Antiquing in St. Augustine

Yesterday morning we left Amelia Island behind and headed off for a fun day of shopping in St. Augustine and a wonderful dinner at the Columbia Restaurant.

The places we visited in St. Augustine this time were chosen because of Ula's tastes, so they included nautical antiques and old books.


(Yes, she is trying to relieve that pirate of his flintlock.)



Truly in her element! A whole room full of antique children's books,



though, to be fair, she didn't actually buy anything there. I did.



I purchased this boys' adventure novel from 1910. It's in excellent condition and sounds like the kind of story Blaze would love.

Destination Archeology

DH has been attending a conference for The Society for Historic Archeology since Wednesday. This year's conference is being held at the Amelia Island Resort, which is very near to Kingsley Plantation, so today the children and I met up with him at a special event at Kingsley.





The park service has been very busy with the plantation. Since we were there over the summer, they have added several informative signs and have opened up more of the kitchen house to the public.



There is more information on the suffering caused by the slave trade, as well.

One of the rangers, working in the plantation book shop, showed us the difference between regular cotton and the Sea Island Cotton that used to be grown on Fort George Island. Sea Island Cotton is no longer grown commercially because it has to be de-seeded by hand ( the fibers are so fine that they are shredded by a cotton gin).



It was cold out there today, but the kitchen house and book store were heated and there were 4 of these space heaters in the barn, which was where students were presenting lectures.







There were a few booths set up with activities for children, but Blaze didn't want to play any games. He's very cold sensitive and was more interested in finding Dad and getting out of the cold.





I hear we were very lucky, weather wise, today. A friend who is visiting Daytona Beach today, reported that there was ice (not snow) falling from the sky there.

Tonight we are staying at Amelia Island Resort in the suite that DH has been sharing with his friend, David. It's really much more up-scale than we're used to, and Ula said she felt like a "cat in a strange garret."



DH has returned to the conference, Ula has continued her cat theme by going to sleep while curled up on top of the bedspread, and Blaze is enjoying the wonders of a whirlpool bath, filled with bubbles.



Tomorrow's plan is to go to St. Augustine. Ula only has one more week before she has to return to school, so we wanted to take her to St. Augustine once before she has to leave.

Tea Time

Sherlock Holmes' birthday was Jan. 6th. We celebrated by going out to afternoon tea at the Merlion restaurant.
We enjoyed our tea at the restaurant so much that this afternoon we had a little tea party at home.



Here are some of the recipes we used:



Cheddar-Tomato Biscuits

8-ounces of grated sharp cheddar cheese
3/4 Cup butter, softened
1/2 Cup smoked sun dried tomatoes (julienne cut)
1 teaspoon dry oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 1/4 Cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Combine all of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Use your hands to squeeze the dough together. Roll out dough to 1/2 inch thickness and cut into desired shape with cookie cutter. Place on parchment lined baking sheet and bake until lightly browned, 12-15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack before eating.

( The star shaped biscuits were the ones we ate today, the round ones are the ones we are taking with for a picnic at Kingsley Plantation tomorrow.)






Ginger-Carrot Sandwich Spread

1 Cup grated carrots
2 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/4 cup finely chopped crystalized ginger (kitchen shears work well for this)
Salt and pepper to taste

Blend everything together. Use the spread between two slices of white or wheat bread, with crusts removed. Cut sandwiches at an angle to make 4 tea sandwiches out of every full size sandwich.




Almond Macaroons

12-ounces of slivered almonds
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 egg whites
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

In a blender or food processor, grind the almonds into a fine powder. Add sugar and blend. Add egg whites and vanilla and blend again.

Drop by the teaspoon full onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for about 16 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

They freeze well.

Blogging Break

I'm sorry I haven't posted anything new for a couple days. We are still working on settling back into some sort of routine at home, after our trip, but it's taking awhile, because there is so much going on. I returned to work yesterday morning. Then, I had 2 hours off in the middle of the day to run home and make lunch and help with Blaze's homeschooling (Ula had helped him with math), but for that entire 2 hours there was a crew of 4 workmen in our tiny apartment, drilling holes in the walls to install pipes for new fiber optic lines (they will be returning again today). Then Blaze and I returned to the school together, so that we could hear the elementary children practice their musical, called Rumpus in the Rainforest, because I have been asked to do costumes and sets for it. Following that, I had a tutoring session with one of the middle school boys.
Blaze is still very interested in Da Vinci and we have not finished all of the projects and books we have on that subject, so we will be continuing that unit for awhile longer. I finally had time to sit down and start one of the Da Vinci books with Blaze while dinner cooked and we read a little more at bedtime.
DH has been preparing for an archeology conference, that he leaves for tomorrow morning. Mostly he's been working on the paper he will be presenting there, but last night we were also treated to a little fashion show, as he tried on all his dress clothes. Well, actually he didn't want it to be a fashion show. Ula and I watching him and admiring how he looked, caused him to blush, so then, of course, we had to talk about how cute that was.
I don't think I'll have time to post anything for the next couple days, but things will get back to normal soon.

Our Final Day in St. Petersburg, Florida

While we were in St. Petersburg, we went to The Dali museum.













Today was our last day in St. Pete and also my birthday. We had a very enjoyable day wandering around in shops and then having lunch at The Moon Under Water, a British-Colonial restaurant near the waterfront and parks.





The food was excellent! Ula had the vegetarian shepherd's pie and spent quite a bit of time after the meal waxing poetic about how wonderful it was. The menu really did have something for everyone. Blaze had fish, chips and coleslaw and DH had curry and a very flavorful mulligatawny soup. I started off with a half-size cob salad, served in a star shaped tortilla bowl, and then had bangers and mash.

Before we left St. Petersburg, I bought myself a present:

First Night in St. Petersburg

We had a great New Year's Eve in St. Petersburg!



Our room at Hotel Indigo:







This was the first time that Ula got to wear the new jacket that I gave her for Christmas. She looked very pretty and got a lot of attention from people admiring the jacket.







Dancing to Zydeco music:







Drum circle:





Under the Baobab tree:





The New Year's Eve full moon:



St. Petersburg waterfront:




Fireworks at midnight:

Happy 2010!

We spent New Year's Eve in St. Petersburg, Florida, but our first stop was Treasure Island, where we played on the beach ( Ula wanted some pictures of herself at a beach to make her friends jealous when she returns to school in Minnesota).







Chasing Seagulls: