"I have been on Prinivil for four years. It's a great drug." I turn around and discover that four octogenarians are eating behind us at
Barnacle Bills, a seafood restaurant in St. Augustine, Fl. I smile at my husband, who says "classic Florida," and turn my attention to the menu.
I read about Barnacle Bills on
Chowhound, my favorite Web site for finding restaurants while on the road. A comment about the seafood being "fresh" and the restaurant being "family-friendly" had me sold. We were stopping in St. Augustine on our drive from Jacksonville to Orlando, part of our Thanksgiving road-trip.
The menu at Barnacle Bills offers a tempting array of seafood: coconut fried shrimp, crab cakes loaded with blue crab claws, and fish tacos simply prepared with diced tomato, cabbage, lime juice, and spicy salsa. I decide on the blackened mahimahi. My husband goes for the teriyaki shrimp. My son was excited to order shrimp when we first sat down, but then he realizes there's a kids' menu with mac and cheese. He quickly changes his mind. I'm disappointed because I know the protein-packed shrimp are a healthier option. Oh well!
"You have to have a good cardiologist." I turn around and take a closer look at the seniors. They're drinking Bud Lights and feasting on a plate piled high with fried shrimp. They look as if they're in their late 70s, early 80s. They're smiling, laughing, enjoying one another's company.
The waitress takes our order. The kids start coloring their place mats. My husband begins to prep me on his cousin who we're visiting in Orlando: "He once picked me up from school wearing a gorilla suit."
"That's the beauty of the Mayo. They keep up with what's new."The fish arrives, a flaky fillet, blackened and accented with lemon. It's bursting with flavor and deliciously sweet--better than candy. My daughter wants a bite. "This is so good!" she says, and then starts digging into my beautiful slab of fish. We're literally fighting for bites. This fish is that good.
"My daughter yelled at me: 'Don't you dare get a small turkey like you did last year. We want to take home leftovers.' And so I'm going to get the biggest turkey I can find that will fit into the oven. I'll show her."I look back again. This conversation is way too interesting. They have now moved onto their second course--they're now eating fried fish and they each have a little dish of pickled beets. I wonder if beets are good for your heart.
We look up St. Augustine on Wikipedia on the iPhone--since we really don't have a clue about where we are:
Founded in 1565, St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied European established city, and the oldest port, in the continental United States...The city of St. Augustine was founded by Pedro Menendez de Avilas on September 8, 1565. Menendez first sighted land on August 28, the feast day of Augustine of Hippo, and consequently named the settlement San Agustin...In 1586 St. Augustine was attacked and burned by English privateer Sir Francis Drake. In 1668 it was plundered by English privateer Robert Searle and most of the inhabitants were killed.
"I had to stop drinking black coffee. I thought I had a tumor in my throat but actually the pain was from blisters caused by drinking coffee."We learn that there are lots of sights and attractions in St. Augustine: Fort Matanzas built in the 1700s, the Lightner Museum with shrunken heads and mummies, and Castillo de San Marcos, a National Monument originally built by the Spaniards in 1672 to defend the Florida coast.
Unfortunately, we can't do more than drive by these attractions because we promised the relatives that we'd be in Orlando by dinnertime.
The kids fold their paper menus into airplanes. "Look it's a jet plane, Mommy! Watch it fly!"
I'm tempted by the pies on the menu: key lime, peanut butter, and Snickers bar--all homemade. When one of the airplanes zooms across the dining room, I decide my children aren't behaving well enough for pie.
"I think I'll have another Bud Light to wash everything down. And hey bring me a piece of pie and a cup of coffee with milk!"
