Ahhh… I hear the waves, feel the sun and can taste the yummy morning mimosa.  Yes, I’m pretending I’m still on vacation as I think about our awesome time near the coast – really, I’m sitting in Minneapolis and it is 15 degrees outside and I’m going ice skating tomorrow.  Oh well, that’s what memories are for.

On the first evening that we were in the Sunshine State, we stayed in the town of St. Augustine.  I picked it because it is on the beach and it is thought to be the oldest European settlement in the US.  Oh yeah, and the Fountain of Youth is located there – worth a try, right?  (I will post about that later.)  Plus, I have an Atlantic Ocean sunrise on my 30 before 30 list.  We took the advice from the man at our hotel on where to eat dinner and had the best Lobster Enchiladas at the A1A Ale House.  After dinner, we explored the little historic town of St. Augustine.  We had chocolate covered s’mores from a candy store and some new beers at another little hole in the wall.  We were the youngest people in all the town – except for a few wasted college kids stumbling out of a bar – but it was a really nice town.

The next morning, we woke up just before the sun was scheduled to make an experience on the horizon.  It looked a little cloudy, but we headed out to the beach.  I could have made it romantic and extra special with a blanket and a bottle of champagne, but I settled on sweatpants and a “just rolled out of bed” look.  There were lots of people using the beach for their morning exercise.  Justin & I just ignored them and kept our eyes out for the great big ball of fire.

The cloudy morning could have ruined the whole experience and forced me to take another trip to the beach – I know, torture – however, it made the whole thing even better.  The sun only made a brief appearance right on the horizon before it crept back behind the clouds, but the whole thing was perfect.

There is definitely something magical about quietly watching the sunrise.  Part of the magic came from our breakfast celebration.  We found an awesome little cafe not too far from the beach and it turned out to be quite the gem.  It was a little hipster, plus a little retirement community.  We had awesome breakfast sandwiches with eggs, spinach and feta cheese on croissants – and then this:

Awesome.  Also, I asked my husband to email me his favorite sunrise photo and he sends me this with a note that he “loves my face in this one.”  I think I was surprised at the temperature of the water, plus I was still a little sleepy – but I swear, I was SUPER excited to cross another awesome thing off my 30 before 30 list.

So, I am officially 1/5 of the way through my list after this experience.  Can’t wait for more adventures to come.

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