Gotta’ start with Sunrise this morning…lovely. Enjoy it now because come midweek they are saying SNOW. Yuck!
SO…back to the vacation portion of our nearly two month stay in FL. While we were staying at Beverly Beach we went a couple of places during the day. Most impressive was St. Augustine. We also went over to Daytona, but didn’t really like what we saw there a whole lot. We didn’t really stick around Daytona for some sightseeing. Maybe another time.
However, we did enjoy St. Augustine and after being there for just a day, we are thinking we need to get back and see more in the future.
Love the historical feel of the place.
Here are just a few street scenes from when we were driving around.
(above a moving car photo, lovely blur, but had to get the horses in!)
While there we did a couple of tours and really enjoyed them. The first one was:
Loved the tour. It was really very fun and at the end of it was a sampling of the items they make there. Bourbon, Gin, Vodka, and Rum. They do a bunch of other things and have them in a store also in the building. BBQ sauce, different honeys, I mean, they do a lot of things with their liquors.
Some photos from the tour:
This is their cast iron syrup kettle.
It is in the waiting area to start the tour. Mater of fact the next photo is as well.
Things that go into their product.
Portion of the tour below.
This guy was a great tour guide and his t-shirt says Eat. Sleep. Bourbon.
Different distilling kettles made from different materials, depending on what is being distilled.
And of course same for the aging barrels.
They are very community conscious and Eco based so for them it is all about giving back to the community. These barrels, in the end, are used around the city for other things once the distillery is done with them. They pull the majority of their resources from local suppliers as well.
And their rum is excellent! I am also told by a source very close to me that the gin is really good as well. 🙂
They also make their own mixers, all organic, gluten free and tasty. A sample of each of their liquors was made into drinks with several of their mixers and put into little plastic shot glass types samples for you to have. And yes we had one of each. They they have a bar in there and when you go in you can sample the bourbons…they have a few different ones. I don’t like bourbon, and though they say distilling takes the gluten out of alcohol, I kind of steer clear because of my being a Celiac. But I did take in the smallest sip of a couple of the samples…and may I say, cleared my sinuses and burned all the way down. Then there was the ‘beginning’ to sweat phase…;) Yeeeah….sticking to rum in the future.
So the logical thing for us to do next was another tour at a different place.
Enter the San Sebastian Winery Tour.
It was a good tour and we tasted quite a few wines. I am not a big wine fan but I keep trying. We did pick up a couple of bottles while there. One being a bottle of Port which I have had one glass of and I think we still have the wine I picked to get there. Though I do believe Bruce’s picks are gone, he is much more of a wine drinker than I am.
But the most important part of the wine tour was that it was next to the Chocolate Factory tour. We ended up getting there 20 minutes after it closed. (sigh) But not to worry…the gift shop of the winery had some of their chocolate, so we hoofed it back to the winery and bought some of their chocolate. After all, Chocolate is MOST important when it comes to conscious dieting! I must say it was tasty even if I don’t remember what the name of the chocolate place was.
Glad we went to have something to eat on the roof though. They had a live band playing up there so that made the atmosphere nice. Though my scenic view was of the town electric station with the two tours behind me…I really didn’t care. Now I don’t have a photo of that so I hope you aren’t too disappointed. 🙂
Mandy: Mom…take a breath!
Yes, yes Mandy.
ANYWAY, that pretty well takes care of the St. Augustine portion of our vacation. Then it was back to the beach.
Happy Monday!
Spacial Peepol 