So to refresh ... I got Josh and I tickets for this concert - the Mumford and Sons sponsored, two-day Gentlemen of the Road Tour in St. Augustine - back in February. That was well before we knew we'd be moving to Miami (or that J would never again have a weekend off).
When I brought it up to him, he suggested selling the tickets. But I couldn't do it. I've wanted to see them play ever since I was watching them perform on grainy YouTube videos taken in London bars before they got huge.
SO rather than scrap the plan ... I enlisted my college bestie and fellow music enthusiast/Mumford fan, Nicole. It didn't take much convincing even though it was quite the trek for both of us. Even farther for her (six hours - four-five for me). Nicole lives in Prattville with her sweet hubby, Steven (another good friend from college), and their ridiculously beautiful children, Emma and Camden. I'm sure it was hard for her to be away from them for a weekend but she's a great friend. She's my only friend with two little ones. And, even so, she's always willing to sacrifice to preserve her friendships, which means a lot. We try to get together at least once or twice a year and always do a lunch in our college town of Troy right before Christmas.
This time we both had to travel roughly the same difference so it worked out well. On Friday, we started on our way ... and met up in Jacksonville, roughly at the exact same moment (talk about timing). We settled into our hotel right across from the Landing.
**Sidebar: We had to stay in Jacksonville that night because I had initially only gotten the St. Augustine room for one night. By the time we revised the plans all of the rooms were gone (or jacked up to exorbitant rates). Nicole and I opted to spend the first night in Jacksonville (Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros were playing but we'd actually seen them before in Gulf Shores during Hangout).
It was a bummer that we couldn't be there both nights but we (as always) managed to have a blast. After checking in, we freshened up and went for a night out at the Landing (a big plaza with shops, restaurants and a stage for a band).
We ate, drank and talked for hours. It was outstanding. We meandered back to the hotel to hit the hay around midnight.
SO rather than scrap the plan ... I enlisted my college bestie and fellow music enthusiast/Mumford fan, Nicole. It didn't take much convincing even though it was quite the trek for both of us. Even farther for her (six hours - four-five for me). Nicole lives in Prattville with her sweet hubby, Steven (another good friend from college), and their ridiculously beautiful children, Emma and Camden. I'm sure it was hard for her to be away from them for a weekend but she's a great friend. She's my only friend with two little ones. And, even so, she's always willing to sacrifice to preserve her friendships, which means a lot. We try to get together at least once or twice a year and always do a lunch in our college town of Troy right before Christmas.
This time we both had to travel roughly the same difference so it worked out well. On Friday, we started on our way ... and met up in Jacksonville, roughly at the exact same moment (talk about timing). We settled into our hotel right across from the Landing.
**Sidebar: We had to stay in Jacksonville that night because I had initially only gotten the St. Augustine room for one night. By the time we revised the plans all of the rooms were gone (or jacked up to exorbitant rates). Nicole and I opted to spend the first night in Jacksonville (Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros were playing but we'd actually seen them before in Gulf Shores during Hangout).
It was a bummer that we couldn't be there both nights but we (as always) managed to have a blast. After checking in, we freshened up and went for a night out at the Landing (a big plaza with shops, restaurants and a stage for a band).
We saw dolphins swimming in the water below.
We ate, drank and talked for hours. It was outstanding. We meandered back to the hotel to hit the hay around midnight.
Saturday we had to get up and at it early. They were closing the road that our hotel was located on at noon. We headed out (even managing to squeeze in a trip to the Michael Kors outlet on the way) and made it just in time.
The issue we encountered then was - we could park there but we couldn't check in until 3-ish. That left us with several hours to kill. So we headed out to explore America's oldest city.
We grabbed lunch, listened to a band play and walked around. There was tons of Mumford related signage. Loved it.
It was super hot that day ... and we weren't really into the other bands that were playing. So we went back to the hotel and rested whilst the other concert-goers battled the sun (apparently lots of them lost and 80 folks had to go to the hospital. Eek). We even caught some of the shoot-out Alabama-A&M game.
But we got ready and headed out to explore again, stopping in to eat a little bite before heading to the concert grounds.
Then it was time to go.
Getting into the concert
We had planned to get there before 6 p.m. because we wanted to see fun the only other band that we knew. But they cancelled the day before. We didn't expect anyone to fill in but we were pleasantly surprised when we started hearing lots of CCR (what we thought were exceptionally good covers). We discovered that John Fogerty was actually singing. What!?! Marcus later told the crowd that he flew in on Friday to take the set. Awesome.
Listening to some CCR
After Fogarty left the stage, we waited for the boys to take the stage. To kill time, we were invited to play drinking games with a group of friendly strangers. Basically, it was everyone guesses heads or tails, a coin is flipped and those that guessed wrong have to drink. Of course, considering that big Bud Lights (and I mean BIG) were $10 each ... we weren't really into speeding up the drinking so we excused ourselves and went to find some new territory.
Flipping the coin with our new friends
Then it was time. Mumford and Sons came out ... and. they. killed. it. It's no surprise they are one of my favorite bands. I love every one of their songs ... as I proved by singing along VERY LOUDLY. And of course, Nicole was singing and dancing right along with me (something my darling hubby wouldn't be doing). It was such a blast. When the concert was over, we stopped in at A1A Aleworks for a bite before going back to the hotel. Then we called it a night.
Sunday it was time to go back to our respective worlds. Nicole back to her busy world of work, mommyland and me back to the exciting life of housewife-ery. (I actually do have an incredible about of stuff to do for someone without a job, but you know.) But it was a fantastic weekend with a fabulous friend. Definitely one that won't be forgotten.
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