tilapia this Friday evening. Mmmm!)  So, we crossed the street from the Castillo and proceeded to George street, where there is a sort of funky, bohemian shopping area. Naturally, we skipped the funky, bohemian stuff because that really isn't our gig, and proceed to a small, unassuming, unremarkable building, which bears a sign for the Saint Photios (pronounced Fo-shus) National Greek Orthodox Shrine.

 

Now, if you aren't an adherent to the Orthodox church you might not think that this means much of anything, but you would be wrong, and oh-so-shallow! The St. Photios shrine is a wonderful, living example of the narrative of the first significant Greek presence in the United States. You see, in 1768, a man named Andrew Turnbull decided that he was going to settle in the area that later became New Smyrna, and that he was going to need labor for his plantations… well who better than Greeks and other Mediterraneans who might not be disinclined to work in the Florida heat. This same gentleman took a heck of a lot longer to get things going than he planned and once he did, he failed miserably. The Greek population of his platations moved in large part to the St. Augustine area, which by this time was in British hands (the British having traded Havana, Cuba to the Spanish Crown for possession of St. Augustine). The Avero house, where the shrine now stands became the focal point for Greek society, culture, and faith in the region.

The shrine is as beautiful inside as it is outside, and is something that you should see, whether you are Orthodox or not. There are splendid icons, vaulted ceilings, a place for prayer, and a new exhibit of the history of the Greeks in Florida. There is also a great gift shop that I am certain that you would enjoy. The shrine is run by Polexeni (Polly) Maouris-Hillier, and if you ever get there, please take a few minutes to chat with her about the place. She is a treasure.

 

 

 

After leaving the shrine, we went back to the car and headed down the fabled A1A through St. Augustine Beach to the even lesser known bit of St. Augustine's history, the U.S. National Park Service Fort Matanzas site. Fort Matanzas, shown below, was built around the same time as the Castillo de San Marco, it's purpose was to defend the Castillo or at least give warning in case the British decided to launch a riverine sneak attack up the Saint Johns river.

 

I know that Matanzas doesn't look like much, but believe me when I tell you that it is the stuff that anyone interested in the American colonial period can't help but love. Consider: St. Augustine is the northernmost Spanish town in the Americas, but it has farms, walls, a church, a monastic community, and a big honkin' fort! Matanzas? Well… not so much. It must have been lonely there, nearly three hundred years ago. Can you imagine that? The sole aim of the soldiers there was to watch out for British marauders… who never actually went that way. It isn't believed that the fort's artillery EVER fired a shot in anger.

As you can see from the photos below, Matanzas is still a rather lonely place, accessible only by water (dig the hat on park ranger Olivia, who is the first mate on the boat).

 

 

 

I love this place. I do… it is an amazing piece of history, and I hope that if you are ever in the St. Augustine area, you go and see these things, you will truly be glad that you did.

OK, have you had enough of a history lesson? I am sure that you have, so I will end the lesson here, as it is not time to get back on the road (and hey, it is only noon-ish… how's that for packing the time just right?!).

Back on the road, we made our way back to I-95, heading for I-4, which takes us from east to west, and to Orlando.

I'll pick-up more of the story then, because now I need to go to make lasagna before I got to choir rehearsal.

How I spent My Summer Vacation (2)

So, after a full night of sleep, we rose at a normal hour and put ourselves together for departure. We were on the road by 9-ish, and headed south. Which is when we hit our first snag: We had the wrong power cord for Soccer Girl's DVD player. Fortunately, we were only three quarters of a mile away from home. Good dad that I try to be, I didn't get mad… I didn't lose my cool. I just turned around, went back home, and got the cord that I thought was right. We headed back out, got on the highway, and were on our way!

   

Mrs. GF and Soccer Girl had planned to play the license plate game to see how many states we could count on our trip, and by the time we left our subdivision, we already had Virginia Tennessee, and New York. By the time we passed the Marine Corps base at Quantico (4 miles from our house) we had counted New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and one or two others.

