45under45: St Augustine Final Day

When we woke up on our final full day in St. Augustine, we discovered that Shawn's other tire was now flat. That's a grand total of five flats between three bikes. So, he went to the bike shop (again) and dropped us off at the beach.

Summer had pointed to the southern tip of Vilano Beach the day before and said that she wanted to go there. So, there were went. Shawn drove us on the beach (as far as he could) and let us out. We walked a little farther on so that we could be in a less inhabited section, where the beach was powdery and very gradual.

Nicholas found a discarded shovel and started to dig.

Summer spread out her towel and decided to soak up some rays. (She has NEVER before done that!)

Ahhh...lovely! I chose to make a tiny mermaid out of the sugary sand and used the coquina sand for her hair. She was quite a little doll. But, as I shaped and patted her tail a few raindrops started to fall.

Thunder barked in the distance. Clouds thickened and built up behind us. But, this happens in Florida. Many times the sun is shining and it's raining! I figured that it would pass. After all, the sky was perfect to the left, center, and right.

But this was no dainty little sun shower. We were getting soaked! And there was no letting up! Lightning was flashing all around us. I told the kids to stay low and explained that since we weren't the tallest thing on the beach, we would be ok. Until...a pop of lightning bolted across the sky in a cloud to cloud strike that was so close we could feel the heat!

Still trying to stay low, we scurried to the life guard stand. He suggested that we would be more safe under the pavilion just a hundred or so yards away.

I finally had a moment to safely take out my phone to check the weather. The red bullseye had just passed over. I suspected that contained the lightning that nearly cooked us.

We waited for the storm to rain itself out and returned to the beach. Rather than walk all the way to the southern tip again, the kids were satisfied with the higher surf of the area nearby the entrance to the beach.

At this point the beach was made up larger pieces of coquina without the powdery sand dusted over the broken shells. The section where the cars drive and park is elevated and then there is a six foot drop off to the surf. Since the tide was almost high there wasn't any space for me to sit except at the top of the cliff. So, I spread out our soaking wet towel and watched the kids play.

"It's all fun 'n' games until someone ..." Nicholas was quite worried that he was bleeding a lot and that he'd get sand in his cut. So, he sat out for a while. When he finally gathered his courage to return...