Birthday Taco Crawl!

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This week in every sense ended up going in the complete opposite direction of the way in which it was planned. I was supposed to head home for a weekend with my family, but as fate would have it, we ended up staying in St. Augustine and my family will be driving up tomorrow afternoon for a little cake celebration. I was bummed not to be able to go home and spend time with them, but Ryan and a few of our friends turned my entire week around with a little impromptu, pre-birthday taco crawl.

We mapped out six different taco places between Jacksonville and St. Augustine. Ryan made us a taco score card which labeled all of our stops and five taco icons for us to rate each stop; five tacos being amazing and one taco being not our exact cup of tea (luckily no one gave any place one star!) 

We hopped in the car late morning and drove up to Jacksonville for our first stop: Flying Iguana. I've heard from multiple people around town that Flying Iguana has the best tacos and I at some point had to go. Now was the time! I ordered a fried green tomato taco with black eyed peas and pimento cheese sauce and a chipotle shrimp taco with a mango salsa. Ryan had a fried chicken, gravy, pickled okra and slaw taco and a pork belly taco with pickled onions and watermelon. Kyle tried the steak taco and the same fried chicken taco that Ryan had. Lastly, Katie had the fried green tomato taco, the pork belly and an achiote chicken. We all really loved the tacos and I'm fairly certain we all gave it a 4 star review. 

Next stop on our list was Corner Taco in Jacksonville! I love the atmosphere in the little shop, the flowers on all of the tables in recycled Coca Cola bottles, and the tacos are pretty good. Ryan and I have been several times but this was Katie and Kyle's first time eating there. I tried the daily special, a fried shrimp taco with habanero sauce. Ryan had the dijon buttermilk fried chicken taco, which is his usual go to whenever we make a stop in. Katie had the homemade chorizo taco while Kyle had a homemade chorizo taco and a fried catfish taco. Kyle and I gave Corner Taco three stars, Ryan gave them five and Katie gave them four. 

The third stop we made was at Pepe's Hacienda. Ryan had been once before, but it had been quite some time since he'd be back for lunch or dinner. It had been on our list for months to try and now this was the perfect opportunity! We tried the chips and salsa, the chips were pretty nice and crunchy, you could tell they were fresh, but they weren't my absolute favorite. We each ordered one taco which was called the Taco Pepe. It had your choice of meat, avocado, cilantro, onion and sour cream. I ordered mine with just the veggies, Katie had pork, Kyle had steak, and Ryan had chicken. This place was easily our favorite out of all the stops. It was authentic, the service was great, and the tacos were amazing. Not to mention, the entire store is covered in colorful bunting and next door is a grocery store filled with rows of produce, cheeses, tortillas, sodas, candies and other imported items you cannot really find at most other places. We all gave Pepe's a five out of five taco stars. 

Stop number four was Nalu's Tropical Take Out in St. Augustine! Ryan and I had each been here once before, but again, it was Katie and Kyle's first time eating here as well. Ryan, Katie and I each had a baja fish taco while Kyle tried the lower trestles taco which was a seasoned chicken taco with lettuce, beans, cheddar jack cheese and baja sauce. Katie, Ryan and I really loved our fish taco, but Kyle wasn't wow'd by his taco, he said he wished it had more sauce and it was bit dry. Kyle gave Nalu's a two star review, Ryan and I gave it four stars and Katie stuck with 3.5 stars.

We decided we would make Mojo's, our fifth stop, our last stop of the evening; at this point, we had been eating tacos on and off for almost six hours. Per the suggestion of the cashier, Katie and I both ordered the avocado taco, Ryan had a chicken taco and Kyle ordered the mahi mahi taco. All of Mojo's tacos come with on a flour tortilla that is layered with a crunchy tortilla and held together by melted cheese. The tacos are simple, but in my option still really delicious! 

In lieu of going to Taco Shop, we've all been before, we walked next door to the Circle K and were lucky enough to find four choco tacos waiting just for us. It was the perfect way to end the day and I believe we all agreed, five out of five stars would choco taco again! 

Here are our final score cards! 

Taco 'bout a pretty wonderful day! 

Chuck Town!

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Waaaaaay back in March, Ryan and I took a little two and a half day trip up to Charleston for my birthday. We had originally booked a tiny house AirBnB cabin and the week of our trip the owners messaged us to say that it had been sold and they unfortunately had to cancel our reservation. We had so been looking forward to our weekend out of town and we weren't sure if we would still be able to go considering it was right in the middle of spring break and almost every hotel and other AirBnB in the city was booked. Thankfully, we ended up finding a room at a hotel in downtown Charleston which ended up being the perfect location as we could walk anywhere in the city that we wanted. It was such a fun and wonderful weekend filled with lots of beautiful houses, delicious food, and more walking than our little feet could handle at times. Charleston is only about a four hour drive from St. Augustine, making it the perfect distance if you're looking for a new place to check out for a last minute get away. Here were a few things we were up to while we visited: 