   

 We were cruising along and after a short time, SG decided she was ready to watch a movie, so she fired up her DVD player… or tried to. Apparently the cord that I went back to the house for, wasn't the right one either. Ah, well… she was just going to have to do without, and enjoy her multiple books and her MP3 player instead.

   

In practically no time, we made it through Richmond and Petersburg and crossed into North Carolina. We stopped for a quick lunch, and then nipped into Wal-Mart (this was in Roanoke Rapids, in case geography is your thing) to get a power cord. Instead of buying a power cord, we ended up getting a new DVD player, as buying a power cord would have cost as much money. Now, at this point you are probably thinking that this was a really indulgent thing to do, and you might be right, but from our perspective it was a relatively small price to pay to keep a certain eleven year old from getting bored on the long drive ahead of us.

   

OK, so… food and power issues resolved, we got back on the road on a beautiful (hot) sunny August day and did what we always do when we drive together. We talked. We talked about all sorts of stuff… my oddball brother, Mrs. GF's oddball mother, and all sorts of things.

   

The rest of the ride was full of the usual… looking at license plates, getting gas, looking at some the same billboards that we always see, taking note of the sometimes strange people that you always see on the road, and noticing that the corn in North Carolina was burning up in our hot, dry, summer.

By 6 PM, we were tired, but had almost arrived at our destination, and were getting off of I-95 at Brunswick, Georgia. We stopped at Zaxby's for a quick dinner...

   

   

...before driving over the F.J. Torras causeway to Saint Simons Island. We were staying at the same condominium that we used last year, and as soon as we grabbed the keys at the office, we quickly settled into our unit and went into immediate relaxation mode.

   

I hope you don't mind but I am going to throw a plug here, because I belive in supporting businesses that treat me well and give me good value for my money. If you ever decide to visit St. Simons Island, do yourself a favor and make your accommodations through Hodnett Cooper. They have lots of nice properties on the island and are responsive to their customers. We stayed at the Salt Air villas and loved the place. The unit (a one bedroom) was large, airy, and well-appointed. This was our second time staying there and we will be there again if I have anything to say about it (and I do).

   

   

So, what do you do on a coastal island in the summer, when the sun is shining and you are on vacation? I'll tell you what you do, you go to the beach! So that is what we did. I'll tell you something… St. Simons Island isn't what I would call a national beach vacation destination, and I think that this is a realllly good thing; because the beaches are wide, flat and at the time we usually take our vacations, nearly empty.

   

(Chillin', despite the heat)

   

We spent a few hours in the water and being warmed by the sun before going back to the condo to shower and change, before we went about the rest our day.

   

While we were on St. Simons, we stuck, pretty much to our routing of going to the beach in the morning, and then out and about doing the togetherness thing. One of the places that we never miss while we are there is the G.J. Ford book shop

   

   

This is a real, privately owned, book shop. It has an eclectic collection of titles, and despite its size, I challenge you to be unable to find something of interest. Fortunately, I married a woman who is always looking for the main prize in a bookstore, and on out trip to this shop, I left with a pearl of great price, a cookbook called: Glorious Grits.

   

   

One of our evenings we had the opportunity to spend an evening with some friends of ours who used to live in our area and moved to St. Simons several years ago. We met them for dinner, and then went to their house for desert. It was great to see them, and we try to spend a few hours with them every time we are on the island.

   

I won't tell you the sad tale of the breaking of my Blackberry… suffice it to say that I got it fixed.

   

All too soon, our visit to St. Simons Island was over. We had spent four days/nights, enjoying each other's company, eating fun food, hanging out on the beach, and reading much-anticipated vacation books. We had fun, and while we were sad to be leaving St. Simons, we were excited about the fact that the next morning (after a last walk on the beach) we were headed to The Happiest Place on Earth.

How I spent My Summer Vacation (1)

…and we got home in almost thirteen hours, which is not bad when you consider the unexplained mechanical problem with the van, in  Lumberton, North Carolina!

 

Wow, what a blast!  An awesome, restful, fun, exciting, and totally Gunfighter family vacation, and now you know all about it.

