St. Augustine, FL - 5/28/11 & 5/29/11

The past two days have been spent acting like tourists in St. Augustine. We had a 3 day pass on the Old Town Trolley so we were able to get a lot of use out of it since you could get on or off anywhere around the city in something like 24 spots.

5/28/11

To catch the trolley we needed to walk about 1/2 mile to the Sebastian Winery where Ricki continued her habit of picking up guys. This one was in the entry way to the winery and apparently she needed to do something while we waited on our ride.

This magnificent building was originally built by Henry Flagler as the Ponce de Leon hotel and now is the Lightener museum which also has many shops and a great restaurant that we will visit later. The restaurant is located in what was once the largest indoor swimming pool in the country. The construction of the building was poured concrete which Flager used in many of his ventures and a new process at the time.

Flagler College .....

The Spanish influence is seen everywhere in town even in the wrought iron trim.

This poor under nourished girl was a model that was being photographed overlooking St. Augustine Harbor.

More Spanish influence ....

The oldest oak tree in the country and supposed to be between 500 and 600 years old.

Many walls around town were made of oyster shells ......

Yes ... we even stopped here. Our trolley driver claimed to be in his 80's and had visited this every day for over 40 years. I swear he didn't look a day over 45 so it must work!

Huen rested beside this character. He wasn't a very good conversationalist....

This 10 foot alligator is supposed to be killed by a 12 year old boy ......

This drugstore is one of the oldest buildings in town and is made with cypress boards and has never had a coat of paint.

Flagler had this church built in honor of his daughter who is laid to rest inside as well as her infant daughter and Flagler himself.

The restaurant inside the Lightener Museum which was originally a swimming pool.

We had lunch with Skip and Barb since Huen and Cricket had gone to the fort to meet his brother.

More buildings ......

After lunch Ricki & I decided to walk over to St. George Street which is a pedestrian mall many blocks long just crammed with all kind of shops.

Of course all kinds of characters are present. This one man band was interesting.

Ricki & I decided to call it a day and caught the trolley back to the winery and the long HOT walk back to the marina. We were wasted so we just enjoyed our A/C in the boat and retired early.

5/29/11

Up early and off to the winery about 9:30 to catch the trolley back to town.

Our objectives today included the Castillo de San Marcos Fort. Since this is a national monument
we were able to get in free with our National Parks Pass we purchased at Shiloh Cemetery.

Another guy thing .... at least this one was alive and a park ranger.

Entry into the fort .......

These were all park rangers who interacted with the crowd.

This ranger gave a very interest history lesson with humor.

A cute couple in the fort courtyard.

They actually fired a cannon across the river toward the ocean inlet. We were told they could shoot cannon balls over 3 miles which is amazing.

A photo from the fort of the St. Augustine lighthouse.

My bride ..........

The moat around the building was normally dry and is where their animals grazed and was only flooded when the fort was under siege.

Curious Cricket ........

This cute vehicle was in the parking lot and I want one!

After the fort tour we went across the street to the Pirate Museum.

I promise to be good .....

We were told that Memorial Weekend is the largest tourist traffic time of the year and we believe it since we had to wait over an hour for a trolley to take us back to the winery. They came by every 10 to 15 minutes but they were always full so we flagged down a different looking trolley that turned out to be on its way back from a wedding reception to get us back. He was headed back to the first stop and couldn't take us all the way back to the winery but he fixed us up with a van that the 4 of us shared with another couple for the rest of the ride. BIG TIP IN ORDER!

After a nap, Huen had everyone on Lucky One for a great spaghetti dinner.