On the drive up to Charleston we stopped in Jacksonville to have breakfast at Community Loaves. Each time I go, I leave already craving the next menu item I want to try on our next visit. Their bagel sandwiches, which is what Ryan had, are amazing and I went with the quiche this time around. I have no idea what type of dressing they put on those salads, but whatever it was stole the show seeing as I ate every last crumb on mine and Ryan's plate. After breakfast, we walked over to Vagabond Coffee to pick up one of their sprinkle Friday pop tarts. I've had a few of their pop tarts previously but have never been in town on a Friday where we have time to stop and get one of their special sprinkle ones. It was a strawberry pop tart with vanilla frosting. Ryan and I were practically licking the bag afterwards making sure no bite went uneaten. We immediately decided that we needed to try making out our own pop tarts when we got back into town. It was the perfect way to kick-off a celebratory weekend. 

Alas! Four hours and some change later and we were finally checked into our hotel and ready for some exploring! We set out without any plans and just decided to wander around downtown until we were hungry for dinner. One of my favorite things to do while we were there was to just mosey up and down different streets looking at all of the different colored houses, window boxes and front courtyards. I found myself saying "this one is my favorite!" only to turn the corner and find a new favorite on that street as well. I love the ivy colored walls and the bright window shutters. I can only imagine what this city looked like in it's earlier years and I love that current homeowners have kept up with the traditional southern charm. The house at #10 with the mint colored door, lion door knocker and ivy covered steps was certainly one of my "top 10" from the trip. I also loved, loved the beautiful courtyard filled with pink and white flowers and a navy door that was set down a few steps below. Let's be honest, they were all my favorites ;) 

Once we had worked up a bit of an appetite, we stopped into The Gin Joint for a drink and an appetizer. I had read several great things about their craft cocktails and how it was a must visit while in the city. We each ordered a different drink and ordered one of the pretzel appetizers. We loved the drinks! the pretzels, not so much. But back to the drinks! My favorite thing about their menu was that they have a "bartender's choice" list where they provide about 10-12 different adjectives describing tastes and flavors and you pick two adjectives. The words range anywhere sweet, tart, and fruity to sour, bitter, and strong, The bartender will then make you a drink based off of those two words of your choice. I loved seeing what our bartender came up with and I enjoyed the drinks he came up with on his own more so than the preset drinks we ordered off of the menu. All in all, the bar had a cozy atmosphere great for a small group to enjoy a few shareable appetizers and cocktails that you wouldn't find at most other places. 

After The Gin Joint, we walked up to Leon's Poultry and Oyster Shop. Ryan is obsessed with anything chicken biscuit or sandwich related and I knew this would be right up his alley. I have been once before when I visited Charleston last year for a bachelorette party. The weather was perfect so we opted to sit outside and we ordered up one chicken and one fried oyster sandwich. I wish I had a photo of it in the daylight because the restaurant, inside and outside, are so beautiful. After gobbling up our sandwiches, we contemplated ordering a second round they are that delicious, we opted instead for a vanilla soft serve cone. Leon's offers vanilla and chocolate soft serve cones that either plain or with chocolate or rainbow sprinkles. Clearly, we opted for the rainbow sprinkles and after the waiter brought it out, we split a cone, I looked away for MAYBE 20 seconds and in that time frame Ryan had EATEN ALL THE SPRINKLES. Obviously, I am still in shock considering NO ONE does that! Sprinkles make everything 200 times better and to eat them all to yourself and not share...I'm looking at you Ryan Tempro. However, I digress, not long after the waiter was sweet enough to bring us an entire extra side of sprinkles and he saved the day! Thank you mr. waiter! 

After dessert, we walked back to the hotel to crash for the night before another day filled with shopping all of Charleston's best local shops and restaurants! 

 

 

St. Augustine

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About two weeks ago, I headed back to St. Augustine for a couple of days to visit. Below are a few of the photos of some things we were up to while I was there. One day, we took a trip up to Jacksonville for the morning to eat at a few new restaurants and to shop at the town center. My favorite place we stopped into was Community Loaves. Disclaimer: their ice cream sandwiches and egg and cheese bagels were out of this world delicious. 

The rest of the trip we just spent time relaxing and printing a few new pieces of stationery for myself a la M.C. Pressure. I'll post a photo of the completed projects as soon as I'm done lining all of my new envelopes! We had breakfast at our usual, Blue Hen, and spotted the cutest mint VW bus on our drive home. Later that evening, we whipped up a dinner that included fresh pasta tossed with tomatoes, fresh basil, and olive oil. For dessert, Ryan and I bought a miniature (six inch) cast iron skillet and filled the bottom with chocolate chips. Next, Ryan chopped the marshmallows in half and placed them on top and put it into the oven at 350 degrees. We baked it just until the marshmallows were golden brown and served it with graham cracker pieces for dipping. It was the simple, delicious, and I was left wanting s'more ;) Another summer bucket list item completed!