night of lights, tapas, and karaoke!

This past Saturday night was the official "TURN-ON" of the annual St. Augustine "Night of Lights" celebration (along the the start of the many festive activities that happen in our lovely town this time of year. "St. Augustine, Florida’s annual “Nights of Lights” provides one of the Southeast’s most memorable holiday events. In a manner befitting the Nation’s Oldest City, this inspiring display of light is based on the tradition of the town’s original Spanish colonists who placed a white candle in their windows to brighten the nights during the Christmas holidays. This 13th edition of the festival features more than two million tiny white lights adorning the palm trees and buildings of the city’s historic district. Reflected in the waters of Matanzas Bay, outlining the colonial city, and including the nearby beaches and lighthouse, this light display creates a holiday wonderland in a place with real history on every street corner." -night of lights website

We normally ride our bikes from the island to downtown b/c the parking gets so bad, but this year, we parked at a friend's house that lives in that area. (Last year was also an exception - we ate dinner on a friend's boat docked right in the downtown harbor and watched the lights from the water!) Our itinerary filled up quickly and we ended up having an exciting, spontaneous night of activities! We met several people on the hill by the Castillo de San Marco Fort and had a picnic dinner with several thermos full of hot chocolate and apple cider. Next, it was on to walk through the masses of tourist on St. George Street to the downtown plaza which was full of vendors, a live Christmas band, and people, people, and more people. We waited until the countdown to when the lights all switched on - and listened to the "ooohhs" and "aahhhs" of the crowd. small movie clip

After shuffling around the group, some of us headed across the bridge to the island to try a new tapas restaurant Zhanra's that opened that night! It was very tasty...and we'll be back! Next, we headed across the street to the British Pub and I did my first-ever karaoke performance as a trio with 2 other girlfriends (Cindy Lauper: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun). Good for some laughs! ...then we walked back to the mainland, through downtown, and to our car (we burned up the calories of our hot chocolate and chocolate fondue at the restaurant!)
-e