Mr. Cat decided to drive the van to the college (which it turned out was only a couple of blocks away) because he was wearing his "monkey suit" and the girls and I decided to just walk around. We decided we would call ourselves the accidental tourists for the day, and we would go wherever our feet and our whims decided to take us. We had seen some shops the day before that I knew they were interested in looking around at, so we headed in that direction. It was only around 9:30, and most of the places were closed. I was rather thirsty, so we went into the bunnery and I ended up just getting water. Everything smelled so good, and when I had seen it, I had fully intended on going there to eat something, but I was still stuffed from the pancake I had eaten. We sat on a bench while drinking our water. It was so far pretty quiet where we were because people were lining up on other streets in preparation for the St. Patrick's Day parade. We enjoyed hearing an accordion player as we walked on. We stopped in one shop where I got a pretty cloth headband, and some cheese flavored larva worms for Old Soul who is somewhat of a daredevil and has been wanting to try some kind of insect for a while. Don't ask. LOL.
We walked over by the St. Augustine Cathedral, but Mass was going on at the time. If we had planned better, we would have gone to Mass there in the morning, but we didn't, so we walked on and decided to come back later. We caught the tail end of the parade but not a lot of pictures. We saw storm troopers in kilts, and period soldiers who were firing off rifles that were scaring the wits out of Joyful. We sat down at a table by a café and I was able to grab out the camera and take a few pics, but none of them very good. I caught some kilt wearers, the Ghostbuster car, a bit of stay puff marshmallow man, and a lady in green on a horse.
We walked some more and ended up heading back towards the shopping area. I was starting to feel shaky at this point and knew I needed to grab a snack. I have been having some issues with my blood sugar regulation off and on, and sometimes it does something wonky. I am usually at home, and although I have tried various things to eat to fix it, I still don't have a good solution yet. Anyway, I usually don't eat breakfast and have a smoothie with some protein powder, greek yogurt, and some spinach instead, certainly not pancakes with syrup. I wasn't sure what I was going to eat, but then we walked by a place called French Fry Heaven. I glanced at the menu, which was full of many many different ways to have French fries with various toppings. Lo and behold, they had a "Canadian" version, which was probably as similar to poutine as you will ever find in America. The girls and I decided to split two orders between us. If you aren't sure what poutine is, click here. It is cheesy, gravy covered goodness. They came in paper cones and outside they had tables with little holes in them perfect for sitting the cone. They also came with little wooden forks, but they were quickly tossed aside. I was amazed at how quickly they disappeared. Gift has a sensory issue with her hands and feet. With her hands, she absolutely does not like to be sticky or dirty. She cannot stand anything to be on her hands. At meal times, she uses a ridiculous amount of paper napkins if that is what we are using at the time. She is a major hand washer, and has even declined sweet or sticky items when out away from a sink because she'd rather forego a treat than get sticky hands. This girl of mine, she reached all the way down into the paper cone to get the last dregs of poutine out. Her hand was covered in gravy and she still dug for more. It was so odd to see her standing there with a brown gravy hand. The novelty wore off as soon as the poutine was gone however and I had to do a big clean up job on her. Here is our tasty treat. Mr. Cat was not amused that he missed this part of our day.
We had seen a Greek Orthodox Shrine, the Shrine of St. Photios the night before. We walked by it again and decided to go in and take a peek. Beautiful iconography can be seen in Greek Orthodoxy and we were not disappointed in what we saw. There was a woman who was a member there who gave us a brief history lesson and explained the purpose for the domes, which she said are to bring Jesus closer to us. She encouraged us to take photos, and so we did. It was just gorgeous.
After that, we walked back towards the Cathedral since Mass was over and we had an opening to go in. We spent some time in prayer, and then walked around. I refrained from taking pictures until I found out that the Tabernacle was in a separate side area. I love how it was easy to know just where Jesus was by the red Sanctuary Lamp. Gift's face lit up as soon as she saw it. After some time for adoration, we continued our tour. I always feel bad taking pictures inside a church, like I am doing something very wrong. I will not take a picture where the Blessed Sacrament is present within camera shot. It is not something I feel comfortable doing for personal reasons. Many other tourists were taking pictures, and I was torn on whether or not to pull out the camera. I wasn't going to, until I saw that the altar rails are still up. All around the altar, there were marble railings, and a padded kneeling area. It was a beautiful sight. I don't think I have been in a church with altar railings since we converted to Catholicism. I don't believe they are common. I know that in our home parish, the bishop was petitioned to let us put altar rails back up, but it was denied. Seeing them made my heart smile. Latin Mass goers will understand.
After we left the Cathedral, it was about time for Mr. Cat to be calling us. I stood there for a minute and contemplated what to do. I had just decided to walk to Flagler College (after realizing that the huge beautiful building I had been seeing the whole time was the school, when he called. We met him over by the van and dropped off a couple of things and headed back out. I took a lot of pictures while we were walking. Rather than go back to the area the girls and I had already traversed, we headed a different direction. Here are some of the sights along the way:
We found a little out of the way Cuban Café that just happened to have a table for six right inside the door. We stopped for lunch. Everyone ordered Cuban sandwiches, which if you haven't had them before, you are missing out. They have ham, roasted pork, swiss cheese, garlicky mustard, and pickle. They are on Cuban bread, and then pressed. The girls all had sweet plantains with theirs, while Mr. Cat and I had Cuban black beans and rice. It was just so delicious. The owner was super friendly as well. With lunch, I had a glass of fresh fruit sangria, which is the best I've ever tasted. It was a wonderful meal. When we were done there, we headed to our last and only planned destination (other than the hostel and the school), Mission Nombre de Dios, to see the Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche.
My post will end here since I want to dedicate a whole post to the Shrine.
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