Wedding weekend in Florida
In October 2024 we made our way to Florida for my brothers’ wedding in Lakeland, Florida. We flew into Tampa, Florida where we rented a car to drive the rest of the way to Lakeland. My parents and other family came in for the weekend as well. We got a bit of time Friday to explore Lakeland before going to the reception dinner. It was nice getting to see some extended family that we haven’t gotten to see in awhile. The next day was the wedding - It was a fun evening, especially getting to hang out with family that we hadn’t gotten to see in a while.
After the wedding we extended the weekend and headed towards the coast to spend a few extra days in St Augustine with my parents. We love St Augustine for the beach and for its cute historic downtown. We found a great Airbnb right on the beach which made it great for easy access walking to and from the beach all weekend.
We spent that afternoon into the evening walking along the beach and enjoying some quiet time in nature after a busy wedding weekend.
We got to enjoy a beautiful sunset that evening so we stayed longer than we had planned to soak in all the beautiful views.
The next day we started out our morning walking to Island donuts and then taking them to the beach to enjoy with a view.
We then went over to one of our favorite coffee shops near the beach, Kookaburra coffee. It’s a cute little coffee shop and we love that we can walk to it from the beach. After enjoying our coffee we made our way over to St Augustine lighthouse. We decided not to do the museum associated with the lighthouse but explored the grounds and got a few photos of the lighthouse from afar.
We then headed to downtown St Augustine for the afternoon. We spent some time exploring the shops and the historic streets. You can read more about some fun restaurants and shops in St Augustine in one of my older blog posts.
As we were exploring we stumbled upon a very cozy secret garden
After a bit of exploring we needed some afternoon caffeine and stopped at the cozy Crucial coffee. This coffee shop is housed in what used to be a blacksmith shop. There is even a secluded patio surrounded by plants to sit and enjoy your coffee.
We continued to explore more downtown streets and into some of the cozy neighborhood streets to see the houses.
We then made our way over to St Augustine Distillery for happy hour after all of our exploring. The distillery is housed 1907 ice plant and offers free tours with samples of their gin, rum, bourbon and vodka all made from local ingredients. After the tour we went over to the ice plant restaurant/bar where you can order unique craft cocktails and farm to table food.
Before heading out of the downtown area we strolled through Flagler college campus. Flagler is a private college with a beautiful campus to explore.
We had one last morning to enjoy the beach before our flight back home. We strolled along the beach with our coffees and quietly soaked in the golden sunrise and peaceful ocean waves.
