First off, I have to thank Kitty and Rich for their recommendation to visit St. Augustine, which turned out to be an enchanting and architecturally fascinating medieval "European" looking city. St Augustine is the oldest city in the United States. Our visit was far too short and limited to purely ocular observations. To truly understand and appreciate the history of St Augustine, we need to spend at least a week walking around the old town, or it would not do justice to this historical place. So, for this trip, permit me to share with you photos I took with my iPhone from the front seat of our RV. Due to the size of our vehicle, we were having challenges in finding parking large enough or streets that would allow vehicles over 10 ft to drive through. For more info go to: www.augustine.com
Dixie Crossroads is one-of-a-kind seafood restaurant located off I-95 in the city of Titusville. J.J. saw a single sign advertisement board and said, "Let's look for the place. It sounds like they may have good seafood." It took us crossing a bridge then tracing our route to finally locate an unassuming establishment which we missed when we first drove by it.
We quickly forgave the inconvenience that it took us over 45 minutes to hunt down Dixie Crossroads. We estimated the seating capacity to be close to 100. The place was packed with happy diners.
Our server immediately brought us their complimentary appetizer of corn fritters. I'm not sure if we were supposed to save them for dessert but we were famished and we quickly consumed a couple of them. They looked like a little cream puff but filled with fresh sweet corn and sprinkled with generous amount of powder sugar. Not too kind for our health but they were yummy!
Lisa, our server could not have been more attentive. When J.J. was thinking which soup to choose, she brought him sample portion of each to try.
J.J. had sweet red gulf shrimps with wild rice and clam chowder.
My selection was grilled fresh mullet with broccoli and cauliflower.
The restaurant is worthy as a destination. Greg, the manager told us that majority of their patron are local residents. Tourists come, as we did, lured by a sign on I-95. He mentioned about the negative impact this 30 + year old restaurant has suffered when the space shuttle program was scrapped. On our way out of town, we saw a high school named Astronaut High School which made us wonder if their students have any aspiration to become an astronaut.
Cathi at the entrance of Dixie Crossroads. DixieCrossroads.com
Randy, Charles and David working at a Florida citrus and nuts outlet store.
To get to St Augustine Beach, we drove over a bridge with marsh below.
Restaurants and bars lined the main automotive road. Access to beach were small one lane streets. We did not drive in as we were unsure if there was a sufficient space to turn our RV home around. White sandy dunes from a distance reminded us of beaches we enjoyed on the coast of Maine.
The RV park we chose for this evening is located about 6 miles from St Augustine. Surrounded by trees, Honu is basking in the sunset.
Aloha -- Cathi
