St Augustine, Florida to Santa Monica, California

Our time was up at the beach house in St Augustine and we couldn’t believe how quickly the month had passed.

We had an hour drive to Jacksonville Airport, a short flight to Atlanta, 40 minutes at Atlanta Airport before our 5 hour flight to Los Angeles.  We had also chosen to fly on the busiest travel day in the US calendar, the day before Thanksgiving, plus storms were forecast.

We had 5 bags, 2 car seats, 1 pram, hand luggage, 2 children and 1 toy elephant.  To say we weren’t looking forward to it was an understatement.

However all went relatively smooth, except for the dash at Atlanta Airport to catch the next plane and Chloe being a little overtired and restless for the first 3 hours on the flight to LA.  She was so worked up, she ended up being sick, luckily the seats were vinyl.  For a child that rarely throws up, it certainly came as a surprise and gave me even more reason to dread the flight home to Australia in less than a week!  She finally fell asleep for the last 2 hours – thank god.

On arriving at LAX, we walked a million miles to the baggage claim.  Richard miraculously piled most of our luggage on one trolley, not sure if he could see over the top, while I struggled with the rest of the hand luggage, one car seat and kids.  We only waited 10 minutes for a taxi, which was mainly due to waiting for one that was big enough for all our stuff.   It was about 7.30pm LA time and we envisaged a long bottlenecked drive to Santa Monica.  But the taxi driver was fantastic and we avoided the freeways and arrived at the house within 30 minutes. 

We all fell into bed at 9pm LA time which was midnight for us still on Florida time – a big day for everyone.

Goodbye Motorhome

With ‘fingers crossed’ the motorhome would sell, we rented a house in St Augustine Beach for our last month on the East Coast.  It was a really cute little beach house, only 100 metres from the beach, restaurants in walking distance and most importantly a parking spot for the motorhome.  It took us close to 2-3 days to unload the motorhome, which reconfirmed our decision to ship our excess ‘baggage’ home.

3A Street, St Augustine

Our walk to the beach, just a hop, skip and jump

The motorhome sold within 4 days of moving into the house, so we were pleased that we were all ready to pass it on to the new owner.  This also coincided with Richard’s gall bladder incision becoming infected.  So off to the hospital again for Rich, courtesy of an ‘overkill’ of their ambulance service, which included the arrival of two rescue vehicles (more like fire engines) and 7 rescue crew!  It took Rich almost 2 weeks to recover from the infection.  During this period, the new owner – Jim, picked up the motorhome.   Over the next couple of days whenever Chloe was upset she would ask to go home to the motorhome and we would have to remind her, the motorhome was gone.  Now she says, ‘the motorhome’s gone, Jim’s got it’ and she’s happy to go back ‘home’ to the house.

We also rented a car – a twin cab ute.  As you can see nothing is small here in America.  We needed the ute to take our ‘excess baggage’ (four large boxes) up to Jacksonville where they will be shipped to Melbourne.  You are allowed to drive your car on the beach here in St Augustine, so of course we did.  I think Rich was quickly becoming attached to his ‘truck’.

Big Big Big Car

We explored the ‘old town’ a few times.  We visited the oldest masonry fort in America – Castillo de San Marco, walked through the historic centre, lined with many old buildings from various periods, including the oldest wood school house in the USA.   The town also contains many Spanish Colonial Buildings as well as some extravagant 19^th Century Architecture, thanks to millionaire Henry Flagler, who upon holidaying in St Augustine in the late 1800’s, found the town wanting in hotel facilities.  So he built his own, the Ponce de Leon Hotel, which is now part of Flagler College.

Kids running amuck at coffee shop!

Oldest Wood School House in USA

Streets of St Augustine

Ponce de Leon Hotel - now Flagler College

Most of our days were spent either on the beach or playing minigolf, depending on the weather.

 

The most elaborate mini-golf we've ever seen

St Augustine, Florida

From Jacksonville we headed south only one hour away to St Augustine on the coast.  We decided to base ourselves here while we had the motorhome for sale.  St Augustine is a popular tourist destination, being the oldest continuously occupied European city in the U.S. since 1565.   Therefore if we were here for a while, we had both beaches and interesting tourist sites to explore.  Not sure if the kids would agree, but there was also mini-golf!

For the first week and a half, we stayed at three of RV Parks in St Augustine.  The first RV Park was situated right on the beach, fantastic location, however at first glance we weren’t impressed.  It looked like something left over from the 70’s in small coastal towns of Australia.  It contained many permanent mobile homes on sandy sites.  