 

Oh… I didn’t write that stuff yet, did I?  Well, I guess I had better be about it, then, eh?

 

OK, here is the deal:  Like most of the people that are going to read this, my family life is rather busy.  Between my daughter being in school, and being involved in Girl Scouts, year-round soccer, and church activities, she has a lot going on, which, by extension, means that Mrs. GF and I have a lot going on… well, Mrs. GF has her text book adoption committee, and church website committee, and all sorts of stuff, so she is busy, too.  Me?  I drive and cook.  Anyway, we all spend a lot of time just running around and getting things done.  Even our weekends are busy.  Yeah, yeah, I know… cry me a river, right?  Well, not so much.  My whole point in saying this is to point out that, like you, we are busy, and by the time the end of summer rolls around, we all need a break.

 

Enter the Gunfighter family vacation!

 

If you have known me for a while, you already know that our summer vacations have a certain level of sameness from year to year, in terms of where we go… but you know something? No two vacations are ever alike.

 

This year got started just like any other trip… there was the pre-vacation period that begins in early January, when I make our reservations… and there is the long, eight month period of preparation.  “Wait a minute, dude?  Are you telling me that you spend the next eight months GETTING READY TO GO ON VACATION?”  Well, yeah… duh!? Preparation is part of the fun, so why not draw it out as long as you can?

 

Anyway, we spent the time saving our money, loading our two boxes of “must have” items, particularly things for my “traveling kitchen” (don’t look at me like that… I cook when I travel).  We also spend a fair amount of time talking about where we are going, and what we are planning to do when we get there (we seldom stick to plans, but they are fun to make), and playing vacation related games as in: “I am thinking of a fast food restaurant, a kind that we don’t have in Virginia, but we get to eat there in August” and things like that.  (Oh, the answer to that question is:  Zaxby’s)

 

Before too long, the weather turns warm, we enter spring soccer, and look forward to the end of the school year.  Once school gets out, we are in the immediate pre-vacation zone and the next thing you know, after summer camp and reluctant visits to see the in-laws (well, actually, only Mrs. Gunfighter and Soccer Girl have to go, which means I totally WIN), it is time to pack up and GO!

 

I won’t bore you with packing details, but I will tell you that in my family, travelling to our destination is as much a part of the vacation as the rest of it, so on the evening before we depart, Soccer Girl and I like to make our mode of transportation a bit festive.

 

 
 
 
 

So, we were all ready and it was almost time to go.  The dog was at the kennel, the newspaper had been stopped, the sprinkler on the deck had the timer installed so Mrs. GF's plants wouldn't die, after a final meal and a good night of sleep, it was time to go.

 

 

Tomorrow:  Bring On The Beach!

Going Home

 Heading home @ 1130 this morning.

We have had a pleasant time, but I am ready to go home... I have things to do.  What that really means is:  I want to be in my own house, and in my own kitchen.

Sunday

We had a grand time on Sunday... and Soccer Girl got a new puppet. 

Saturday: 1700

Attending the wedding of some friends, in Jacksonville. 

Friday: 1030

A relaxing day of fun!  Pirates, Buzz Lightyear, Winnie The Pooh, Haunted Mansion, Carousel of Progress, Philharmagic... you name it, we did it!

 

Thursday: 1400

 1400:  Leavin' on a jet plane.... and not a minute too soon.  Oh, and I have  a story to tell you about the d-bag family on our flight. 

The Gunfighter Returns (with a cool vacation Pic)

Hi kids!

Didja miss me?  Of course you didn't, because I have been where I've always been... right there on that screen in front of you.

Vacation has come to an end.  We returned home on Sunday evening after a 12 hour drive which took us from Disnew World to northern Virginia in 12 hours.

Do you know what was really great?  I'll tell you:  It was walking through the front door of our house.  Vacations are great.  It's wonderful to get away... but nothing beats coming back to the place you love and call home.

