After a 5 month hiatus, Yolie and James hit the road again in search of yet another state’s oldest bar…state number 30 for those of you counting. This time the destination was Florida! The sunshine state would also complete the entire east coast for us in our ultimate quest to all 50 states. Besides looking forward to a toast in number 30, we were also celebrating James’ retirement which took place the day before we flew down to Jacksonville. Now that James is retired we’ll have plenty time to soak in the remaining 20 bars :-)
Immediately after landing we headed to Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island to seek out our target, the Palace Saloon. The Palace was a good looking bar with lots of charm situated on a corner in historic downtown Fernandina Beach. The Palace does not serve any food but the drinks are good and the bar is well tended by Leslie, who made us newbies feel quite welcome. The customers were also friendly, including regular, Lucy the dog. We highly recommend the saloon’s Pirate’s Punch. It’s the bar’s top seller, and it well should be. As a bonus, it comes in a dandy souvenir cup! The Palace property seems to go on and on. Besides the spacious bar off the street, there is another back room bar with pool table plus a very large outdoor venue. When in Fernandina Beach we highly suggest you stop by the Palace to say hi to Leslie, give Lucy a belly rub, and have yourself a Pirate’s Punch…or two.
In addition to stopping by the Palace Saloon we had a full weekend bar hopping and visiting friends. During a trip to Greece in 2022, we met five lovely long time friends from the Jacksonville area. We joined them for dinner Friday night where the ladies teamed up to host a wonderful dinner of Greek food, wine, hilarious jokes, and reminiscing of our time together in Greece. The dinner was clearly the highlight of our visit to Florida.
Saturday, we spent the day bar hopping in St. Augustine, America’s oldest city. Lori, one of our hostesses from the night before, and her friend, Glenn, were our bar hopping tour guides. We had a great day visiting the many drinking holes on and off St. George’s Street, such as Taberna Caballo, Harry’s Seafood Bar & Grille, and the St. George Tavern. We didn’t quite know what to expect from St. Augustine, but it far exceeded our expectations, and our terrific guides helped peg our fun meters.
Our Sunday return flight was not departing until 7:00 PM so we had the day to continue exploring Fernandina Beach. We had hoped to take in a scenic 90 minute boat tour, but the high winds wouldn’t allow the ship to leave the dock. With the unexpected free time we headed back to the Salty Pelican just across the street. I say back, because we visited the Salty Pelican three times during our four day trip. There was something about the deck bar overlooking the docks that was so appealing. What was even more appealing, though, was the insane $16 Bloody Mary they were serving at Sunday Brunch. The huge loaded Bloody was the best we’ve had! And the souvenir stein it came in was the icing on the cake.
We still had one more stop before heading off to the airport, the Boat House. There we had a tasty cocktail or two while listening to some great music from Michelle Anders. We were then pleasantly surprised when a couple of new friends, Andrea and Jeff, who we had met on Thursday at the Green Turtle Tavern (not to be confused with the Greene Turtle chain of bars in Maryland), saw us in the Boat House courtyard and joined us for a bon voyage cocktail. It was a great weekend in Florida and we look forward to seeing all of our friends again.
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