By the time we did the rounds of the other RV Parks, we actual came back to this one and decided it was pretty good.  We realised the permanent sites were holiday homes so it wasn’t as ‘down and out’ as first appeared.  Plus the kids loved the playground, it had a huge pool that we had to ourselves and it was a hop, skip and jump to the beach – we’re obviously getting fussy!!

Luke's first camera shot - thumb and all!

Huge pool - all to ourselves!

Halloween was approaching, so the decorations were appearing around town.  Luke was starting to get excited about the ‘candy’. 

Most supermarkets had some type of ‘kiddie’ trolley, which we nicknamed the ‘amazing’ trolley.  On first seeing one many months ago, I said ‘wow, that’s amazing’ as I envisaged the kids happily sitting there the entire shopping expedition, which of course didn’t happen.  So I would be left pushing these huge trolleys around the aisles with the kids running amuck.  But the name stuck, so every time we went to a supermarket, Luke would always ask – is there an ‘amazing’ trolley.

Jacksonville, Florida

Ten days after his operation Rich felt well enough to move on.  We had been at the same RV Park for 3 weeks and we all needed a change of scenery.  We were very grateful to the RV Park owners in Brunswick who had been extremely kind and helpful.

RV Park Brunswick

We headed south and crossed the border into Florida.  We stayed in Jacksonville, one of the largest cities in Florida.  We had a few logistics to sort out, like selling the RV, organising flights to the West Coast and shipping our ‘acquired goods’ home. Rich kept reminding me how much easier it would be just to put everything on a yacht and sail home – yea right!

The RV Park had a good internet connection, so great for re-organising our life but also had a playground for the kids, a pool and even a lake beach with a stage! 

We took some photos of the inside of the RV for the ebay ad, so here’s a look at our home for the last 7 months.

Dining room and lounge all in one!

Love the bench space!!!

Sightseeing in Brunswick, Georgia

Between inspecting boats and hospital visits, we did manage to do some sightseeing around Brunswick, pre and post operation.

We did a few day trips to St Simon Island, about 30 minutes from the RV Park.  It had a great park for the kids, mini golf and a maritime theme with the St Simon Lighthouse – something for everyone.  It was a lovely quaint village, no large shopping malls, just small antique shops, boutiques and cafes.  It reminded us a little bit of home, like places such as Apollo Bay or Sorrento on a smaller scale.

We also discovered a fabulous frozen yogurt shop, where you make your own and therefore can have as much or as little as you like.  It was great for monitoring the ‘kid quantity’ size.  Let’s just say I’m not quite sure the word ‘small’ is in the American vocab when it comes to food.  Even Luke’s eyes have popped out of his head on many occasions when he has seen the size of his ice-cream!

There was also another tourist spot close by – Jekyll Island.  The island is full of wildlife, great flat beaches on the east side and tidal marshland on the west.  It also has a historic district with buildings from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  

The most impressive being the Jekyll Island Club Hotel first built in 1888 for exclusive club membership only by many of the world’s wealthiest families at the time – Morgans, Rockerfellers and Vanderbilts.  It is now listed as a Historic Landmark and run as a luxury resort.

Brunswick, Georgia

From Washington D.C. our next destination was Brunswick, Georgia, some 600 miles south.  We made three stops along the way, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina and took 6 days, staying a couple of days at the better RV Parks.

Why Brunswick, Georgia – there was a boat we were really interested in.  Rich spent quite a few days with the owner, looking over the boat.  He even inspected the underneath - while it was still in the water, donning a mask and snorkel.  The propeller was covered in barnacles, so Rich went ahead and gave it a good clean to ensure it was in good condition under all that growth. 

There were two more things to do before Rich was happy to go ahead with the purchase, sea trials and an inspection out of the water. 

Then we had a very unexpected turn of events, Rich was rushed off to hospital at 9pm in an ambulance (I wasn’t keen on turning up to emergency in the RV) with abdominal pains.  I rang the hospital a couple of hours later but of course due to ‘privacy laws’ there was nothing they could tell me, except he was there.  That was reassuring!  Finally at 2.30am Rich rang me to say it was his gall bladder and he would be having surgery the following day, once they dealt with the infection.  The medical care he received was first class.  So both our experiences (Luke’s broken arm) with the American health system have been fantastic and thank god for travel insurance.  We hand over our insurance details, the hospital bills them directly and we don’t even hear boo from the insurer.

