Happy Halloween, St. Augustine!!!

St. Augustine, they say, is one of the most haunted cities in America (it is the oldest, after all, so I suppose it's had the most time to acquire ghosts).

Donna, who works our evening shift, swears that our Inn is haunted by its original owner, Francisco Marin. The other night, the front door to the Inn was open every time she walked out to the dining room (three separate times). On the third time, she says she said "Okay, Francisco. Stop playing with me!!" And then the door stayed shut.

Whether you believe in ghosts or not, it's hard not to believe in snack-sized candy bars. We bought a bunch last night, so if you're in the area, stop by and show off your costume!!

(Here is a shot of our first trick-or-treaters: Melissa, Dave and Holly from the Green Trolley. But they turned the tables on us and brought US treats!! How cute are their costumes?????)

Tasty Little Morsels

We got a nice note from Tony and Rebecca B. a couple of days ago.

They stayed with us earlier this month, and fell in LOVE with one of the appetizers we made for happy hour. "I would love to have the recipe!" Rebecca said.

Well, getting recipes around here isn't always easy. The women in our kitchen aren't the types to use measuring spoons. Mary, who mans the stove five days a week, has been working in the restaurant business since she was a teenager (her parents owned a restaurant in North Carolina). She stopped measuring things a long time ago. Heloisa cooks two days a week...she has a background as an engineer, but she's not so precise in the recipe department either.

Anyway, the appetizer Rebecca loved was one of Heloisa's...a crunchy little toast point with a creamy, gooey topping. I call it Heloisa's Cheesy Toast Appetizer (my creativity knows no bounds). I spent a couple minutes in the kitchen this morning as she said "I take some big spoons of mayo..plop plop (she pantomimed putting them into a bowl), then some parmesan cheese--this much (she pulled out a jar of cheese and showed me a couple of inches". It wasn't an exact science, but I think I got the gist of it.

If you make the recipe before Heloisa does, let me know how it turns out!!

Heloisa's Cheesy Toast Appetizer

6 tablespoons mayonnaise
5 tablespoons parmesan cheese (we usually use grated but shredded works too)
1 small onion, chopped very fine
1 pinch baking powder
black pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients together (it will be pretty gritty).

Cut any kind of bread (white, wheat) into
the shape you desire (we usually do triangles--but Christmas shapes could be fun), and place on a cookie
tray. Top the bread with a small amount of the mixture.

Bake at 400 degrees until the top is golden and the cheese mixture puffs a little.

ENJOY!!!

Don't Even Ask Me about the Secret Handshake

Since I've paid my first mortgage, I guess I'm officially a small business owner.

I know I've said this before, but I never really thought of a bed and breakfast as a small business. I didn't think of it as a business at all, just like I don't think of people who sell vitamins or jewelry as small business owners. (Sorry to all of my friends who do that. It's not that I belittle the work; in fact, I tend to think of you all as industrious people with a part-time job. I just don't think of it as a small business).

But I've been told I'm wrong about that. We are all Small Businesses (in capital letters), and we comprise a vital part of the country's economy.

You can imagine how excited I was when the media declared two weeks ago that Congress and the president wanted to help small businesses. I stayed up all night at the bed and breakfast with a toilet brush and a bottle of Greenworks. After all, if Congress really wanted to help me, Nancy Pelosi could swing by and clean one of the rooms. And Barbara Mikulski looks as if she could really scrub out the inside of a Jacuzzi; she's small enough to get in there underneath the faucets.

Needless to say, Nancy and Babs never came.

Then I scoured the mail, assuming that help would come in the way of a nice check to help me "jumpstart the economy."

Again, nothing.

I was starting to think that being a small business owner pretty much sucked.

Until, that is, I learned about "the cult".

The cult of small business owners, that is. The secret society of people who have to pay their taxes every single month. The sleepless cell of business owners who answer their emails at midnight, shop only when things are on sale, and do their "books" in a corner of the tv room.

Now, being pretty slow, I didn't "get" what was going on at first. I just thought people were being nice. Like the green trolley people, who sent over a nice plant welcoming us to town, along with an invitation to happy hour. And the ghost tour people, who invited us to a VIP tour, along with a cute bag full of homemade soaps.

"Southerners sure are nice," I thought, as I pocketed the soap and put the plant in the Marin's dining room.

