Christmas-Chapter 2: Florida

I got up at 7 on Christmas Eve and immediately headed downstairs to the fitness center and lifted dumbbells for about 20 minutes. Then I headed over to the breakfast area where I munched on a freshly made waffle, raisins, and a couple of walnuts.

We decided to make a stop by the St. Augustine Outlets. I explored Tommy Bahama, Rockport, Reebok, Ecco, Merrell, Under Armour, Adidas, Nike, but I didn't come away with anything. I give TB credit, all men's clothing was marked 50 percent off. And at Merrell, I was very intrigued by this one pair of Dark Earth walking boots. But I decided not to make a purchase.

We drove to downtown St. Aug's and decided to ride the Old Town Trolley through the city. This trolley makes 22 stops throughout the city at spots like Flagler College, several classic churches, including one that is over 425 years old and is the oldest in the United States, the oldest house in St. Augustine, Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum, and the Fountain of Youth.

I spent a lot of time by myself strolling down St. George Street, which is a major, but very narrow, pedestrian walkway filled with small shops and restaurants. I bought a Jets bottle jacket, or a bottle condom as some people call them. I also passed the oldest wooden schoolhouse in the country, which has its own gift shop. I also saw they have Kilwin's, like Sarasota did. This place makes their own chocolate and ice cream. I did get a sample of pumpkin pie ice cream, which tasted amazing, especially with the pieces of graham cracker crust in it. But I knew it was almost lunch time, so I waited for a bit.

We met up for lunch at Harry's, which is a New Orleans-style restaurant. We sat outside on their very crowded patio, which as a Chicago resident, I'm not used to doing in December. And we were surrounded by different plants, flowers, and pigeons. Dozens of pigeons. We started with the jazzy trio appetizer of fried shrimp, calamari, and crawfish tossed in a creamy aioli and green onions served over a bed of iceberg lettuce. I thought it was fine, though I would have preferred to dip the seafood in the aioli myself. Instead, it made some of the breading on the seafood a little soggier than it needed to be.

I ordered the tilapia shrimp meneiure with smashed red potatoes with sour cream and garlic. I really liked the brown butter sauce when I mixed it with the potatoes. And the shrimp really helped make a decent fish dish taste really good. Mom ordered the grilled mahi with steamed veggies. It came out seasoned simply and incredibly moist.

We gave into dessert and went with the bananas foster, sliced bananas sautéed in dark rum and banana liqueur, poured over vanilla ice cream with some cinnamon. We had to eat them pretty fast since the ice cream was melting so fast. This dessert was just invigorating. The richness of the liquer with the sweetness of the ice cream is such a good marriage. A really, really good finish. The service was pretty attentive, we didn't really notice any major waits, like some people have talked about. All in all, I enjoyed my experience, but I might switch my order if I was to return.

We finished the last nine stops of the trolley tour and headed for the Comfort Inn Suites, not quite as nice a hotel as the Fairfield Inn, but closer to downtown. We stayed in two different hotels because one was free and one would allow mom to earn more points on her Marriott card and upgrade her member status. We definitely downgraded. Fewer outlets, fewer TV channels, fewer bathroom amenities, etc. But hey, if the room is clean and has a bed and a TV, I can make it work.

At 4, we left to attend Christmas Eve service downtown at Memorial Presbyterian Church, a parish which was founded in 1889. The GPS led us to the wrong site, despite me entering the correct church name into the machine. But apparently it's a character flaw for me because I could not admit I messed up. Did I mess, up I guess it's debatable. I was just being honest, which apparently can get lead to more trouble. The lesson is when you enter places into a GPS, you should enter addresses, not place names. We found the church in plenty of time, parked about two blocks away, that's important for later, and headed to the magnificent old edifice. The shape of the building is a cross, the seating is very limited, and the pipe organ echoes throughout the building. It actually felt more like a Catholic church without all the extra rituals.

As we began to leave, Mom realized she did not have the car keys. I stayed calm, I stayed patient, or so I thought. I made sure to not raise my voice or anything, but apparently, on the way out of the building, I gave her one wrong look. And that was enough to cause a problem. I ran back to the car, tried pulling the tin can door open...nothing. I re-traced our steps down the barely lit sidewalks past all these houses. I ran back to the church, nothing. Ran back to the tin can, she was pulling out of the lot. I got inside where I got verbally lambasted for the whole 15 minute drive back to the hotel. It got to the point where she threatened to not go to Argentina, typical BS, and she just dropped me off at the hotel while she headed out. I decided to go to the business office and use the computer for a while.

Eventually she came back and asked me if I wanted to order some nachos from the Mexican restaurant across the street. Which was absurd, considering it was Christmas Eve night and nothing was open except convenient stores. She went out again for maybe an hour or more and eventually came back with some coffee and a donut from 7-11. At least we were talking a little bit by the end of the night, but I did not go to bed very happy and found myself wondering why I was even there. Why did Christmas Eve have to end in such a frustrating way? At least a new day was ahead.