Weekend Update from Taylor

The other night Taylor wrote this email to our families. He captured our weekend so perfectly, I'm just going to cut and paste it here (with the appropriate pictures). Enjoy!

"To all: After class on Friday, Hilary and I decided to drive up to the St. Johns River ferry. The details on the ferry website say that it leaves every half hour from Mayport Villiage to Ft. George Island. The tickets were listed at a dollar per person, and we thought it sounded like a great date for the broke, law school couple. Without researching the location of Ft. George Island, we jumped in the car and headed towards Atlantic Blvd. On the way to the ferry we stopped at McDonalds to fuel up on Spicy McChicken "sangwhiches," and salty french fries.

"We arrived at the ferry port exactly at the half hour. The director told us that the ferry was leaving, and that we needed to hurry. We parked the car as fast as we could and boarded the ferry, with the gate closing behind us. Once on deck, the First Mate asked for our fare, and we handed over our two dollars. The sun was setting in the western sky, and dolphins were playing in the wake of the ship. We thought we had found the perfect date.

"About one minute after departure the ship made a 180 degree turn towards the west. I was somewhat confused why the ship would be heading down river, but was too enthralled with the scene to care. Five minutes later the ferry docked on the other side of the St. Johns River. It didn't take us long after our arrival to figure out that Ft. George Island is merely the mass of land on the north side of St. Johns River. We had both assumed that since it was called an island, it surely must be out at sea. What Newbies are we. Fortunately the First Mate allowed us to travel on the return trip free of charge. I guess you get what you pay for.

"After our adventure at sea, we stopped at a Singleton's Seafood Shack, which was next door to the ferry port. We were still full from McD's, so we only ordered a basket of fried calamari. The batter was fair, but the calamari was tender and fresh. The back porch, where we chose to sit, was a floating dock with four large fishing/shrimping boats docked at its edge.

"The food was great, and the scene was even better. With the sun setting, and salty air at our nose, we enjoyed our delicious, seafood treat. On the way home we stopped at Peterbrooke Chocolatier for some homemade ice cream.

"I spent Saturday morning at the law school, working on a paper due this Wednesday. When I got home we packed a cooler full of Diet Coke and headed out to our favorite beach. On the way out to the beach we spotted an alligator basking in the sun, so we pulled over to snap a shot. They are impressive creatures on TV, but even more so in person.

"Now that the water is too cold for a typical day at the beach, we have adopted a new beach activity; hunting for fossilized shark teeth. The trick is to wait for a wave to wash away and scan the shoreline for little, triangular-shaped, black dots. We found about twenty teeth in just over an hour. Hilary is a better tooth scavenger than I, and she found the largest, and coolest teeth. Every weekend feels like vacation, which provides a much needed, weekly decompression from law school.

"We can't believe that it is almost Thanksgiving. The daily high is still around 75 degrees. Hilary isn't phased by the warm weather, and she is already decorating for Christmas. We are both excited for the holiday season this year because it marks the end of our first year of marriage, and my exit from the Army.

"Unfortunately I don't plan on making emails like this one a regular event. I just happened to have a few spare minutes this evening while Hilary decorated the house. Love, Taylor

"PS: Hilary here! Taylor covered everything, but I just want to send my love and a few words about decorating. I love the holidays, and since we'll only be in our place for half of December I jumped over Thanksgiving and decided to decorate for Christmas now. Taylor and I drove down the street this evening and collected some big, beautiful pine cones and acorns. Then we went to the dollar store where we bought festive wrapping paper and some ornaments. Voila! Six dollars later we are seasonal! Love, Hilary"

I worry about Coozie's feelings

While organizing the kitchen, just now, I went to put the cookie scoop away in its drawer when I saw I'd accidentally put my coozie in that drawer instead of the cupboard.

"What are you doing in there? You don't belong there." I told the red lump of foam as I threw it into the cupboard.

I immediately felt bad, worried I would give it a complex about "not belonging" and whatnot. Before I could realize I was being neurotic, I reworded the sentence into a more feeling-friendly statement.
How's that for over-sensitization?

Sweet Pete's Candy Shop

My family knows how to make amazing food, because we love to eat amazing food. You know it's a Hurst party when you have cream cheese in three different forms, Hurst Hooch (homemade rootbeer), ice cream and Grandad's candy. Yes, I grew up in a world dipping chocolates with Grandad, the real-world Willy Wonka. See proof from my amazing artist and journalism cousin. Thus, when I found Sweet Pete's candy shop, where they do candy making classes, I knew we had to go.

 

The location is downtown, in an old house that has been renovated into a shop and candy-creation facility, complete with party rooms on the second floor that boast a teal, glitter fire place. I wish the Halloween decorations weren't there because the whole place is so happy and beautiful and then there's a gigantic spider.