But then, I went to Meehan's on Matanzas, and something started to click with me. When the bill came, it didn't include our drinks (being the big drinkers that we are, it was just a single iced tea, but still). So I pointed it out to our pleasant waitress, who said, "Oh, that isn't a mistake" and she gestured towards John Meehan, the handsome owner of said restaurant. He smiled like Robert Redford, then gave me the ol' finger slide down the side of the nose. I was suspicious that something was going on, but then I just assumed that he had nasal problems.

A few weeks later, I got a nice note from Stacie at the Green Trolley, who said that she'd be happy to drop off a Yellow Pass. It was free entry to almost every.single.venue in St. Augustine.

"That way," she said, "you can talk first-hand about the different activities with all of your guests." Activities like riding the Green Trolley through town (which I do highly recommend, incidentally, but more on that later).

So here's the deal: it seems that being a small business owner is hard. Really hard. And we're all pretty interdependent on each other (is that even a word?) So...I send someone to Raintree Restaurant, and recommend the seafood chowder; they send someone to the Bayfront Marin, and recommend having breakfast in bed. I suggest taking the Schooner for a sunset cruise; they recommend the sangria at our happy hour.

It's all very mason-like, isn't it? Without the confusing symbols, of course (although there are all of those quatrafoils around the town).

Of course, I'll probably be thrown out of the club, or shunned socially, for mentioning this society to you. But I feel like I have an obligation to take you on this ride with me, and that means sharing everything.

So, to all of you non-small business owners...I feel sorry for you. As you sit back and enjoy your company-paid holidays and flu shots, I have a perk that you don't have. I have peeps...comrades in arms...buds. I am a member of the *club*, baby. And I have a yellow pass, which is just as good as having keys to the city. (Better, actually, as my keyring is already overloaded with all the keys to the b and b).

I'm going to do as many of those free things as I can. (And maybe even a couple that I have to pay for--in the interest of being thorough). I'm going to visit as many restaurants as possible, too, and report back to you on what to do and don't do in this beautiful old city of mine. I'll try new drinks, dinner specials, and more historic tours than most people could stand.

It's going to be hard, netties. But I'm willing to do it. Just for you. And the free drinks, of course.

Congrats to our Honeymoon Winners!

Mayport FL Couple Wins National Honeymoon Contest

Their Story Wins Grand Prize to The Bayfront Marin House

St. Augustine, FL (October, 2010)       Mrs. Debra Roman submitted a story to the Inns of Elegance, a collection of historic bed & breakfast inns in St. Augustine, Florida…thinking that she would like to surprise her daughter Marisol by winning the Inns’ 2^nd Honeymoon Contest 2010. Much to her surprise, she did win one of five luxurious 4-night Grand Prize 2^nd honeymoons that the Inns are giving away throughout the year.

The winning couple will be staying at the Bayfront Marin House, a bed and breakfast that offers luxury and romance right on the Matanzas Bay.

According to Roman “I want to reciprocate some of the generosity that my daughter Marisol Riddell and her loving Husband Mark Riddell have shown to me. They are a dedicated Navy family with a 13-year old daughter; when they married, they never got to have the honeymoon they had planned due to Mark’s call to duty.”

Marisol and Mark are overwhelmed with their Grand Prize. “As a military family, we are often asked to give up certain things, like our first Wedding Anniversary, Christmas & Thanksgiving due to Mark's deployment overseas. Winning this award means so much us. First, we feel loved and appreciated by my Mom. She is a precious member of our family. People didn't used to live so separately from their elders. It is a blessing to our family to have her.  Secondly, we are grateful to Inns of Elegance for offering us the opportunity to experience a true honeymoon. We feel lucky to live so close to such a romantic destination and to stay in such luxurious accommodations. THANK YOU!!!!”

Winning an $1800 2^nd honeymoon will give the Riddell’s (living in Mayport, Florida) something magical to remember forever, when they check into the Bayfront Marin House, one of the five Inns of Elegance.  Inn owners Sandy and Mike Wieber couldn’t be more delighted since their historic Inn specializes in honeymoons and romance.

The ROMANCE IS INN THE AIR prize includes the following:

1.       4-night Accommodations at the Bayfront Marin House

2.       Champagne & Chocolate – upon arrival

3.       Dinner For Two at Bistro de Leon – St. Augustine’s popular French bistro featuring Chef Jean-Stephane Poinard’s exquisite cuisine – a romantic little corner table of course!

