So - there we were on Thursday morning, Oct 14 (Happy Birthday, Whitney), trying to decide where to go first. Our decision led us to the St Augustine Visitor Center where a very nice volunteer pointed out different things to see on foot. Our first stop was the Castillo de San Marcos. Construction on this fort was started in 1672 by the Spanish. During British occupation (1763 to 1784) it was named Fort St Mark; it was renamed Fort Marion in 1821 after Florida became a US Territory. In 1942 Congress restored the name to Castillo de San Marcos. This is the oldest masonry fort in the US. It is made of a stone called coquina which is similar to limestone and made up mostly of little shells. When first quarried, it is too soft to use for building, so it needs to dry for one to three years before using. The good thing, though, it is soft enough that cannon balls would sink into it rather than shatter or puncture. The fort is very interesting - it had a moat and drawbridge, look-out towers, bronze cannons. The design of the fort made it difficult to penetrate by the enemy, and it endured many battles in many wars.
We left the fort and walked to the entrance of Old St Augustine. As one would expect, there are many tourist traps (souvenir shops, eateries, expensive shops) along the way. We saw the Oldest Wooden Schoolhouse, built before 1763. Stopped for a hot dog at TP's Crazy Dogs - we ate outside in a lovely courtyard surrounded by some of the most incredible flowering vines - one was a bleeding heart vine, but I have no idea what the other was - Rocky? After our bellies were filled, it was time to continue our walk through the old streets. We walked to the Gonzalez-Alvarez House - the oldest surviving house in Florida - where we were just in time for the guided tour. It is estimated that the house was built around 1723 and was resided in by the Gonzalez family for 40 years until the British took control of Florida. A wealthy Englishman lived there from 1775 until he died in 1784. Two years later his widow married a young Irishman about half her age - gee, there were cougars way back then. This young man liked to gamble and incurred so much debt that his wife had to auction her home in 1790 - he was also banished from St Augustine, so they moved to her country home. The winning bid for the house was a Spaniard named Alvarez, and his family lived in the house for almost 100 years. There is so much more history of this house - check it out on the internet if you're interested.
By the time we were done with the "oldest house", we were ready to head to our car. Unfortunately, our car was several blocks away. There was still a lot to see, but it seemed like the return was much farther than getting there. We did see a lovely cottage for sale for a mere $699,000. This little cottage was only 5800 sq ft, had 7 bedrooms and 5+ bathrooms. Nice little vacation home, don't you think? We finally made it back to the parking garage and returned to our motel.
Friday morning we visited the Fountain of Youth before heading to Tallahassee. We probably should have done that the day before - maybe we would have been energized by the "special" water. We both had a little drink of this youth potion - alas, we felt just as old as we did before drinking it! We walked the grounds, saw a Native American exhibit (Timucua), watched the peacocks and squirrels - and definitely did not feel any younger!
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