I have lots of stories to tell you about our trip, and I will be posting about it in the near future, but I would like to take a moment now, to thank those fine folks who were good enough to send me some guest-post material to fill some of my busier days right at the start of our trip.

Many thanks to Heather & Mick for starting a lively conversation about children in church.  I know that it can be a sensitive subject for many people, but for me, it comes down to this:  Better to have an active, sometimes squirmy, chid IN church, than to have the same child be as active and squirmy OUTSIDE of the church.  Church is supposed to be a place of worship and welcome.  If it isn't welcoming of children, close the doors, burn the building, sell the land... because the church will then be nothing but a quasi-pious social club... and the world already has enough of them.  'Nuff said.

Thanks also to Lisa, who, once again gave us a baking lesson, and a great recipe to try.  Lisa always has interesting things to say... sometimes about food, sometimes about other things... but she is never dull.  Go visit her!

Thanks to the Queen of The Mayhem for giving us her perspective on being a Christian woman who teaches in the public school system.  I love hearing any and all stories told by those dedicated, underappreciated people with whom we entrust the early education of our children.

Lastly, but not at all in the least, thanks to Jana & Korie for sharing personal stories about love and friendship.

All of you have my thanks.

Now... back to our show, already in progress.

Can I tell you how unwelcome the alarm clock was at 0415?  I am rested and ready, but, man it was a long psychological leap from getting up between 0800 and 0900 every day for the past few weeks, and getting to work before the sun made it's appearance for the day. 

Not.

Fun

At.

All.

Oh, well... I'll leave off of the whining for a while.  I had a great time.  See the attached proof, below.

If that isn't the face of fun... I don't know what is.

Old Ladies

When we were in Florida a few weeks ago, we had the occasion to try and hide out from a fast-moving thunderstorm (as you get in central Florida in the afternoons), right as we neared the Norwegian pavillion at EPCOT. 

While we joined the queue for the Norwegian themed ride called Maelstrom,were were joined by two young couples from Providence, Rhode Island, who were behind us in the line, just as we were behind a family group the consisted of a boy of around 10, a young teen-aged girl, a woman in her 40's and an older woman, who seemed to be the matriarch of the group, who was using one of those electric scooters that are fairly common to folks with mobility problems.  The old lady's family were all in front of her, and she pulled up the rear, directly in front of me, In her scooter.

Well, the line was progressing steadily towards the ride's loading area, when all of a sudden, my family and the group behind us were assaulted by what had to be the most horrendous fart in human history.

Now, friends, you know that I don't really like to talk about such things at my blog.  I think things scatalogical are best left for other venues... but I have to tell you that this was bad.  Wait.  No, it wasn't just bad.  To say that this was bad would do a grave in justice to the gravity of this situation.  this was just plain freakin' horrible!  You know, I get I get it... I understand that we can all be gassy at times.  I understand that we all have our moments, but this was just too much.  This evil cow didn't even have the grace to play the old lady card and laugh and say "oops!  Sorry about burning your eyebrows and nostril hairs off with that one."

Seriously.  Who does that? 

I'll answer my own question:  Boorish old ladies do it, that's who!

To prove my point, we will shift scenes and fast forward to last week, while I was shopping at Wegmans, I went to get some baking soda (soccergirl needed it for her itchy bug bites acquired at Girl Scout camp), and there was an older couple and a few other people in the aisle.  The older couple was standing right where I was going... and when I was about three feet away I heard a loud Brrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaap!coming from the old lady.  Everyone in the aisle looked aghast, and the lady never flinched.  Her husband had the grace to look mortified, as everyone else, with a look of horror on our faces, turned and fled the aisle.

Now, really.  No seriously.  That ain't right.  It's not even close to being right.  The very least she could have done would be to have gone someplace else to let that thing fly.

What is it that I am missing here?  That type of sophomoric behavior is usually the province of young men in their teens and early twenties.  Is it some sort of old lady empowerment thing?  Do they not care because they are getting too old to be bothered with the niceties of civil behavior?

Help a brother out, here.

Here is a picture of the offender in Florida.  The dirty cow!