Touring St. Augustine

     It got really cold again! Down in the high 30's, damp and overcast in the morning. This was the day for our trip into St. Augustine, where the "Ripley's Believe it or not" tour company picks folks up at the KOA and drops them off from their shuttle to the tour jumpoff point. They use red trains for 1 1/2 tour with 22 stops, and offer "hop on, hop off" service with running commentary. Pretty good deal for $16. Unfortunately, we were practically freezing in the open air touring coaches.

     A very pretty city with it's Spanish architecture, St. Augustine is the oldest city in North America and will celebrate it's 450th birthday in 5 years. It was founded by the Spanish, and the Castillo de San Marcos fort has been around for centuries and has never been lost in battle.

      We got off around 11:30 to go into some stores to get warm, and ended up buying some cute doggie items from "Faux Paws". Lunch brought our bodies back to normal, and it was actually sunny and pleasant as we walked all over the ancient city and checked out the shopping. Only complaint is that it's way too commercialized, with a lot of souvenir and tee-shirt shops.

       The architecture around the city is beautiful. The most impressive, though, comes from the late 1800's when Henry Flagler decided this would be where he set up his new career. He had already become a multi-millionaire, as a co-founder of Standard Oil with Rockefeller. He built several beautiful hotels and churches; the most magnificent later became Flagler College, and the photo is of Becky in front of his statue and the main entrance. It was the largest of the 3 hotels he built, and all are now in other uses; one is a 4-star hotel under a different name, and the other is now the St Augustine city hall. The final picture is of another hotel, the Villa Zorayda built by another gentleman who was in love with Moorish architecture. It is now a museum.

       We enjoyed exploring the Castillo de San Marcos, and took a number of movies there that will eventually be pieced together. As it was getting late, we went back to the campsite where the two dogs were thrilled to have us back. We wrote a number of postcards and notes, did some financial work on Quicken, downloaded and edited photos--and relaxed after a very busy day. Tomorrow we're off to the panhandle, and it will be a long driving day. No internet for the next 3 days, so we'll catch up with our next adventures Sunday night.

       Oh, by the way. Can you find Katahdin the Moose in any of the pictures?