This past week a good friend of mine from Massachusetts came down to St. Augustine to visit us.  She was one of the wonderful people who hosted us in her home while we were homeless in New England this past summer, and it was fun to invite her into our tiny home and show her a glimpse of our lives here.  She was a great sport about sharing space in such a small dwelling, and dealt with the inconveniences of not having modern plumbing, limited water, no privacy, etc with a great attitude.  I had been a bit stressed beforehand wondering how we would all get along on the boat for a whole week, but it ended up being totally fine.  One night we even had 4 people on the boat, as another good friend of ours was passing through the area and stopped in for a quick overnight visit.  It was the Way Happy Slumber party, and a good time was had by all!

While my friend was here, I got to “play tourist” with her and check out some of the St. Augustine tourist activities that I haven’t done yet.  One of the highlights was the St. Augustine Alligator Farm.  This is a very small zoo that mainly features members of the crocodile family, along with some very cool birds, monkeys, and other creatures.  I never knew alligators were so interesting!  It is really something to see not just a few alligators up close and personal, but to see literally hundreds of them all around you!  And there weren’t just American alligators, there were also exotic crocodiles like this one, my favorite, who is from India.

One day we went to an amazing “circus sideshow” act that was held at the Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museum.  It featured 3 “freaks the likes of which we’ve never seen before”, who could do things such as swallow swords, lie on  bed of nails, eat crushed glass, and shove power drills up his nose.  I have seen a lot of crazy things before,  and done lots of them myself, but this show topped the list of unbelievable feats.  My friend and I were so horrified and shocked at some of the tricks that apparently we were putting on a show of our own and the expressions on our faces were caught by a local newspaper photographer who put the photo on the front page of the Sunday St. Augustine newspaper!

Her and I also got to do girly stuff, and enjoyed talking and hanging out in sidewalk cafes like this one, just down the street from the restaurant where I work.

We spent two days on nearby Amelia Island, hanging out on the beach and where we had the pleasure of visiting Little Talbot Island State Park.  One of the features of this park is an area where many live oaks have fallen down onto the beach and now are amazing displays of driftwood.  Some of the most spectacular driftwood “sculptures” I have ever seen lined this beach for over a mile.  I highly recommend checking this place out if you are in the area.

Cap’t K was busy all week working, and kept out of our way as much as possible.  He has had about 5 “hooks” in the water looking for jobs, and some of them are starting to bite.  He quit his temp job this week and is starting some other projects now that we will report on soon.  They all involve boats, which is a vast improvement over the flourescent lit cubicle!