1565

Currently in:  Kissimmee, FL
We will be in Florida until after the holidays

There is so much to do in St. Augustine, you could spend a month and still not see everything.  We did not visit anything related to Ponce de Leon, several other museums, nor the college. We chose a few historic sites that interested us.

The city of St. Augustine was founded in 1565 by Spanish explorers, namely Pedro Menendez.  He and his fellow travelers actually saw land on August 28, the feast of St. Augustine, hence the name.  They finally reached the shore on September 8.

The city includes the oldest home, school, parish, drugstore and masonry fort among other things.  When you visit each of these things you learn that after the Spanish, control of the city bounced around between the Spanish, British and the Americans until mid 1800s when it finally became a state.   St. Augustine was attacked several times and purposely burned to the ground on at least 2 occasions.  There is also an interesting history of Native Americans as well as African Americans.

We toured the oldest home which dates back to 1625 and was a simple 2 room house made of coquina, a local rock made of shells.  Future residents, all of whom were well-off, made changes and additions to the home.  Some rooms were actually removed as well.
Also of note, this is the first time on our trip that Johnny and I got the Senior Citizen discount!!

One of the more interesting stories was about this water filtering system below.  The initial owners of the home carried a piece of rock similar to lava on their ship.  They found they could filter muddy water through this piece of porous rock to make clear, and almost drinkable, water.   The water still needed to be boiled to eliminate bacteria.

When you walk through the historic downtown, you realize that many of the restaurants, bars and shops were originally homes.  Several of them are a couple of hundred years old.  Part of the downtown is a  pedestrian walkway with the occasional tourist trolley riding through.  Very fun.         

Several of the older homes just outside the shopping district are Bed and Breakfast establishments.  At one point close to the turn of the 20th century, St. Augustine became resort town for the wealthy which began the tourism industry that is thriving today.

Just across the main drag in the historic part of town is the fort known as Castillo de San Marcos.  It is now run by the National Park Service.  Also made of coquina, most of the fort walls are original to 1695.  The holes from canon fire are still visible.

The NPS does a wonderful job of explaining the history of the fort under several regimes.  They also have a cannon firing demonstration several times per day.  This really draws a crowd!!

Finally, the first thing the Spanish did when they landed in St. Augustine in September of 1565 was to celebrate Mass.  Johnny and I visited the mission of Nombre de Dios (below) just outside of the shopping district.  There is a museum that explains the early history of Catholicism in settling the area, especially describing the relationship with Native Americans.   In addition, there is a cemetery, the 7 sorrows of Mary, the shrine to Our Lady of La Leche, and other memorials.  It is a peaceful place.

Here is a photo of the recreated Rustic Altar where the first Mass in the New World was celebrated.

Our Lady of La Leche is the patron saint of expectant mothers.  Here is a beautiful chapel in her honor.

There is also a dedication to the 450th anniversary of the beginning of the Church in St. Augustine and North America.  This cross towers over the city.

Finally, the Basilica of St. Augustine calls itself "America's First Parish", established in 1565.  It is located in the historic downtown.  The building dates back to the late 1700s as all of the previous buildings had burned down either from attack or natural causes.

I found the interior particularly stunning.

Oops - one more thing.  There were too many visitors there to tour, but I couldn't leave without getting shot of the St. Augustine Lighthouse.  It's still active!!

Oldest City

Currently In:  Kissimmee, FL
We will be in Florida until mid January

What I found out in St. Augustine, other than it is the oldest continuously inhabited European settled city in North America, is that it rivals Savannah for tourism.  Granted we were there during a holiday weekend, but jeesh!  There were people everywhere.  But we were able to still do a bunch of fun stuff.

In this post I am going to share what we saw of nature and some other general fun that we had.  In my next post I will share some historical things we learned.  Let me start the fun post this way.

Here is one of my favorite views from the walk along the Matanzas River which borders St. Augustine.

We went to Anastasia State Park for a nature walk.  It had been a long time since we hiked! After a walk along the beach, which looks like many of the other beaches in Florida, we went for a walk on a trail through the park.   We saw a lot more tropical foliage, although you can't see much in this photo on the left.   I thought the bark on the slash pine tree (photo on right) was really cool.

We were also able to visit an alligator farm near St. Augustine Beach.  They house all 24 known  species of alligators and crocodiles.

Albino Alligator

 There were about 100 alligators in the area call "the swamp".  Yikes!

Johnny was able to wrestle him a large alligator!  He needed a little courage from the beer, though.

After all that excitement, we needed to relax...

San Sabastian Wine Tour

From Thanksgiving until after the New Year, St. Augustine celebrates the "Nights of Lights".  All of the businesses in the historical downtown put up white Christmas lights, so the whole town looks festive.  It's very pretty.

Even Santa makes an appearance.