Luckily we went in the middle of a lollipop class that was being held for an eight-year-old's birthday party, so we got to watch Pete in action. Yes, we met the Pete.

We bought a good mix of chocolate covered things, and some jelly beans, and best of all was the salted caramel. The caramel is smooth and creamy and then BANG a pop of salt. And the flavor sticks through the whole experience, as opposed to being nice at first then wandering away by the end.
I love food. Anyone else have family traditions like that?

Jacksonville Equestrian Center

I love horses. I can't say I've always loved them, because I have distinct memories of building collages on our family's first computer of cheetahs (the only other animal that has been my "favorite"), but it is fair to say most people would be surprised by that fact. I am, and probably always will be, a horse girl. Luckily, Jacksonville has an equestrian center.

Taylor and I haven't had time to go see any of the big events at the Center, but we didn't have plans two weekends ago so we decided to go to the free 4H event. The Center is gorgeous! Large, well-kept facilities with indoor and outdoor show-rings,paddocks, stables and large open areas where you can park your trailer and ride off into the surrounding woods.

People who say horses are messy and smelly have probably only ever been to grungy ranches to take pony rides on dirty horses. I enjoyed every second of it.

The event was obviously put together to give kids an opportunity to practice a "show." The only people there were close family, things were lowly populated and very quiet, which was nice. The only issue is I am still gaining confidence to take pictures of people I don't know, so I didn't get the pictures I would have liked, but I did get some.

When we left we wandered around, since we were in a part of Jacksonville we'd never visited, and we literally followed our noses to a BBQ shack.

The service wasn't anything to brag about. Actually, we stood around for a few minutes wondering how things worked until the worker (and I assume owner) opened up the window and took our order. It was so worth it. The meat was delicious and tender and the sauce wasn't over-powering. Plus, the place is called JW's Best Butts BBQ. How can you not go back?

St. Augustine, Florida

Last weekend Taylor and I decided to go see St. Augustine. St. Augustine is an old city about 40 miles south of us that is known for being rich with culture, history and a fun place to wander. We've been hearing about it since we got to Florida, but put it off until the weather cooled down a little, which was genius of us.

We took the scenic route, along the coast past the dozens of bikers out enjoying their Saturday morning. We stopped at a Gate gas station at the half-wayish mark where I found pink Rockstars! If you don't know this about me, I love pink Rockstars. The marketing / branding is so perfect I can't handle it. And yes, they taste amazing. Anyway, I guess Rockstars are only king out west, because we've only seen three flavors max here (Regular, Diet, Lemonade) but there, in the little gas station, was my flavor. I bought them out.

Needless to say, my day was already awesome. But it continues:

We started by hitting up a farmer's market near the amphitheater. It was small, but full of interesting people selling whatever it was they loved; everything from ribbon angels and ceramics to sea food and pickles on a stick. Yeah, that was my favorite too. Pickles and olives.

We then just went and walked around the old part of the city and the fort. We didn't have any plans, we just wanted to get a feeling for St. Augustine because we definitely want to go back. The city has a quaint feeling, leaving you nostalgic for a European world you've never seen before.

 

Our first stop was in a chocolate shop for some ice cream. (Obviously.)

The town was settled by the French, then taken over by the Spanish before finally becoming part of the United States. The Spanish influences wins throughout the city, as you can see by these buildings. This was near Flagler College, across the street from which was a posh hotel. The whole thing was very 1920's glamorous.

Below is the view looking out from the old fort, where we watched a reenactment of a ceremonial cannon shot.

For lunch we decided to backtrack to a pizza shop we found earlier in the day. On our way back we came across this secret garden. I want one.

Also, do you notice Taylor's new haircut? He did it himself. :)

Pizza: It was just like walking into a New York pizza shop. The owner grew up working at those places in New York, so when he moved to Florida he opened up his own shop. It was amazing.

So the real question is, when are you coming to visit?

Plane Show & Puerto Rico

The past couple of weeks we've seen a lot of publicity for Wings 'N Wheels, a car/plane show at the local airport. We figured it would be a neat event so we went. It was pretty lame.

There weren't many cars nor planes so it didn't feel full and exciting. There were some things for kids to do, like spraying a miniature fire hose at wooden house cutouts, but not much for us. We were hoping for airplane stunts, but nothing while we were there. We were hoping to meet people involved in local flying clubs or something like that but the event was geared towards a different crowd of people. 

Anyway, the bright side of the day was on our way home we saw a restaurant called Las Antillas. It looked like a good Mexican restaurant (aka: hole-in-the-wall and did not say "Authentic" anywhere) so we stopped.

When we walked in there was a hot-plate setup and no menu. Our confusion was pretty obvious and when the abuelita from the back asked what we wanted Taylor asked if she had any tacos or burritos. She was definitely put-off and explained this was a Puerto Rican restaurant.

