Birthday Week-end

We have had a grand four days! Friday night we went to the opening performance of Verdi's Il Trovatore. Wonderful music, some really impressive soloists, and incredible sets. Saturday morning, GB's birthday, we left on a long week-end jaunt on the motorcycle. We had bought a small piece of luggage that fit behind the sissy bar and on the luggage rack. GB had made cloth bag totes for the inside of the saddlebags, so we fit everything we needed into those three places and tooled down the road. We rode east to Titusville and then north on US 1. At Ormond Beach we stopped at a huge biker store, J & P Cycles, which is right next to one of the larger Harley dealerships in Florida. Didn't go there but we did get GB some new riding gloves and I got some good cold weather riding gloves with Thermolite in them. Had a few sprinkles near Daytona Beach, but the rest of the trip was dry. We cut over to A1A and followed the coast up north. We stopped at a beach about 20 miles from St. Augustine and just enjoyed the beautiful weather and surf. GB found some keyhole limpets and small barnacles on rocks that the outgoing tide had exposed. Our destination was the Augustin bed & breakfast in St. Augustine, where we stayed Saturday and Sunday nights. Our room was on the second floor on the side of the house, and we could step outside on to the balcony -- had our own 2-seater swing! We took a personal day of vacation from school on Monday so we could enjoy a longer week-end. We did a lot of walking, window shopping, enjoyed the town and the great fall weather. We visited Castillo de San Marcos, the fort that the Spanish completed in 1695, and saw the beautiful Catholic Cathedral of St. Augustine, one among many old buildings in St. Augustine. Flagler College has some incredible architecture among its buildings also. Henry Flagler, Rockefeller's boy genius, also put up two amazing hotels on the north and south sides of King Street. One is now used by the college and the other is

home to the city offices and a museum. We had a glorious ride back to Orlando; the weather was in the 40's and clear. We were glad for our warm leather jackets and chaps! Four days of school left for us this week, and Friday hardly counts. It's the annual Walkathon fund raiser at Lake Eola, and a 12:30 PM dismissal for the students. GB and I hope to be on the road by 1 PM, heading for Katie, Alec, Luke, & Erin's for Thanksgiving. The spire on the right is the Cathedral of St. Augustine, and the building on the left is the Wachovia bank.