St Augustine

St. Augustine is a great place to visit. First, there are the birds. Just look at this Snowy Egret, strutting his stuff while hunting for small fish at the water's edge.

We spent a couple of days sight-seeing. We visited Flagler Collage. It's a 4 yr, accredited collage, no religious affliliationsions, and about 1/3 the cost of the average private collage in the US today.

It was built by Henry Flagler (partner of John Rockefeller, co-founder of Standard Oil) as the grandest hotel in Florida. Guests were there only by Mr Flagler's invitation, and had to purchase their rooms for an entire season. Flagler was the primary developer of Florida, pushing his rail road first to St Augustine, and then farther south. At each further extension, he built an opulent, exclusive, hotel. He's the one that initailly connected all the Florida Keys by rail road bridges. The Flagler Hotel was first in the state to have electric lights. It's said that one of the wives of Mr. Flagler even put light bulbs in the mouths of the downspouts...

They have the largest collection of original Tiffany glass in the US.

I loved some of the architecture. Look at this fish in the water. Just one of those small touches all over the building.

How's this for a collage dining room hall....

On the street outside of the collage sat the usual vendors. I thought this one was interesting. She was reading a Russian language newspaper and he had brought his battery on a cart so he could use his computer all day. They were selling some sort of red jewelry.... no I didn't buy any.

We also visited the Lightner Museum, a "lower calss" hotel built across the street by Flagler for guests who did not make the grade to the Flagler hotel.

The Lightner Museum has an endlesss collection of late 19 th, early 20th century "Golden Age" artifacts, ranging from ceramics to crystal, clothes, cutlery, stuffed animals, ladies hats, even a shrunken head.

Luke's favorite, the mechanical musical instruments. These included very sophisticated multi disc music boxes, including the Nickelodion, Violano-Virtuoso and even a German mechanical piano/band.

The old city is full of old buildings turned into shops, etc.

There are a lot of parks, this one dedicated to Queen Isabella.

Of course, we had to visit the fort, Castillo de san Marcos. A wonderful old fort.

They had musket exhibitions while we were there.

We made our way to Daytona today via the ICW. A little tight with "thin" water. We think we'll take the outside route on the way back ... :-)