She quickly warmed up to us again when Taylor got excited and said he'd never had Puerto Rican food before and started asking questions. We ended up with a plate of rice, veal, plantains and I ordered an empanada on the side. Taylor got an Inca Kola, and yes I know that's Peruvian but it worked.

So delicious! We will definitely be going back, although I will admit; I could not understand her Spanish to save my life. Heaven help me I felt so lost but I don't even care, the food was incredible. Anyone have any experience with Puerto Rican Spanish?

Taylor's Birthday (Kind of)

Taylor's birthday was in August and thanks to some disappearing mail my parents' gift to him was delayed. Before I tell you what it was I need to set some premises.

Here are a couple things you should know about Taylor:

1. He doesn't like celebrating his birthday.
2. He doesn't like "things."
3. He loves food.

Here are a couple things you should know about my family:

1. We love celebrating birthdays.
2. We love giving gifts.
3. We love food.

When I was in elementary school my mom had the idea to go Hamburger Hopping for dinner one night. That meant we stopped by four or five fast food restaurants where we ordered one meal to share between the five of us. After eating 1/5 of five meals everyone got full and we have a distinct memory of being together.

So, in an effort to resolve the six facts listed above, my mom sent Taylor a list of three BBQ restaurants in Jacksonville along with some money so we could go BBQ Hopping. I know, my mother's a genius.

We only made it to two restaurants before getting full and only one is worth mentioning: Sticky Fingers.

We ordered a hamburger, pulled pork sandwich fusion because it was unusual and some wings that had been grilled because we had never heard of doing wings that way before. It was all delicious. We will totally be back.

Happy birthday, Love!

Roadside Jacksonville

Taylor and I have been trying to explore Jacksonville as much as possible so we spend time driving down unknown roads. I try not to stop him every time I see something interesting, but there are times when I can't help myself. Or even better, when we're walking and I can snap a few pictures here and there. Like this one: The VW Bug matches the house.

One back road drove us through the tributaries of the Saint John's river and we can across a sign that said "Steve's Boiled Peanuts."

 I first tried boiled peanuts in South Carolina a few years ago with my best friend and her southern mother so I call them "bowled" peanuts. I don't know if it's the Alabama in my blood or what, but I love those stupid things so Taylor and I bought a bag of Cajun-spiced peanuts from Steve. They were awesome.

Have you ever tried bowled peanuts?

Island Barbeque Competition

 The best thing I’ve found so far about being in Florida is the variety of events around us. I have a list of areas to check out, places to go and events to attend. The first event I found was an annual BBQ cook-off competition that takes place on Amelia Island. Amelia Island just about 40 miles north of us and it is a quiet area, an island by technicality rather than an island out off the coast, and it is gorgeous. I told Taylor we have to go back when the weather cools and just explore.

As soon as we parked and walked up to the event you could smell the food. I love the smell of BBQ and there were smokers and pits all over.

Yes, this guy does have an alligator head next to his grill because he was cooking it. They weren't selling the meat for a couple more hours so we weren't able to try any, but it sure looked awesome.

After wandering around the tents I was pretty overwhelmed. How do you pick which person to buy meat from? There were so many varieties of meats, styles and people I had no idea. We went with our gut (aka: the team with the longest line) and got a half-rack of ribs and I wanted to try the shrimp hush puppies, because that was the most interesting non-meat item I saw. Plus, the lady selling them was wearing shrimp earrings.

We ate along the coast-edge of the event on a picnic table. The meat was tender and delicious, the sauce was tangy but not overpowering and I got my fingers all messy; the perfect barbeque combination.

And then we went to the beach. How was your weekend?

Korean Ice Cream

I am obsessed with ice cream. It's in my blood to love it, an inheritance from my dad's side of the family. Naturally this has led Taylor and me to search around Jacksonville for Florida's finest ice cream shops.

The most interesting one we've found is called Three F(x) Ice Cream. It's a mix of Cold Stone and Sub Zero. You pick the flavor ice cream you want (I got raspberry and they had to blend the berries up in the cream. That was a huge bonus for me!) and they pour the base liquid on a cooled metal slab where they mix it around with spatulas until you get creamy, delicious ice cream. I got raspberry ice cream with almonds and chocolate chips.

The intriguing thing about Three F(x) is they promote themselves as an ice cream and waffle shop so Taylor ordered a waffle with Bavarian cream filling. It's hard to say "We didn't know what we were expecting the waffle to look like" because we all know what a waffle looks like. Square, gridded with squares and delicious. So imagine how excited I felt to have the waffle lady drop this off at our table:

 

Yes. That is a fish waffle. And it was delicious. We've been back to the shop just for waffles because they're that much fun. I may just become a waffle connoisseur.

Apparently fish waffles are popular in Japan (their official name is Taiyaki) but this shop is owned by Koreans, so along with my waffle and ice cream we watched Korean boy band music videos.

Did I mention that Jacksonville is fun?