For Travel, and future mountain town adventures.
St. Augustine Day Trip St. Augustine Day Trip Wandering the coast. The world is loud, but the coast has a way of leveling things out. Christy and I loaded up for a day trip to St. Augustine. No complex spreadsheets or tourist traps. Just the road and the salt air. The Afternoon Grind We spent … Read more
Fresh Air and Better Fish: The Grouper Shack If you’re wandering through St. Augustine and want a break from the tourist traps, find your way to the Grouper Shack. It’s the kind of spot where the view is as honest as the food. No fluff, just a deck, a breeze, and a menu that doesn’t … Read more
THE WAITING ROOM Waiting isn’t a holding pattern. It’s not sitting on a plastic chair in a lobby, checking your watch and huffing at the ceiling. Most of us treat delay like a prison sentence. We endure it. We grit our teeth and hope it ends soon so “real life” can start again. That’s a … Read more
Life gets loud. Sometimes you need a place where the instructions are simple and the coffee is hot. We found ourselves at IKEA today, navigating the maze of flat-pack furniture and Swedish design. It wasn’t about the bookshelves or the lighting fixtures. It was about the meatballs. The Plate There is a strange, quiet comfort … Read more
Twelve Hours of Asphalt | Kitchen and Compass Kitchen and Compass Direct. Gritty. Honest. Twelve Hours of Asphalt Twelve hours on the road is a lot of asphalt, but it beats a crowded airport terminal any day. Christy and I loaded up the rig and pointed it south toward Fleming Island. No complicated spreadsheets or … Read more
The Three-Legged Blur Resilience on three paws. Forward Motion Zippy doesn’t know he’s missing a limb. He only knows that the squirrels are still fast and the morning sun still hits the porch just right. Watching him navigate the world is a masterclass in resilience. No complaints. No looking back. Just movement. Balance in the … Read more
So Flo: Abingdon’s Hidden Florida Heat The Heat and the Harvest: So Flo Found a hole-in-the-wall in Abingdon tonight. So Flo. Short for Southern Florida, and they aren’t kidding about the heat. It was small, tight, and a bit too warm inside. But when the food hits the table, the thermostat doesn’t matter. It was … Read more
“A righteous man has regard for the life of his animal…” — Proverbs 12:10 If you’ve followed Kitchen and Compass for any length of time, you know that the “Compass” doesn’t just point the way for Christy and me—it also guides our faithful co-pilot, Zippy. Traveling with a dog adds a layer of joy (and … Read more
Welcome to Kitchen and Compass Navigating Life, One Plate at a Time. If you’re looking for a blog about “fine dining” chains or crowded city tours, you might be in the wrong place. But if you value a Christ centered approach, a perfectly brewed cup of coffee, a quiet mountain trail, and the search for … Read more
