Pretty St. Augustine

We dinghied back to shore after a quiet night on the mooring ball and spent the day exploring this old town.  We returned to Magnolia Avenue, whose Magnolia trees were removed after they all died during a harsh winter 150 years ago.  Planted in their place are now oak trees, and look how it looks today? The adjacent wall is made of concrete and seashells.

Bob’s great-deal lifetime National Park Service Pass ($10 one-time fee gets you into all National Parks for free henceforth) got us into the Castillo San Marcos, a Spanish fort built from 1672 – 1756 when Florida was part of the Spanish empire. The fort has served six different flags, survived hurricanes and withstood many sieges and bombardments.

We walked back into the center of town through neighborhoods which have avoided being transformed into tourist traps and enjoyed seeing homes from the late 1800s that looked truly lived in. We also walked the length of St. George Street, lined with old buildings now housing shops, galleries, restaurants and museums. We were, much to the merchants’ dismay, dissuaded from buying anything.

This is a 600-year-old moss-draped Oak tree, now living in the middle of a Howard Johnson’s parking lot.  This is pretty illustrative of how St. Augustine has managed its’ historic character:  use it to the maximum to make money without destroying the things that brought us all here in the first place.

And this is the mooring field at the marina where we’re staying adjacent to the attractive Lion’s Bridge.

We enjoyed other sights including a building initially erected as an uber-swanky hotel by Henry Flagler, co-founder with John D Rockefeller of Standard Oil Company, to serve as a winter retreat for northerners following the Civil War.

All the windows in the building are Tiffany stained glass, reportedly now worth $30 million themselves. The building now houses Flagler College, a private liberal arts college. Henry Flagler went on to build a vast empire of hotels and a railroad from St. Augustine to Key West.

Other attractive public buildings and churches line the streets of St. Augustine as well.  This was a nice stop!