St. Augustine

This and the next two pictures are completely out of order but I wanted to include them in this posting.  This is another picture of Carol  in the oldest jail.

This is Carol waiting for his hamburger and fries at the restaurant.  He looks happy and was very happy when he got his food.

This is a front view of one of the hotels Henry Flagler built in St Augustine.

Site 49 at the KOA.  We miss the quiet of a state park.  This is the first time in four weeks that our TV has been turned on. We decided to buy tickets to ride the Old Town Trolley from the KOA and to 22 stops in St. Augustine.  It was a great deal in that we can ride the trolley for three days for $25 each.  During the day as we rode the trolley, our heads were filled with 450 years of history of St Augustine. It was very good but I have already forgotten most of it.  We did learn that the first Thanksgiving was not at Plymouth Rock but here in St. Augustine 50 years before.  The Spaniards came to Florida before the first Europeans came and that Florida used to occupy most of the land east of the Mississippi.  However, Spain wasn't strong enough militarily to maintain their control of the land and eventually lost all of it. 

Aviles Street is the oldest street in St. Augustine.

Ponce de Leon claimed Florida for Spain.  This is a life-sized state of him.  He was a very short man of only 4 feet 11 inches.  Because he was so short, he thought all the natives were giants.  He landed here looking for the Fountain of Youth.  For an additional $25 we could see the Fountain of Youth.  Everything in this city costs extra so we chose not to see the Fountain of Youth.

Avilia Street is the oldest street in St. Augustine.

There are so many beautiful houses as these pictures show.

The Spanish built Castillo de San Marcos to protect the Florida Coast.  Spanish ships will sail from Spain to South and Central America to bring gold from these countries back to Spain.  Pirates would attack the ships as they sailed the Floridian coast.  It is the oldest masonry fort.  The British wanted Florida and in 1703 besieged the fort and city for 50 days.  The citizens of the city took shelter in the fort and the British could not take the fort.  Instead, they burned the entire city.  There are no original buildings with the exception of this fort

Saturday was a great day to visit the fort because all the volunteers were there to provide demonstrations of life in the fort.  This group of volunteers fired a canon.

The firing of this canon was just like the one we saw at Stones River except these soldiers all spoke Spanish.

This picture was taken from the fort and it shows the Catholic Church that Spain built.  It is the oldest and largest Catholic Church in America.  It is so large that the pope has declared it a basilica rather than a church. 

These flags represent the countries that have occupied the fort.  Eventually Spain traded Florida to Britain for Cuba, then received it back again only to lose it to the United States.

Another beautiful tree-lines street.

We visited the oldest jail where Carol found himself behind bars.

This is the oldest store.

After touring the fort and St. George Street which is a pedestrian mall.  Stores and restaurants of every shape and size fill the street and streets around St. George Street.  We were hungry so while waiting for our table, we watched people.  It is a very dog-friendly area and we saw dogs of all kinds  This pair were looking for a man who always gives them a treat; however, he wasn't there today, so they were disappointed.

Not only is it dog-friendly, but it is also snake-friendly.  We saw several people with snakes around their necks.  That would not be my choice of a pet.

This is where we ate lunch.  We had hamburgers and fries but they were delicious.  My hamburger had fried green tomatoes, pimento cheese and arugula on it.  It was so big that I could hardly get it into my mouth to eat.  We would definitely eat here again.

In the 1800's Henry Flagler, founder of Standard Oil Company,  played a big part in developing Florida by building their economy through tourism and agriculture.  He built a railroad from Dayton to Key West, built beautiful hotels, and other tourist attracting businesses.  This is one of the hotels.  The hotels used modern Edison lighting and these windows were made by Tiffany.  It is very hard to see because they are covered with bullet-proof glass to protect the windows.  They windows are worth over $150 million dollars.  That is a little rich for my blood!  Now most of the buildings have been donated for Flagler College.

I had never heard of Whetstone Chocolates but evidently it is a highly sought after chocolate and it began on St. George Street in St. Augustine.  

This couple got married today in the Catholic Basilica and had their pictures taken in the park across the street.  You never know what you will see on the streets of St. Augustine.  We love St Augustine and would like to return on another trip.  We still have one more day here but won't go back into the downtown St Augustine area.  There is so much more to see and one day just isn't enough.  The trolley was a great way to get around town but again, one day just isn't enough.  We left this morning at 8:45 and got back to camp at  5:00.  We are very tired.  One good thing was that Carol didn't have to drive the car anywhere!  The car is probably happy about that too!