Wolf's Museum of Mystery!

We stumbled on this place while I was trying to get us to what I thought was a vegan shoe store (it wasn't, and all the shoes were lame anyway). All four of us are into the weird and gross so this is right up our alley! It was five bucks to get in and totally worth it!

The "museum" is the personal collection of a man named Wolfgang Von Mertz. There is lots of taxidermy, weird occult stuff, a real vintage iron lung, even a mummified falcon! Displayed next to x-rays showing what was inside! So much cool stuff!

 There were two cats, a black chincilla, and a HUGE dog walking around in there too. 

 They had quite a few art pieces by Butch Anthony, who has is own Museum of Wonder in Alabama that I really want to visit someday! I LOVE his art. The skeletonized paintings are my favorites. He sells them on his etsy. I want one for my collection!

 They had a taxidermy giraffe! Look at that beautiful thing!

 That is a picture of Robert Wadlow, one of the tallest men to ever live, at 13 years old! Amazing!

 I have been wanting a vintage baby caiman and this desk set is pretty incredible. Look at those bookends!

 They had a Lizzy Borden display that was supposed to be her. That is a real human skeleton! I went to an estate sale once that had one, but it sold before I could get there to see it. The photos in the back are of Lizzy Borden's father and step mother's skulls. I'm not really into serial killers and murderers but this room was really interesting.

 Elephant foot bar stools! See the cat on them? It seems so strange to me that a big game hunter would want to bring these big feet home and have them as bar stools.

Part of the upstairs was a horror movie room you can rent out to watch movies with your friends. Doesn't that seem fun? Marc and I got REALLY freaked out by this big werewolf statue that we were sure was going to move. We spent about and hour and a half at Wolf's and totally recommend it if you are into the weird and wonderful.

Around Town in St. Augustine!

While we are staying at the beach house in St. Augustine we would usually go to the beach for a few hours in the morning, then it would rain, so we would take showers and get dressed and head into town to explore. St. Augustine is one of the oldest cities in America so there was a lot to see. 

 So many gorgeous churches and spanish moss. 

 We did lots of photo posing, not so much going IN places. Haha. It was perfect.

It started raining shortly after we got into town so we sought shelter in Burrito Works: Taco Shop. Someone on Crystal instagram recommended it to us. Their specialty is the Mexican UFO. It' basically a hard shell taco stuffed into a burrito.

They made a vegan one for us, but I think it is probably better with meat. Why don't they season the rice? It was a little plain, but I stilled liked it, and I love the crunchy shell in the middle of the burrito. Yum!

 Travis is so good at posing.

 There are tons of strange, touristy shops. This one catered to the sword/knife lover. I loved those signs. Don't swing ANYTHING. We also came across a store that was totally devoted to selling evil eyes. And a beer store where I bought the cutest shot glasses I've ever seen! If you don't want to click the think, the shot glasses feature the first animals shot into space. Including the ones we all know like Laika the dog, and Miss. Baker the monkey.

 This dog was just hanging out in the hall of one of the weird little malls. 

 They had some "Old Fashioned Photo" places, specializing in pirate photos. This example hanging outside one was KILLING ME. I need to take my girls to Gatlinburg to get their photo taken.

 We went to a place called The Hyppo for popsicles. I got a Riesling Pear one and it was incredible!

 There is a pirate museum right in town. We just took advantage of their photo ops.

 Family portrait.

 Wah!

Travis and I aren't coffee drinkers, but Crystal and Marc are. Because of that we stopped at places we wouldn't have found if it was just us two traveling. At one coffee shop I found this Clementina San Pelligrino I hadn't had before. It was good! The blood orange is still my ultimate favorite though.

Catrinas. So beautiful! So fragile. Crystal and Marc brought me one back from their honeymoon in Oxaca, Mexico, but my dang cats broke it.

 We happened to pass by the "Love Tree". It is actually two trees, a palm growing through an oak. It was pretty cool looking, and "legend has it" that if you kiss your love under the tree you'll be together forever. Silly but kinda fun.

 Our first night in town we had to eat dinner at The Floridian. I made note of it when Thriftcore posted about it, and several people on instagram said we had to go there! We were there at night and it was really busy so I didn't get any pictures of the cute decor. Check out Van's post to see great photos of their kitschy stuff!

 I got a fresh made veggie burger that was wonderful, and that salad! We had some yummy fried pickles as an appetizer too.

Vilano Beach!

We rented a house in St. Augustine for 5 nights during our trip. It was 1 block from Vilano beach, and it was awesome! We used air bnb again and it worked out great as usual! It was nice to be in a house together, which a kitchen and living room (and a hot tub!), instead of being in a hotel. It was cheaper than being in a hotel too!

There was about a 2 block walk to the beach. Not too bad! It was also just a few blocks from a Publix. We went there several times a day every day, to buy floats, and fruit, and drinks, and popsicles.

I got contacts just for the beach! I didn't want to worry about losing my glasses, and I didn't want to swim blind. I'm very near sighted and overly concerned with shark attacks. 

I'm so mad at myself. I bought a beautiful Put a Lid On It hat JUST for this trip! And then left it at home! I left it until last so it wouldn't get smushed and then it stayed home. Bah. I had this fold up one Travis bought me at Goodwill last summer. I had it "just in case" but ended up falling in love with it. I need more colors! I spent most of my beach time under the umbrella. I love listening to the waves but I don't love the sunburn! Also, Crystal brought me that Frida bag back from her honeymoon in Mexico (almost 7 years ago!). It was perfect for the beach!

The beach was covered in tiny shells. Which was a little hard on the feet, but pretty! It also SUCKED the first two days when the waves were really rough and if you fell you got dragged over the sharp shells. I got a few battle wounds. But on the third day it calmed down and got perfect. Travis and Marc just rode waves the entire time.

 Travis bought the big gator, and the little guy was at our beach house. Isn't his face funny? 

 We're all about sun protection in this family.

It was so gorgeous! And the beach front was mostly single family homes, not condos or hotels, so it felt like a private beach! I'll put up with some pokey shells to not have to be crammed in with hundreds of families any day. Look at that sky!

One morning we came down and there was a horse in the sea! Beautiful!

 His owner just walked him through the waves for a while, then walked up to the ramp and left. 

 I liked taking the little gator out and just floating on the waves before they broke. I could do that for hours. I especially love when huge ones come and you can jump. It feels like you are going so high! Crystal and I started pretending to slam dunk when that happened. Dorky and hilarious.

 You have to take a photo like this if you are on the beach.

 We bought beach coozies at publix. Aren't they cute? I'd been looking for this variety of Arizona tea all over in Tennessee but could never find it. Mucho Mango, it's good!

 We went on many beach walks. You could have your dog on this beach so we saw tons of cute ones!

 So many walks.

 The first two days we were there it rained pretty hard around midday. So we had to walk back in the rain. It was kind of fun though, and when we got back we sat in the hot tub to warm up!

 The only picture taken of our house for some reason. We had the bottom floor. 

 Beautiful beach motel a few blocks from house. That sign!

It was pretty much perfect. I highly recommend Vilano beach if you are looking for somewhere not crowded, where you can ride the waves all day.