St. Augustine Founded 1565
For Valentines Day this year we explored St Augustine, FL. The oldest town in America. You can see the Spanish architecture everywhere but we will get to that later. James and I passed out EARLY last night so we got up and got moving around 8am. For us, that is super early. We went right to downtown St. Augustine and found some parking in apparently the most coveted lot in the land. We found out later how popular this lot was but when we got there there were plenty of spots. I’d say if you are going, get there by 9am and you will be fine. Even on a holiday weekend, and Valentines Day. This lot is right next to the Castillo De San Marcos national monument. It is a masonry fort and is part of the National Park Service. We lined up with the others who where there before opening (which is 9am) and when the gates opened we paid $15/ea and went right on in.
They have volunteer reenactors around in their wool outfits and hats. It was a beautiful day - this is near the water so it was windy and a little cold but I still wore shorts and a jean jacket because I wanted the sun to touch my skin all day. So all that to say, I don’t think today was the worst day for them to be dressed in such warm clothing. They were probably comfortable.
We both took a lot of pictures wondering around. We talked to one of the guys about what the soldiers carried with them and how to make change at the time. They didn’t make small denominations so they had to cut their coins in half or quarters to make change. Then when the people or merchants would get a bunch of quarter pieces they would take them to the “bank” and trade them in (by weight) for full coins. The “bank” would then gather a bunch of these pieces together and send them away to be melted down and re-minted into full coins again.
The walls and stairs are made of readily available materials so there are a bunch of seashells in the walls. I was not expecting that but of course, they use what they have and this area has plenty of sea shells. It was in the walls and the stairs. I guess the whole thing used to be covered in plaster that was white but a lot of that is worn away.
We heard one of the other guys talking about a possible cannon drill later that morning. They had to wait to make sure enough volunteers showed up to do the drill and lucky for us, they all showed up! They do several of these on Saturdays so really anytime there is another one coming around. They have a park ranger come up and give a little pre-blast speech then the volunteers got to work. They spoke Spanish the whole time which is accurate for being a Spanish post but I don’t know what they were saying. The park ranger did give us another warning before the blast and said to cover your ears. I didn’t do that, I had a picture to take…
James took a video of the whole thing he will probably upload at some point.
It was loud but not bad. They were using 8oz of gun powder for this drill but typically they use 6lbs to shoot out a 25lb cannon ball. It must have been so loud when they were attacking ships with all that powder and just the number of cannons they had there now. I didn’t count them but there were a lot.
After we explored the whole fort we decided to get something to eat. We realized we hadn’t eaten since 4pm the day before so we were both pretty hungry. We walked down the main street and found a little cafe called Mary’s Harbor View Cafe. It was a tiny place with sweet old ladies working. One was outside taking names, we had to wait maybe 20 min to get to a table. She couldn’t stand inside because there was actually no where to stand inside the cafe, there were so many tables. James had…wait for it…a burger. I had a chicken salad wrap. Both came with chips and they were very good. They were quick with getting the food out. James said it was because the place is so small you can’t fit that many people in there so you don’t have to wait long.
We walked back to the car quick. You can only do 4 hours at a time on the pay kiosk so we went back and extended our time. From there we went to shop and check out the old town. James got me a new knife which is so pretty. I know, I don’t need another knife but this one is very nice. We each got a t-shirt and I grabbed a very pretty painted pot for a new plant. Again, I know I don’t need another plant but man they had some cute stuff there. It was called Market to Market. They have a website and Instagram.
While perusing the local stores we stopped for some ice cream at Kilwins. It was so good and so expensive! James got chocolate peanut butter. It was a rich chocolate ice cream with peanut butter shavings though it. I had apple pie which was vanilla ice cream with pieces of apple and pie crust then it had caramel and cinnamon. Super good. They had other stuff in that shop like candies and caramel apples but the ice cream was rich enough.
We strolled down to old town St. Augustine and saw just the coolest buildings. The highlight for me was Flagler College. This was originally the Hotel Ponce de Leon and it is stunning. They just don’t make things like this anymore. Everything down to the radiators were ornate and carefully made. They do guided tours of the whole building but we just checked out the courtyard and the main entryway. The floor is a giant mosaic that took 250 people to lay it piece by piece. They have carved pillars and a dome ceiling. I didn’t want to leave. I looked up the school and they have a decent list of majors and the cost doesn’t seem out of line for a typical college today. I expected it to be super expensive for the experience but nope.
I have a bunch more photos of this place. I’ll make a gallery then when I get them edited
There was a wedding party getting photos out in the old part of town while we explored. There was a beautiful courtyard area, beautiful old churches, a huge spa/hotel, the governer’s house and museums.
By this time we had walked about 1 million steps and my feet were starting to feel some sort of way. I will say after sitting all day yesterday driving it was nice to get moving. We came back to the hotel for a minute and looked for a place to eat dinner. We found a bar/restaurant a few minutes away that didn’t need a reservation and didn’t have a wait so we headed over. It is called Candlelight South Sports bar & grill. They have terrible parking but good food. We both got some rum and a pretzel for an appetizer of course. That pretzel was so good. I had a shrimp quesadilla and James had the French dip. Both were very good.
It looks like James is working out a route for tomorrow. We are going to check out of here and grab breakfast before heading to Orlando for our next overnight. I’m excited to see the place. I mean, we won’t have a suite like we do here but I think it will be pretty cool.