The doctor told Rich had he been out at sea and not been able to receive medical treatment he would have died a slow and very painful death.  It certainly got me thinking.  We already had reservations sailing with the kids, well I did anyway, particularly the long passages that can last days, even weeks.  They are hard enough when you just have yourself to look after, let alone two small kids.  So I suggested to Richard that perhaps this wasn’t the right time for us to be undertaking this type of adventure.  Although I don’t think I convinced him, he said we both had to want it and he knew I didn’t.  Later he tells me I got him at a weak moment, post-op, drugged-up and in pain.

Richard’s sister Louise summed it up beautifully ‘all you can do is assume life has different plans for you that are even better than what would have been'.

So we are heading back to Australia in December and with our house rented until March, who knows what we will do.  

Washington D.C.

We made our way out of Jersey City, trouble free!  On our way to Washington D.C. we stopped at Annapolis to look at a boat.  No intention to buy, just a ‘sticky-nose’ for comparison purposes.  We arrived in College Park, just out of Washington D.C. on Sept 10^th and decided not to go sightseeing on the 11^th due to the heighten security for the 10^th anniversary of 9/11. 

We spent a lazy day at the RV Park, swimming in the pool, playing at the playground and cheering on Sam Stosur in the US Open.

Our sightseeing day started with a bus, two trains and numerous escalators and that was just to get to the Capital City.  We arrived at Union Station, a beautiful building over 100 years old and decided this was the perfect spot for a coffee stop.

Inside Union Square Station

Station

We then got on board a double decker ‘Hop On Hop Off’ bus, much to Richard’s delight!

  We jumped off near the White House and of course had to go and take the tourist photo. 

We then finally found somewhere appropriate to have lunch with the kids.  There was a number of restaurants that looked very inviting, just not child friendly.

Streets of Washington D.C.

Back on the bus, we passed many of the Capital’s monuments, memorials and historic buildings: Washington Monument, U.S. Capitol, Lincoln Memorial, IRS and FBI buildings and many museums.  The streets of Washington are very pretty, with many wide streets and gardens.  There are no buildings higher than the U.S. Capitol and it gives the city a feeling of space.  It is very different to many of the other cities in America, perhaps because it was designed by a Frenchman.

Capitol Hill

New York - Day 3

Our final day in New York and rain, hail or shine we were going to make a full day of it.  We made our way to the ‘PATH’ (train station) in a light drizzle and by the time we emerged on 33^rd Street we could see blue sky, first time in 2 days.  Funny how little things can make you so excited. 

5th Aveune

While the weather was good we headed to Central Park via Starbucks for coffee and 5^th Avenue for a squiz.  We passed through the Central Park Zoo and the Delacorte Music Clock and archway. 

Lazy bones in pram at Central Park  Zoo

Delacorte Music Clock

We had a great lunch in a lovely outdoor café in Central Park.  We then made our way to one of the playgrounds and the kids had fun in the sandpit, on the slides and playing with the other children.

From Central Park, we headed back to the PATH via Broadway and came across a completely different looking Times Square from the other day.  We couldn’t get over the contrast there was so much activity and such a buzz about the place.

Times Square

Tired kids, weary parents and one very sore right ankle we made our way home, getting on the right train this time!! and very pleased the rain stayed away.

New York - Day 2

The next day we woke to more overcast and wet weather.  So we decided to spend the morning in Jersey City, walking around and stopping for coffee.  After lunch, Rich seemed to think the weather had improved, so we caught a ferry to Ellis Island – America’s busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 to 1954.  Some famous names that passed through Ellis Island as immigrants are Bob Hope and Cary Grant.

Ellis Island

Statue of Liberty

From Ellis Island we caught the ferry to Battery Park, Lower Manhattan.  We were headed to Mel’s house for dinner and as we had plenty of time we decided to walk part of the way.  It was around 5.30pm, commuter peak hour, so we dismissed the subways as too busy and hard with the kids and pram and a taxi was almost impossible to get with the intermittent rain and the traffic was a nightmare.  So we found ourselves walking the whole way – 5km’s later.  Rich hobbled the last remaining blocks with his bad ankle.

Chloe on the Ferry

But it was well worth it.  We had a beautiful dinner at Mel’s and once again it was nice conversing with other adults.  We wisely got a taxi back to the RV Park from Mel’s as the heavens opened up.