Kwik•E•Mart, St. Augustine Day Trip
Me, blocking the goods.
Jeez, about a month ago, Erin and I made a point to head out to one of Florida's refurbished 7-11s that were turned into a Kwik-E-Mart to celebrate and promote the new Simpson's Movie. We wanted to get there before the end of the month because she heard they were only doing it till the end of July.
This is one of the coolest promostions since the burma Shave ads in the 20s and 30s. They created a totally submersive environment by turning the whole store into a replica store from a cartoon! They seemed to spare nothing by covering all of the signs inside and out, as well as featuring such Simpson's cartoon food staples such as Buzz Cola, Krusty O's, and Homer's favorite pink icing donut. Even the employees wore shirts and name tags of Kwik-E-Mart!
Erin helps Marge out to her car.
Free Nachos!
Erin gets her loiter on
Kinda creepily real...
Click here for a close up of the signage! Read the shelf talkers on the far left shelves!
Must be booger flavored.
"Thank you, come again!"
First Bank of Springfield
On with the road trip!
Erin's birthday is coming up (August 22nd), so we spent a day together to celebrate since school is starting and her real day and surrounding weekends will be booked silly with work. I've never been to St. Augustine, America's oldest city, and it was really cool! Well, actually it was really hot. We went to the fort, and halfway through I pulled an audible and we left for some shade, water, and a cold beer. The rest of the time it was cool to walk around the small streets of the town, see some local arts and crafts, and feel the history all around us.
Beach houses on the A1A
Rocky pitstop next to the Atlantic. The whole day had the air filled with dragonflies, but never was the air as filled with them as on this beach.
Skewed self-timer shot.
The previous self-timer shot. I didn't make it, but Erin looks great!
Heading in to St. Augustine - the draw bridge
The Historic streets of St. Augustine
Sketch done on lunch. we had yummy sandwiches and beer, and a really great acoustic guitarist did covers of mostly 60s and 70s songs with a talented voice.
Pirate ship, I suppose.
Heading to the fort
Oldest fort in America, built by the Spanish that is made mostly of coquina held together with mortar.
What I would look like giving commands against sailing invaders. In shorts.
The Gatesman. Or guard, whatever you prefer.
Main entrance
Spanish Barracks
Erin in the main guard's room which had another sleeping shelf, a fireplace, and gun rack (not shown)
Main courtyard from above
Erin and the cannons. This fort has great visibility from any side, especially from the bay or the river to the right. There you can see the aforementioned drawbridge.
Full cute tourist mode!
Lower rampart - the first line of defense. Also you can see an oven for cooking pottery, like chia pets.
Erin takes aim
Erin in the sentry tower
Keeping watch!
Porthole view from sentry tower
View from tower entrance
Lighting the fuse
Soldier describes the techniques of attacking the fort, and history of attacks planned and failed against it. This is about the time the heat was starting to get me down.
In one of the rooms in the fort that used to be the captain's quarters, there is a bronze model of the fort.
Fascinating - how to make mortar!
We saw more of the fort, but it was so hot - we were in full body sweats and if I wasn't feeling so wiped I would have started swinging with heat frustration. We left to go in search of AC and cold water. We wandered the streets for a while not exactly seeing a place that had those 2 in combination. It was usually one or the other. Weaving through hot, dazed tourists, we cooled off by loitering in an ice cream shop, and then made our way up the street to a place Erin really wanted to show me, the Milltop.
The Milltop is a tavern on top of a gift shop and all of it used to be a real mill.
I bet tons of fools pitch their pennies in there because EVERY manufactured body of water is a wishing pond/well. Ok, that was harsh. The kids don't know any better, really. But isn't it strange that you see coins in any public water display save for real ponds or lakes?
Cooling off in the Milltop.
View toward the fort, and the veranda. Just then, Erin sees this strange sight...
Segway tours? Lame.
Click to view
We stayed till about 3:30, and drove home via the less scenic 95 to I-4. Once we were sufficiently loaded with Corn Nuts, Gatorade and Diet Dr. Pepper repectively, we fancied a detour to Florida's psychic town and spiritualist center, Cassadega. Sadly, they were closing up shop by the time we arrived, but we looked around in the beautiful hotel and its gift shop. We'll be back for a reading soon, and get some pics for y'all. After that, we headed home, had a bite, watched the not un-funny Darwin Awards, and then slept for like 10 hours.
Skip ahead to last night, Thursday, and we saw Florida's favorite sons Mofro.
They played a killer show at the Social and brought their mix of Southern Fried Rock, blues, and funk (yes, funk) to Orlando led by J.J. Grey's soulful vocals and flamethrowin' harp. Highly recommend, it was worth it, even on a school night.