March 22 Thursday Day 25

Today we wake up in sunny St. Augustine. Off to a Trolley tour of the city/old city. This gives us a good idea of where we should go back too. The architecture is of Spanish/Moorish days. The person most associated with the town is a Mr. Flagler, he had built a railroad from Pittsburg to Key West, all on the bet that there would be a need for coal to fuel steamers going through the Panama Canal. This was back in the late 1890’s to 1910. He was good to the people that worked for him, giving them a place to live and hospitalization. Along with this he built/owned three of the best hotels in the city. Turns out he lays claim to owning 3 hotels f stature within three blocks of each other. One way to fill them was by getting people down here. He did this by building many different denominational churches with the thought that the more denominations the more people would come here. The trolley we were on allowed us to exit and enter as many times as we want for three days. That’s why we are staying over a night. We also passed the Love tree, where it is said anyone that kisses the other, they shall stay together for eternity. So we did kiss!

Out first stop was the oldest house in the US. It was built around 1564 or so. The blocks to make up the base of the house were Coquina a shell stone that is quarried. The overhead beams were the originals, beds were actually bed rolls. So in the day they could be rolled up and placed against the wall. Remember the house was no more than 10 by 17 feet. In the direct center there was a 2 foot round low silhouette that burned charcoal. This would keep the place warm in the winter and keep the bugs and mosquitoes away. Now think of it there was no smokestack so it was the smoke that stayed in the house and into there lungs each day. No need for anti-perspirants! Being old like this it had many owners and uses over the years. There is a quaint garden and outside sheds with the house. One of the neatest things I saw was the rock that had been used as ballast in the ships. This rock was semi-porous and was used to filter their drinking water. The water in the top rock was like dirty river water and underneath in the catch basin was clear. Of course clear does not necessarily mean drinkable, but in there case it was as the town survived.

From here we walked to the old town and guess what we found a place to eat. The White Lion Pub and Restaurant. Shirleen had her chocolate martini and I a chardonnay. Her fried Mahi Mahi turned out to be two big hunks of fish, of which I got one, and I fried clams with pole beans well cooked with onions, really good taste; also had a bowl of yellow rice. Don’t need to again try a glass of Bud’s Heffevisen.

The afternoon was spent watching Shirleen eat an ice cream cone. The cone was one of those homemade dark batter sugar cone, smells go and tastes better. We looked at a number of shops and didn’t find anything to take back.

We found a new place to stay a Comfort Suites in downtown St. Augustine. We are just a couple blocks from the horse and carriages. We sauntered down for a delightful half hour ride through the city, many of the same stories but some with a different twist. Did I mention dinner time? We ate at O. C. Whites restaurant, Shirleen and I had a glass of house cabernet, She coconut shrimp and fries - tasty, I Pasta A La Vodka - plum tomatoes, with fresh basil and garlic simmered in a light cream sauce with a splash of vodka over angel hair pasta with shrimp, a great dish. We strolled back in the dark our hotel. We were passed by four groups of people who were doing the Ghost and Gravestone tours. A neat thing but we didn’t need it we walked past the Huguenot (French Protestants) Cemetery by ourselves. Not as scary as it used to be, maybe the closer we get to it ourselves the less scary it gets?

Tomorrow we will go to the fort and catch some of the other things we missed today. Really nice town, somewhat commercial but laid back.
jerr