4.       Lunch For Two at Columbia – The Gem of Spanish Restaurants, celebrating its 104^th Anniversary

5.       Dinner for Two at Raintree – One of the legendary romantic restaurants in St. Augustine

6.       Old Town Trolley Tickets – unlimited train transportation throughout the Historic District for length of the 4-day Honeymoon

7.       Tini Martini Bar – a Welcome Honeymoon Cocktail  in St. Augustine’s newest chic bayfront cocktail lounge

8.       Claude’s Chocolates – European gourmet bon bons featuring passion fruit filled dark chocolate hearts

9.       ‘Fountain of Youth’ tickets – World famous archaeological park ‘where history began’

10.    Schooner Freedom – Romantic Sunset Schooner Sail

11.    St. Augustine Lighthouse – One of the grand working lighthouses & museum in America

The Only Time I Have is Growing in An Herb Garden

Hello again, netties. I know it's been a while since I've written, but it's not as if I've been sitting around drinking sangria and baking cookies all day.

Oh wait. I actually have been doing that. At least in the afternoon, which is when I head over to the bed and breakfast to give the hub a break.

We've owned the Bayfront Marin House for about six weeks now, and we're starting to get into a routine. We get up in the morning, make a list of things to do, the hub goes to the bnb and I go to my home office (I'm telecommuting to my job of 10 years at Farm Credit), the hub gets a hundred phone calls, I plug through my emails, the hub comes home for lunch, asks me to help him with some things, I start crying that I can't be two places at once, he goes back to the bnb, I go back to my computer, we reconvene for happy hour, hang out and visit with our guests until 7, eat something in a drive-through, go shopping for the next day and then start the process all over again.

You may have noticed that at no point during the day do we ever look at the list of things to do that we make first thing every morning, If you did notice that, then you are very astute. Just the kind of person who would make a list then actually do the things on that list.

You are not only astute, you are possibly super human. Or, you simply don't own a small business.

When the hub and I talked about buying a bnb, I never thought of it as a small business. I thought about it like a hobby, I think, or a pen pal coming to visit. It would be cool and exotic, and a nice break from all of the mundane parts of my life.

Right.

No one really owns a small business. The small business owns you.

And right now my owner is at full capacity (30 guests--yay!!), and demanding another pitcher of sangria. Which I'm going to go fill immediately. Even though it's not on the list.

See you at Wal-Mart later tonight.

The Fourteenth Year of a Five-Year Plan

Well, hello netties!

If you've come to this blog from Historic Traveler, then you already know a little bit about me and the crazy adventure I've just begun by buying a bed and breakfast in St. Augustine, Florida. You can skip today's posting and just jump to the next post, where things start getting good.

If you don't know anything about me, here's a quick run down: fourteen years ago, the hub and I decided that sitting in a cubicle was lots and lots of fun, but we might prefer living on the beach (even though it wouldn't have that nice view I had of the upstairs ladies' bathroom).

Because the hub and I were both good corporate doobies (and because some manager or other had forced us to read "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" every two years for some improvement initiative or other), we immediately sat down and made a plan to detail how we were going to get from business meetings to surfside greetings. We came up with a five year plan.

That was in 1996.

Since that time, life was pretty much normal. We went to work. We pretended we loved it. We held our traditional annual parties--the football party in January, the movie party in March, the Christmas party in December. And at every party, we'd say to our friends: "This might be the last time we'll be here to have this party". Or "Next year, we can have this party at the beach."

A couple of years ago, our friends started telling us to shut up. They no longer believed it.

Well, believe it now, baby, cuz we are living the dream. Our dream, anyway. And yours, if you have drempt of getting 5 hours of sleep each night, visiting Wal-Mart at least once a day, and dealing with broken Jacuzzis, daily beer runs, and guests who wish their mattress was harder/their pillows were softer/their sangria was colder, and whatever else they want that would make their stay with us just perfect.

It sounds like I'm complaining, but the truth is that I love it. When a guest says they haven't been on vacation for years, and that the past two nights have been the best thing that's happened to them since cable, well...it's hard not to be pretty darn happy.

Working right across from the water every day doesn't hurt, either.

That's assuming, of course, that that water isn't dripping from your ceiling. Which is what is happening today in our storage room. Nothing's been ruined, but I should probably go move the boxes of shampoo and conditioner just to be sure.

I can tell already this is going to be an adventure. I hope you'll hang out here, netties, and experience all of the fun with me.