Fri., Nov. 5, 2021 thru Thurs., Nov. 11, 2021
It was cloudy leaving Skidaway Island State Park on Friday, Nov. 5th, and we drove into rain. We traveled 180 miles south on I-95 and landed at Compass RV Park in St. Augustine, FL, considered the nation’s oldest city, founded in 1565. Wow. This is our first of five stops in Florida. A few facts about Florida: it has 30,000 named lakes, 600 varieties of fish, and over 1,000 miles of sandy beaches, compared to NH’s 17 miles of coastline, lol.
It was pouring as we were setting up at the campground. Always fun. Cheryl & Joe were parked next to us and arrived shortly before we did. Cheryl was already inside and Joe quickly followed once he’d taken care of the bare outside necessities. We did the same.
It continued to rain for 24 hours and finally stopped about the time that we had to head out Saturday afternoon for our booster Moderna shots. The pharmacist said we could expect some side effects in 24 to 48 hours. But for the short term we were feeling fine. Saturday night Cheryl & Joe came over after dinner and brought a delicious homemade apple crisp for dessert. After we all scoffed that down, we headed to the rec center at the campground for some live music. Attendance was light. There was a guitarist who also sang, and he was quite good. About half-way through the evening, a harmonica player, who was a fellow camper and had just arrived to the campground, also joined in to entertain us. He was positively awesome and tried not to upstage the guitarist. He plays in a band in his hometown of Biloxi, MS so not a novice. Cheryl & Joe even took to the dance floor. C&J have been ballroom dancing for over 25 years and can dance like nobody’s business. Now if only my hubby would be willing to let them teach us a thing or two, he’d have a very happy wife!
We went up after the music had ended for the evening to chat with the harmonica player and he gave us his business card. He said if we’re every in Biloxi he’ll take us out on his yacht! We actually will be in Biloxi for a few days in February. We’ll see if this happens or not. But either way, this is one of the reasons why we love RV traveling so much! These impromptu special nights!
Gary & I decided we should probably take it a little easy on Sunday after the boosters. We had some side effects, although nothing terrible. We did laundry, chatted via phone with some friends and family, I worked on the blog, and Gary researched health care plans since we have to re-sign up this month for the Affordable Care Act.
Monday we were feeling better and headed out to explore parts of St. Augustine that we hadn’t seen on previous visits. For starters, we visited Castillo de San Marcos. It’s the oldest masonry fort in the continental U.S at 325 years, and sits on the Atlantic IntraCoastal waterway. Fabulous location, although with some flooding today because of the heavy rains and King tides over the past 24 hours. The fort was interesting with quite a storied past… built by the Spanish, then taken over by the British, then controlled by the U.S. Oy. Can make a person dizzy. The walls of the fort are made of coquina, “tiny seashells compressed into limestone over thousands of years.” A walk up to the top of the fort was rewarded with a beautiful view overlooking Matanzas Bay.
Afterwards we walked along the historic 1840’s seawall along the bay. The seawall has been reinforced in recent years with a living seawall created by the National Park Service made of coquina boulders. Silt fills the space between the two walls (new and old) preventing further erosion but allowing mangrove and marsh grasses to grow, which then allows habitat for small marine life.
We continued to follow the seawall and walked past the Bridge of Lions (gorgeous) that connects St. Augustine to Anastasia Island. Then we wandered into Aviles Street, the oldest “Original Street” in the nation and home to the largest collection of art galleries in St. Augustine. Can you say heaven? We visited some fabulous galleries and had a wonderful conversation with one of the owners. He was a Boston Univ. grad from the 1960s and taught at the Rhode Island School of Design for a number of years. He shared how he came by his “dingbat” font lead slugs that are 150 years old and how he’s currently using these same forms to make some of his jewelry. For those unfamiliar, dingbat is a typeface of decorative characters. The gallery owner’s friend, an elderly gentleman, owned a printing business that was shutting down. His friend invited him to take whatever he wanted from the studio, and the gallery owner chose the 150-year old lead slugs. While at the studio, his assistant offered to clean my diamond ring and pendant. So sweet. A delightful day!
On Tuesday we visited Anastasia State Park with Cheryl & Joe, which is located across from St. Augustine separated by the Intracoastal waterway. It’s a beautiful state park with a campground, hiking trails, fishing areas and 4 miles of beaches. We checked out the campground (too tight for our big rigs) and walked part of the beach, which was fun because of the high surf, the aftermath of the weekend’s 3″ of rain and King tides. Afterwards we visited St. John’s County Fishing Pier and explored a local art gallery over there. Then we drove over to see the St. Augustine Lighthouse. You can climb 219 stairs to the top. We did not. Instead we admired it from the outside. Then to cap off the day we did a 1 1/2 hour harbor boat tour and enjoyed an adult beverage while sailing. Not a bad way to spend a day!
Wednesday Gary & I visited the Lightner Museum in St. Augustine, originally built by Henry Flagler in 1888. It was called the Alcazar Hotel and boasted the largest indoor pool in the world, and an interior designed by Tiffany. It closed in 1931, and eventually it was bought by Otto Lightner, known as “America’s King of Hobbies.” He was a self-made, wealthy newspaper editor and publisher, and was the owner/publisher of “Hobbies,” an antiques and collectibles magazine during the Great Depression that advocated collecting. Not sure how people would have had money to collect things during the depression but whatever. He bought the old hotel and turned it into a museum showcasing furniture from the Gilded Age, a Tiffany stained glass collection, and his personal non-playing musical instrument collection among others. It’s a unique building for a museum with very unique objects. Beautiful.
Thursday, Nov. 11th, was our last day in St. Augustine. We visited Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL and did a 5 mile hike. We saw an osprey, tri-colored heron (we think), armadillo (2 of them), and a snake that I almost stepped on. I let out a scream on that one. Plus we chatted with a Flagler College senior who was tasked with tagging gopher tortoises as part of her capstone project. They are studying why the gophers here at the estuarine are covered in tics and the ones at the beach have no tics. I guess that’s important. She was nice enough to point one of the gophers out to us as it went scurrying into its hole, even though it meant she missed capturing it, and meant she had to stay there a little longer to entice it back out. A fun way to spend our last day in the nation’s oldest city! Plus we enjoyed a yummy stir-fry dinner prepared by Cheryl, and we all enjoyed playing cards afterwards before leaving in the morning for Hobe Sound, Florida.
