Celebrating Birthdays!

For those of you who don't know, this past Saturday was Sheila's (The Quintessential Magpie) birthday and on Sunday it was mine. How cool is it that two blogging friends got to share their birthdays together?

The past few days have been a whirlwind of excitement! On Friday I drove to Saint Augustine, Florida to attend a birthday luncheon in Sheila's honor. Her friend Nancy hosted this lovely affair and let me tell you, her home is beautiful and the food was fabulous! You know I felt right at home when upon arrival I excused myself to use the restroom after my long drive and found this lovely miss sitting in the shower.

I had such a good time meeting Sheila's friends and being the sweetheart that she is, I even got to help blow out the candles on the cake.

Then I was off to Neptune Beach for margarita's and dinner with my cousin and her boyfriend.

Now you would think this would be enough celebrating for this old beach gal's birthday, but then Sheila and her hubby (who is a real treasure and the sweetest guy) invited me to brunch on Sunday.

We went to the Beech Street Grill in my favorite town here — Fernandina Beach! Situated in a house that was originally built more than 150 years ago, the Beech Street Grill has been added to and renovated over the years and is now a gorgeous fine dining establishment.

Beech Street Grill, 801 Beech St., Fernandina Beach, FL — (904) 277-3662

The ambience for brunch was simple elegance in friendly, pleasant surroundings. The piano player provided background music that was unobtrusive and added to the enjoyment of an afternoon spent conversing and dining with dear friends. 

There is no hustle and bustle here and the food? Well, my dears, the food was scrumptious and our waiter Scott was a real doll!

(Sorry for the blurry photo Scott, but when an old woman gets around a cute, young thang, she just can't hold her hands steady!)

Spicy Shrimp and Grits for me

Eggs Benedict served on Focaccia for the Magpies

After brunch we headed over to Kelley's Courtyard Cafe for our favorite dessert, Granny Mutt's Blueberry Squares, only to discover that they are closed on Sundays. Disappointing to put it mildly, so we opted to browse our favorite place to shop in town — Eight Flags Antique Mall. We had been there together before and I wrote about it here.

We ran into the gal who runs my favorite booth and a friend of hers who recently opened a booth of her own. I'm going to save that experience for a post of its own, but here is a sneak peek of what you'll find…

Oh yeah, I fell in love with this chandelier!

After drooling over the goodies at the antique mall, we headed to the local cupcake bakery. This is the one I chose, for obvious reasons…

While the cupcake was cute as could be, the taste was not. Overly sickening sweet icing with a flavorless cake, this bakery was a BIG disappointment. I'm going to stop now, because my momma taught me if I didn't have anything nice to say, I shouldn't say anything at all and I've already said too much. Just take my word for it, I will not be going there again.

After dessert it was time to part ways, Sheila and Fred had to get home and I had one more stop to make, can you guess where?

I headed down the street to see this…

A birthday just isn't complete until I've put my feet in the sand!

The weather was brutally hot, but a nice cool breeze was coming off the Atlantic and my stroll on the shore was just what I needed to complete a wonderful afternoon.

Okay everyone, you've all wanted to see a photo of the elusive Mrs. Magpie and I'm breaking my friendship vow to share one of the two of us. 

Are you ready?

Sheila is going to kill me…

Do you think she'll ever forgive me?

Maybe I shouldn't do this!

Oh what the heck…

Here goes…

Me and Sheila down by the seashore

Had you fooled didn't I? Sheila, were you ready to hunt me down? Well, this is how we felt on our birthdays — like little girls hanging out with a good friend, having a great time, feeling carefree and all giggly. AND you know how much Sheila loves pink, so when I saw these two little girls running to the waves with a BIG PINK balloon, I naturally thought of my dear, sweet friend and had to share this moment with her.

So what does Sheila really look like? I know your all wondering, but…

only The Shadow knows!

Finally it was time to head home and I love the drive from Fernandina, the roads are all tree-lined and traffic is almost non-existent. Roads like this make me take in my surroundings and revel in the beauty of this area.

Well, dear friends, here's my exit…

so until next time, I bid you farewell and hope your weekend was as lovely as mine. I head out to Tampa Bay in just a few days to celebrate my birthday with my daughter and granddaughter. More beachiness and hopefully a chance to spend a little time with another blogging friend!