Hey everyone! March is here and spring is springing up all over the place. Spring is my second favorite season (only to autumn) and I LOVE to travel during this time. The weather is beautiful in Florida February through May and wildflowers are so abundant on the sides of highways which makes for beautiful road trips. This road trip was sparked by one event in particular, a Fleet Foxes concert at the Saint Augustine amphitheater. My husband and I had been waiting ten long years to see them and we didn’t want to miss a chance to finally experience this concert in such a wonderful and beautiful city. We arrived in town and went right to the food, naturally.
Our first stop was at Salt Life Food Shack. Some of you may know that my husband is an avid fisherman and so stops like this are crucial. We had a decent meal, we were just so hungry from the journey that anything would have been great. Then we went out to the beach. I always miss the Atlantic and forget that it’s just three and a half hours away from me and the Gulf of Mexico.
Unfortunately, the waves were huge and the water was still freezing, so we didn’t stay for long. Luckily the beach wasn’t a far drive at all into town, and then to our Airbnb. We stayed at a little place on Grove Ave. which was just about a ten minute walk into town.
We got acclimated and ready for the night. I was so excited to see Fleet Foxes, but in addition, I was so very excited to go to one of my favorite restaurants in the WORLD, The Raintree. The restaurant is a stunning old Florida mansion converted into an upscale, gorgeous space. And the food is even more amazing. Our favorites are the escargot and the crème brûlée. Just look how happy we are:
After dinner we headed over to the St.Augustine Amphitheater for the concert. This venue was BEAUTIFUL! More like an outdoor club really than a convert venue.
And the show! Let me tell you guys, I have been to a hundred concerts at least in my lifetime and I would say this had to be a top three show. If you haven’t listened to Fleet Foxes, please go give them a listen. Their music is for everyone!
The next morning I was up early and ready for some exploring. Our first stop was Maple Street Biscuit Co. YOU GUYS OMG DO NOT SLEEP ON THIS PLACE! They have a few locations and MAN this food is great. Side note, check out my Instagram @astoldbyflowers for lots of videos of the food we ate and places we saw on this trip because I didn’t manage to take a lot of photos, just videos in my Insta-stories. Next we went to Relampago Coffee Lab, which was luckily two minutes away from Maple St. This place was another stunning converted home. We had three drinks: a chai latte, a lotus blossom (black tea with lavender and steamed cream) and a white mocha lavender latte. Each drink was even better than the last and probably some of the best drinks I have ever had in my LIFE. I’m not even exaggerating, they were amazing and the barista was extremely sweet.
We started into the city and just took in the sights, hit up all my favorite shops and landmarks. I want to just leave a few of the links to the shops I love down here:
Among many others. Also, the antique shops on San Marco Ave are definitely worth looking into! You’re hard pressed not to find some great stuff in Saint Augustine.
After a while, we headed to Juniper Market which is a stunning little market that happened to be right by our place!
I had the pimento and bacon grilled cheese and a goji berry lemonade. Both were to die for. It’s also a great place to pick up some items to take home!
We went back to the Airbnb for a little rest and then headed back out for dinner. We had plans to go to a few places, but there’s so much to see there that sometimes you have to just break away from the plan and have dessert before dinner at The Hyppo which is a Saint Augustine staple for me. The have the best popsicles in the world, hands down!
And then we went to another St. Auggies classic for dinner, A1A Aleworks. A beautiful place with a beautiful view, and I have never had a bad meal there. My favorites are the mango chicken and the jambalaya. It was pretty cold and we had done so much, we were plum tuckered out and headed home.
On Sunday we checked out early because we wanted to get a good seat at The Ice Plant, a vintage, prohibition style bar and eatery inside the Saint Augustine distillery. We had brunch, naturally. I had the french toast, hubs had chicken and hoecakes. This was one of my top five meals of ALL time. And for sure the best brunch I have EVER had. Everything was perfect including the service. We couldn’t have asked for a better last meal before the journey home. We heard the distillery tours were free so we hopped on board. The facility was actually really beautiful and we learned a lot. I was very impressed! And we got to sample a ton of their spirits so I was feeling GREAT upon our exit.
The tour is free, I would highly recommend it, especially for fans of craft cocktails and high quality liquor.
We headed home after, feeling totally blessed and fulfilled and full of ideas for what to do next time we make it out to the other coast.
Stay tuned next week for the much awaited SPRING FAVORITES blog post!
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As Told By Flowers 