July 24, 1999
Sun, Sunblock, and the Surreal

This is my written journal entry from Saturday

Meghan and I are sitting on the beach now. It is 10:45 AM, but we both were awake by 7:30 AM. Getting up early every weekday to go to work has taken its toll on my sleeping in abilities and I hate it! As an indulgence we ordered room service for breakfast because we didn’t want to get dressed to go the restaurant downstairs. Ah, cold cereal and chocolate milk – the breakfast of champions (Kathe would disagree with me on that one). It did take a long time for them to get such a simple order ready, but it wasn’t expensive and eating in your pajamas sure beats having to get ready to eat out.

I bought that Coppertone Kids purple disappearing sunscreen because it was the smallest bottle of the 6-hour stuff I could find at Wal-Mart. If you buy it make sure to wash your hands with HOT water immediately after application because it will stain your skin! I learned the hard way, but I got most of it off except for a little bit under my fingernails. I will have to buy some of the non-colored sunscreen for next weekend. Who wants to put on purple goo in front of your boyfriend?

Later…

After we came in from the sun and cleaned up, Meghan and I went to downtown St. Augustine. Parking, as always, was a pain. A lot of people make money just offering a place to park for tourists like us. The first thing we did was walk up and down St. George Street, the famous shopping strip. I wanted to buy several angel figurines as gifts for sorority family members this fall, but it took a lot of looking to find any. Last summer I easily found all of the ones I needed in St. Augustine, but this year it was a bit more difficult. Eventually I bought three and that might be sufficient for this fall.

We ate lunch at a restaurant called the Florida Cracker Café. Meghan and I laughed at the name, but apparently the “cracker” part has something to do with a type of sandwich bread. The food was good and I drank three large glasses of water because I was a little dehydrated from the hot sun. When we caught glimpse of the kitchen the floor was really filthy, but we decided to finish our food and not think about it. There are many wonderful candy stores on St. George Street, but after lunch we weren’t hungry enough to buy any to eat and anything else would melt because it was so hot. I forgot to go back later to buy some candy to bring home. Oh well. We did eat some ice cream when we got hungry again so don’t worry, dessert wasn’t skipped.

After dinner Meghan and I went back down town to take a walking ghost tour of the St. Augustine historical district. Parking was even more of a pain this time. The tour we took was really great. The woman leading the tour was very flamboyant and seemed to love her job. At the beginning she said, “If you thin you saw something strange, you probably did,” then she turned around in time to see a black cat run across the street! In actuality the cat wasn’t black, but it was a funny coincidence. We visited two cemeteries, several houses, and a few bed and breakfasts to hear about how each was haunted. The stories are all supposed to be true and our guide said she has seen some of the ghosts that haunt St. Augustine. We went back to a house after the tour where a ghost named Miss Faye is said to be seen so Meghan could take pictures of it. Maybe we will see an apparition in one of them when they are developed!

Tomorrow Meghan and I are planning to go to the beach in the morning before we check out of the hotel and then we will go shopping at the outlet mall. Now I just want to go to sleep. How do I call myself a college student when I get tired at midnight? I am a disgrace.