The nice thing about staying in St. Augustine is that it is only 4 hours to Ft. Lauderdale so there was no reason to get up early. Although the bed was comfortable, I still slept fitfully so I was not surprised that I woke up close to 7:00.
Breakfast was the usual hotel fare of make your own waffles, scrambled eggs, sausage, various breads, yogurt, cereal, etc. I had an English muffin and yogurt while Chuck had eggs and toast. I was surprised at how good the coffee was. Met a couple that was heading for Port Canaveral for a Carnival cruise. I should have asked them what ports they were visiting.
There was a nice sidewalk along the road so we walked for 30 minutes before going back to the room to get cleaned up. Beautiful sunny morning but 50 degrees so it was a cool walk. Did our last few minutes with laps around the property. Still no alligator but we did hear rifle shots in the distance. Hunting? There was a lot of still wooded property near the hotels but still it was disconcerting to hear so close to the road.
We were on the road by 10:30. Traffic, for the most part, flowed smoothly down I-95 south. I do hate those drivers that are going so much faster than everyone else and weaving in and out of the lanes. Especially when the drivers are on motorcycles. Accident waiting to happen.
We did run into a lot of construction but that is normal for I-95. The GPS wanted to take us off I-95 and onto the Florida Turnpike but we kept going and got to the hotel from a little different direction and not that much further. Save those tolls. Tax on tourists.
Arrived at the Hampton Inn hotel at 2:45. We have the park and cruise package so we will leave our vehicle at the hotel. The hotel shuttle will take us to the port at 11:00. Really no need to get there any earlier as we don’t have the Faster to the Fun fastpass that we usually get with Carnival. Holland America doesn’t offer it but they are usually pretty fast with their embarkation.
Got in the room with our bags just in time for the UGA vs Kentucky football game. Important game as the winner will more than likely get to play in the SEC championship. Know the opponent will be Alabama. It is always Alabama.
The room is a very nice one with a king bed, refrigerator, microwave, and large comfortable reclining type chair. It adjoins the next room but since we don’t know those people, we will keep that adjoining door locked.
At half time, we took the hotel shuttle to Duffy’s Sports Bar and Grill so we could eat and watch the last half of the game. Huge place with a number of TV’s so they were happy to turn one of them to the UGA vs KY game. Only game that had sound was the Florida vs Missouri which is understandable but we enjoyed our game even if we couldn’t hear the play-by-play. UGA won so on to the SEC Championship!
Hotel shuttle was prompt and when we got back to the hotel we found that they were bringing out hot, freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and milk for their guests. Score!
Once we were back in the room, it was time for Alabama vs LSU. I may or may not be able to keep my eyes open for the entire game. We’ll see. But, I get an extra hour of sleep. Time to turn back our clocks.
Fondest Travel Memories 