049: St. Augustine!

 

 All the guidebooks say that St. Augustine is a “must see” stop, they weren’t kidding.  We liked it so much that we stayed an extra day and could easily have spent a week here vs. the three nights and two full days that we did spend.

We pulled into River’s Edge Marina in the rain and after a hot shower we just had dinner and chilled out to some “All Creatures Great and Small” on Masterpiece Theater.

The next day, we headed out in time to get to the San Sebastián Winery stop on the Old Town Trolley Tour line. It was actually stop twelve on the tour, but it was closest to the marina. There are twenty-one stops total at various points of interest in the old part of St. Augustine. We then rode to stop one to get our on/off stickers and buy admission tickets to several additional attractions, starting with the Old Jail.  The jail and history were more interesting than the dumbed down, hokey, tour led by our guide dressed in prison garb and speaking way too fast in in an almost intelligible faux accent of unknown origin. The prison was moved to its present location on the outskirts of the original town due to a donation of $10,000 by Henry Flagler because he didn't want it downtown near his fancy hotels.

 

Put in my place:

We then visited the site of the first settlement in St. Augustine which was on the same property as Ponce de Leon's Fountain of Youth Archaeological (/Theme) Park. Although legend has it that Ponce de Leon searched for the Fountain, experts now say that was an early political hit job by a rival to make him look crazy.  Just looking for fresh water is all.  The fresh water spring continuously flows out at this spot from the Florida Aquifer, and contains many minerals which make it healthy, although it has a slight sulfur-like smell.   We then saw various period-related demonstrations: blacksmith, an actual native Cherokee interpreter at a replica native tribe village, cannon and historical weapons demonstrations, a 30-ft Discovery Globe that was created for the NY World's Fair of 1963 depicting the routes of the early Spanish and Portuguese explorers and the extent of the lands of La Florida, and a flock of beautiful peacocks.

 

Cannon demonstration:

Next up was the Castillo de San Marcos Fort, which, since it is part of the National Park Service.  Cool visit for the history, and park grounds.   

 

From the Lyon's Bridge:

 

Very cool and beautiful street:

There is a Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum which we didn't go into, but they did have a full size replica of Michelangelo's David made from marble from the same quarry outside the place.  This being Florida ("don't say gay," "slaves learned important work skills!") the townspeople made them put it behind a hedge so that folks wouldn't be offended by the "naughty bits."

Up early the next day, as we were preparing to take a LYFT to the lighthouse, we noticed a beautiful red sightseeing "train" in the parking lot at the marina. It was owned by a Navy Vietnam veteran who provided tours similar to the Trolley that we took the day before, in fact, he used to work for one of the larger companies but was told to cut down his historical narrative because he was taking too long! He offered to take us to Anastasia Island for $5/each, which was more than the Lyft, but we liked him.  

The St. Augustine Lighthouse and Museum was a really beautiful place--well-manicured grounds and well-maintained buildings--a feast for the eyes. Amazingly enough, a map from 1589 was the first documented archival reference of a wooden watchtower at the end of Anastasia Island, erected by the Spanish crown during the building of the Castillo De San Marcos. This watchtower eventually became the St. Augustine Lighthouse. There were many different incarnations of lighthouses in this location over the years, but the current lighthouse was built in 1874. We climbed the 219 steps to the top to see the view and were very impressed by the many volunteers who guided the way. There were several exhibit areas, as well as a wooden boat building demonstration area, walking trails, restored lighthouse keepers’ home, several movies, etc.--plenty to hold your interest. A great stop and I would say, a must see.

The view is worth the climb:

The Alligator Farm, located nearby, is actually one of Florida's oldest continuously running roadside attractions, having been founded in 1893 although not at the current location. It was rebuilt and expanded after a devastating fire in the 1930's. It is now a fully-functioning zoo featuring every species of alligator, crocodile, and caiman, but also birds, reptiles and some mammals and much scientific research is conducted here. There were alligators galore, lazing about everywhere you looked, heaped in piles trying to sun themselves. The star of the show was Maximo, a 1,250-lb and 15-ft long saltwater crocodile, and it was very cool to see him through the underwater window along with his much smaller female mate. His history is that he was raised from an egg collected by Australian Aborigines, then sold to Cairn's Crocodile Farm where he grew to adult size and was later purchased by The Alligator Farm. As impressive as Maximo is, he is overshadowed by the legacy of Gomek, his predecessor at the Alligator Farm, who was a massive 18-feet long and nearly 2,000 lbs. Gomek was originally from New Guinea where he spent the first forty or so years of his life on the Fly River and was rumored to be a man eater. He was captured in 1968 by Crocodile Hunter George Craig, who kept Gomek in various locations in captivity and he passed through several owners before landing in St. Augustine in 1989. He died in 1997 of heart disease as a very old crocodile, confirmed to be about 70 years old at the time of his passing. Although he was said to be a man-eater in New Guinea, according to what I read, he was considered a "tame" croc while at the Alligator Farm and keepers got quite close without fear.

Alligators don't do much but lay around all day:

Maximo:

After an UBER back to the mainland, we took the tour at the Oldest House Museum Complex and Gardens, which is owned and operated by the St. Augustine Historical Society. The docent detailed all the different owners over the home's history and how the house had changed--at one point it was completely paneled, then the paneling was removed to take it back to a specific time period. Let's just say it was a long history. The grounds were lovely too, with walled gardens within view of the water.

We mooched around for another 1-2 hours, including a detour into the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine, a long stroll down historic St. George Street all the way to the Old City Gate--coquina pillars built in 1808, and a swing by Flagler College to take photos of the converted Ponce de Leon Hotel. St. George Street is chock full of restaurants, shops, bars and music. We could have spent another day going into shops in the downtown area. We ended up the day with a forgettable dinner at Hurricane Patty's Restaurant, which was located adjacent to the marina.

 Flagler College:

This write up doesn't do justice to the beauty and history of St. Augustine and was assisted by Nancy.

Dave

Odometer: 2.470