As Mrs. Maurer can attest, heights (and lighthouses) are not my favorite activity (thank you mom for holding my hand through the lighthouse on SSI!), but I decided to try my mind over matter technique and tell myself the trip to the top would not be scary. Jason and I have never gone to a lighthouse, or really done much else together that blatantly revealed my fear of heights to him. I have told him about the unsteady feeling I get when on a ladder, and thus he does all ladder work around the house. And I've told him how I have avoided heights ever since my first broken arm at a young age; falling off a tippy table I should not have tried to stand on. But I think he was surprised by the trembling of my steps as we started the 219 step climb to the top! At each landing I stopped to catch my breath, not from the climb so much as all the working out I’ve done this last year has helped my stamina, but rather because my heart was pounding out of my chest looking out the windows and looking down to see the next step. At each landing I had the thought of bolting back down the stairs and meeting Jason outside when he was done, but I knew the trip would be worth it! And it was so worth it!! Simply beautiful!! (Notice the white knuckles clinging to the railing! ;)
We skipped the lighthouse museum because we were both ready for lunch. We headed to A1A Brew Pub, another suggestion from the hotel. The burger was great! And the tables looked out onto the busy street corner and water, very nice place to have a meal and see the action!
We walked off lunch a bit with a tour of the exterior of Fort Matanzas and a walk through the much busier historic downtown. We headed back to the hotel to put our feet up and relax for a bit.
We searched high and low for a fun Saturday evening event and decided to go on a “Haunted Pub Crawl.” Now, in all my innocence and naivety, I thought haunted pub crawl meant a walk through town stopping at popular night spots with a historian giving factual, intellectual, tidbits of information about the historic buildings and areas. What was I thinking? We met our tour guide and other participants and chatted as we walked to the first stop. The place we stopped at can only be described as a dive, and everyone got a glass of wine or beer. The tour guide, Vana, startled us all with her very excited announcement “The children are here!!” As she excitedly clapped her hands and jumped up and down. ….err…what? She had a Electronic Frequency Meter (EFM), like one an electrician would use, and tried to describe that AC power is man-made and DC power is natural and the meter will go into the red when man-made power is present and in the green or yellow when natural energy is present. Once I composed myself from holding back laughter and rubbed my ankle from Jason’s kick under the table, I began praying for Vana! I also prayed that the EFM would not have any more jumps on the supernatural meter thing!! Her story of the location was entertaining, but at this point I had more clarity of this activity and was not sure it was for us. While traveling to the next stop, we talked to the only other couple in our group. They were very nice and said they were happy to not be the only married people in the group, so we stayed.
We arrived at the next location and settled into a large room behind the main seating area. Jason and I were the first ones to sit down while everyone else got drinks from the bar. Vana placed her EFM reader on the table, Jason got his cell phone out and placed it under the EFM reader under the table. “Catalina is here!” Vana exclaimed! ;-) She told her story in a way only Vana could, and the group as well as I was more relaxed and ready to just be entertained by her dramatics. (Although, I continued to pray for her when she said something off the wall! ;-)
We traveled to the third location and now the group had bonded a bit. Vana named all the groups of people on the tour, Jason and I were named “the intellectuals” because we were the only ones nodding when she asked if anyone had heard of “The Treaty of Paris.” Now Vana turned up her acting, she was really hilarious and overly energetic. She even danced around the room a bit and as her back pocket (with her cell phone in it) whizzed by her EFM reader, she once again exclaimed excitement of the supernatural presence! We were all cracking up about it at this point!
At the final location, not only was Vana entertaining, but the staff at the location was hilarious as well! A girl from a group of four, who were quite tipsy at this point, I guess may have (sadly) been taking the supernatural thing a bit seriously. She stormed out of the pub crying saying she felt like the ghost did not want her to be there. I’m not sure how any of this could be taken seriously at this point, but I think it may have been more like an alcohol-induced-pity-party. I have to admit, I could not stop laughing about her upset-ness! Lord, forgive me!!
Jason and I went with the other couple on the tour to a taco shop that is open late and grabbed a bite to eat. The couple were up from Daytona for a weekend away from their 2 year old before he headed off to boot camp. Jason and he were cracking jokes about the night and we were all in hysterics about it! We exchanged emails and I hope we will be able to stay in touch and hear all about their army experiences.
Sunday we headed back to Jacksonville to stop by Costco and get the camera I decided to get, but it's been removed from Costco inventory! Not in the store, not on the website, gone!! I guess we'll just have to keep looking!!
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