Eat up, eat up

Yummy food. That was the theme of my weekend. If you know me, you know I love food.

Saturday:
Even though back to school week left me exhausted, I still woke up early. I went and helped freshmen move into the dorms at my alma mater, Flagler College.

The main building, is the former Ponce De Leon hotel. One of the girls' dorms (the main one when I went there) is housed in this building. Each room is completely different, because each room used to be a hotel room. Some of the dorm rooms even have fireplaces!

Total blast to the past for me! I helped many girls move in. The parents were all really grateful. I checked out all three of my old rooms. Memories hit me left and right, even though the rooms were different.

The yummy food aspect was not the food I ate for lunch in the Dining Hall, but just simply eating in my old dining hall:

You can pick your jaws up now. This beautiful place is where I ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner for three years! Crazy right? When the alumni office director invited me for lunch, I immediately said yes!

Ah, memories. :)

Later that evening, J and I celebrated two years at the Melting Pot. I'm a bad blogger, I took no pictures. Wanted to enjoy the evening with J.

The food = AMAZING! So stuffed by the end of the night. Our favorite was definitely the bananas foster fondue. I read J the dessert options and the second I said "White chocolate!" he was in!

Sunday
Yesterday was my brother's 23rd birthday. Guys, when did my pipsqueak little brother turn 23?? The one who used to copy my every move? The one who you use to eat all my food? Scratch that.... the one who STILL eats my meal? He bought his very first car today... CRAAAZY!

J.P. loves Japanese food. So off to Wasabi we went! I love smothering my whole plate in shrimp sauce. It's just wonderful. Plus, it was my lunch today!!

That was my weekend. Hope you had great ones! If you are in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, or Louisiana, stay safe and dry! It poured buckets here in Jacksonville.

Linking up for Weekend Update!

 

Shopping and Ghost Stories

I realized the name of my blog is Laughter, Love and Necklaces, and I've yet to post a picture of me actually wearing one. I have quite the necklace collection and the one I wore today got me a lot of compliments:

I love teal and this necklace is awesome. Yes, I'm the lameo taking a picture in the Loft fitting room. Loft had an amazing sale today, half off everything with a special coupon. I had a gift card from the parents and got a pair of shorts, and two shirts for 12 dollars! Score!

After shopping, I met up J. His mom is in town, so we took her to St. Augustine. St. Augustine is one of my favorite places on the planet for multiple reasons:

• The history. I'm the biggest history geek and love that it's the oldest city in the USA.
• The atmosphere. St Augustine is just such a laid back place, despite all the tourists.
• And last but not least, because of this place:

 

This would be a picture of Flagler College, where I went to school. Beautiful isn't it? It was originally the Ponce De Leon Hotel built in 1888 by Henry Flagler. Flagler is right in the middle of the touristy area and is a National Landmark. I had the best time there! /end gushfest/. 

J, his mom and I walked all over St. Augustine and I gave her a tour of the public areas of the school. I ended up showing her what is a classic Flagler artifact.: the tile on the floor with Henry Flagler's face on it:

Legend has it that Henry Flagler's funeral took place in the rotunda of the hotel. A hotel janitor closed all the doors and windows (despite Flagler always wanting them opened). Hotel workers dropped Henry Flagler's casket and his spirit, having no where to go because everything was closed, flew into this tile. Neat, huh?

Now there's a huge possibility that it was put there on purpose. Each piece of the tile was hand laid, and Flagler had a sense of humor. For instance, he had the dining hall designed so that depending on where you sat you could hear the conversation across the room. He did this so he could hear people talking about the hotel. But I like the ghost story, better don't you?

All in all, despite it being hot as you know what, it was a great day! Speaking of ghost stories, what's the best one you've ever heard?