And no Christmas light viewing would be complete without bagpipes - what???

Here is our campground's version of Nights of Lights.  Actually, they had an event for all guests to join - live band in the pavilion and a campfire.   Lots of folks dancing.  Our neighbor said it was the camping version of "clubbing"!

Thankful for our Blessings

Currently in : St. Augustine, FL
Will be in Florida all of December

Happy Thanksgiving to all!  I hope you enjoyed a blessed day.
We are most grateful for our friends and family and the opportunity to see this wonderful country of ours along with meeting people from all the places we visit.

Johnny and I woke up to this today:

It rained all last night and most of the day today.  I guess we're thankful for the rain!

Although we usually spend the day with family, since we are on our own this year we decided to reach out to others.  I called a few organizations in St. Augustine and found a group that was serving Thanksgiving dinner to anyone who wanted a hot meal.  The tables were set and looked nice

Johnny helped guests get their food, while I was on the line.

                             

We met some wonderful people including a few volunteers from Chicago.  We even got a couple of invitations to join people at their homes for Thanksgiving after this event was over.  So nice!

We got back to the RV in the early afternoon and it was time for turkey

And football!

I made the turkey in the Instant Pot in 45 minutes.  We had most of the traditional side dishes, but I cheated a lot and bought most of it.

We then walked down to the clubhouse where they were serving pie and ice cream.  We met some of our fellow Rvers and had a nice time.

We certainly had a memorable Thanksgiving!

Red Gate

Currently In: St. Augustine, FL
Will be in Florida through mid January

We pulled into Red Gate campground which is 10 minutes from Savannah and look what we found:

The Barn

Horses and Goats

The Chicken Coop

The RV park is a small farm where they set up part of the pasture with hook ups for RVs. It was kind of fun!  Beautiful property with horse trails and a nice pond.

We spent a couple of days exploring Historic Savannah.  It is definitely a tourist town! I love the way the whole city is set up around town squares.  It seems there are memorials, plaques, historic homes and buildings everywhere!  It is one mile north to south and one mile east to west, so a great walking town.  As usual, here are some of the highlights of our time in Savannah.

Forsyth Park had folks walking, running, playing soccer and having lunch.  The trees with the Spanish Moss were lovely.

I finally took a tour of Savannah's many churches, since Savannah is also known for religious tolerance.  Here are four of the more famous ones:

St. John the Baptist Cathedral

We attended Mass here Sunday morning.  As beautiful inside as it is outside.  The church was first dedicated in 1876, rebuilt after a fire in 1898 and restored in 2000.  There is an interesting history of Catholics in Savannah.

First African Baptist Church
Although the building dates back to 1860, the congregation originated in 1774.  The building was built by slaves and hid runaway slaves until the Civil War.

Mickve Israel

This Jewish congregation is the 3rd oldest in the United States, although this building is from 1878. It was founded by mostly Sephardic Jews from Spain in 1735.  Interestingly, we were there on a Sunday as a number of people were leaving.  One man told us that the Lutheran Church was being renovated and they were holding services in the temple!

Independent Presbyterian Church

This conjuration was founded in 1755.  My photo doesn't really show it, but this building is HUGE!  Most of the churches were closed when we were visiting so we couldn't go inside.  

Another highlight of our tour was the Central Georgia Railroad museum.  There is just half of the roundhouse left standing.

The railroad was created in the mid 1800s and was the largest employer in Savannah in the 1920s.  When diesel engines were developed, the need for this repair shop was gone and the complex closed in the 1960s.  

We took a short ride on a working steam locomotive and learned more about the history of the railroad.

Johnny loved the tour!

So, Savannah has to-go cups.  Anyone can walk around with alcohol as long as it is in the plastic cup.  We took our to-go cups to the City Market and listened to some music.  Good people watching here.

Two other parts of Savannah that captivated us.  First, the River Walk.  

Ship sculpture on the River Walk

Given Savannah's geography, it was the perfect location to ship cotton from the south.  These old buildings used to house the cotton.  Did you notice the Irish flags?  Savannah has a huge Irish population brought here by work on the railroad.  It has the second largest St. Patrick's Day parade in the world! 

There are lots of Irish bars, too.  We stopped in one that used to be part of the cotton industry.  The bartender told us that the building dates from the 1700s and the brick was still original, although the wood floor was only 200 years old.  

I found a lighthouse in this area too!  The Old Harbor Light might look like a street lamp, but was used to help boats navigate the Savannah River.

Finally, outside of the historic downtown is the Bonaventure Cemetery.  The trees along with the unusual headstones give this public cemetery an ethereal feel.  Here are a couple of interesting sculptures.

We have been to several cemeteries since that start of this journey - Johnny thinks I am a bit obsessed!  There is so much historical significance that I find fascinating.