Where Birds Don't Fly: 2016

So let me tell the story =]

A little back story first (Well, this could actually get pretty long)..My fiance' Brett and I went on our first date in June of 2013. On that date we talked about many things of course, but one thing I mentioned is that I had always wanted to stay at this place called The St. Francis Inn in Saint Augustine, FL. The reason I wanted to stay there is because I had read that one of the rooms there, known as Lily's Room was haunted. I am a sucker for all kinds of supernatural things. The story goes that a young man who lived with his uncle, Major William Hardee, owned the Inn during the middle of the 19th century. He fell in love with “Lily,” one of the young servant girls, believed to have been a beautiful slave woman from Barbados, and they would sneak into rooms of the inn to carry on their secret love affair. When the uncle, a military officer, walked in on the lovers, he dismissed the servant and ordered his nephew to never see her again. The nephew, deeply depressed, killed himself, some say by hanging himself in the attic, now Lily’s Room, others say by jumping from the third floor window.

So after about a month of dating, Brett surprised me by booking Lily's Room! The inn is so adorable. There are cats that roam around and they have complimentary sherry in your room. Also they have breakfast, social hour with wine and snacks, dinner, and of course dessert. When the woman working the front desk showed us to Lily's Room, she wouldn't even walk into the room all the way. Weird. That night we went on a ghost tour before going back to our room. On the ghost tour, they actually talked about Lily's Room. When we told the tour guide that we were staying there that night, he honestly looked like he had seen a ghost! He said to take lots of pictures. So finally it was time to go back to our room to see if we saw any paranormal activity. Brett decided to read the story of what happened out loud. And like clockwork, right when he uttered the words "now known as Lily's Room", the lights flickered on and off and the tv went on and off as well. I of course instantly was scared and convinced but skeptical Brett had to do some more taunting. He said "If anyone is here, give us a sign" and I am not even kidding you, the fake flowers sitting in a vase by the tv, bent over. Needless to say, we barely slept that night (well actually I did because I can sleep through bombs) and Brett swore to never go back there again. Despite being absolutely terrified, I wanted to stay there again. It is too adorable not to.

(before the ghosts haha)

Fast forward to February of this year. My birthday was coming up and Brett had planned a trip for me. He didn't tell me any of the details but I was excited nonetheless. The night before we were supposed to leave, we heard that there were tornado warnings and terrible weather coming our way. I asked if we should reschedule and he said "absolutely not." So we trucked on the next day and because Brett is such a great planner, we managed to miss all of the bad weather. He timed it all perfectly. We ended up in St. Augustine. Our favorite place. We first stopped at The Kookaburra, which is our favorite coffee place there, and we had some Aussie pies with our coffee. After that, we walked around St George Street and wound up getting popsicles from The Hyppo. While we were there, we looked at a map just for fun. We found this place called King's Bakery and thought we should check it out. We drove over to it because it was too far to walk and Brett parked in the St Francis Inn parking lot because it was close to the place. I told him that it was for people who were staying there only and he said "It'll be fine". Nearly a few minutes after that, he burst out "WE ARE STAYING HERE TONIGHT!" I was seriously in shock for at least an hour after that. He said "NOT LILY'S ROOM THOUGH". Thank God. He also had a present for me in the backseat that he had me carry inside and when I shook it, it sounded like bells rolling around inside of it. I told him "You really shouldn't have gotten me a present, staying here is a huge present!" And he was like "oh that's just small." Referring to the wrapped gift.

The room we were staying in was right next door to Lily's Room and it was so adorable. He picked the room with the best bathtub because I love taking baths more than almost anything in this world. It had jets in it! *swoon*. After exploring the room, he asked if I wanted to open my present and of course I did because I had no idea what could be in this medium sized box that sounded like bells. The first thing I saw when I unwrapped it was a smaller box in the center and a champagne flute on both sides of it. I saw what made the bell sound. The bottom of the box was filled with little chocolates that looked like pearls and they had been clinking on the champagne glasses. I opened the middle box and it had ferrero rocher chocolates around a little blue box in the center. My heart instantly started pounding because I had a good idea of what was inside. My instinct was correct and I saw the most perfect ring inside. I am so elated because my dream came true. Ever since I have known him, I have wanted him to be mine forever and now that wish is coming true! That night we went to a celebratory dinner at Collage which is this super nice restaurant that we went to on our first trip to St. Augustine. They brought out a special dessert for us to congratulate us on our engagement.

So where are we getting married you ask?

St. Augustine of course :)

3.18.17