St. Augustine, Florida

Visited Jan. 23-28, 2021

By Marty

It was recommended to us by a couple that we met in our Tucson RV park last year that St. Augustine was a "must see" when visiting Florida.  This turned out to be a good recommendation. We spent six nights in St. Augustine, visiting the historic city center on three different occasions. We learned a few things on a walking tour and the Old Town Trolley tour.

I honestly had no clue about the historical significance of St. Augustine.  And I'm somewhat of a history buff!  I just figured it was another city in Florida where people went to visit and/or retire to enjoy the warm weather and a reasonable cost of living.

St. Augustine was initially claimed by Ponce De Leon (gotta love that name!) for Spain in 1513 (long time ago, right? not so long after Chris Columbus made his big discovery.) A permanent colony wasn't founded until 1565 by Spain's preeminent Admiral and explorer at the time, Pedro Menendez de Aviles. St. Augustine is the oldest permanent European settlement in today's continental United States (eat your heart out Jamestown and Plymouth Colony!)

 St. Augustine and Florida were part of the vast Spanish Empire to the south and west while the Brits were doing their thing a little farther north. St. Augustine's location was pivotal to the Spanish empire because its impregnable fort (the now 450 year old San Castillo de San Marcos) protected the city and deterred any attempts by the British to expand their colonies southward beyond South Carolina. St Augustine was also essential to protection of the Spanish treasure ships as they followed the Gulf Stream along the Florida coast on their booty filled return trip to Spain.

St. Augustine was under Spanish control for over 330 years, with a "brief" 20 year period in which it was a British colony (1763-1783). Spain ceded Florida to the United States in 1819. I was surprised to learn that Florida wasn't granted statehood until 1845 as the 27th state. Given it's proximity to the original 13 colonies, and how many New York retirees live there, I would have thought statehood was granted much earlier than that ....

St. Augustine Lighthouse and Maritime Museum

Did you know that the paint scheme (colors and/or pattern) are unique for every one of the lighthouses on the Atlantic coast? Either did we until we took the Lighthouse Keepers tour. This is so that ships at sea could use their handy reference chart to identify exactly where they were along the coast.

We were able to access the Fresnel lens room on our tour. Notice the land is at the top and ocean and sky at the bottom in this photo. Weird.

This is the original 1874 Fresnel lens. A 1,000 watt light bulb serves as the light source (prior to 1936 the light source was an oil lantern that used heated pig lard in the early years and kerosene after that.)

There are 370 individual prisms which cast the 1,000 watt light source 20 miles out to sea. Also know that each lighthouse has a unique flashing pattern so that ships at sea can identify the lighthouse (when the paint job isn't visible.) Smart, right? 

 

One of the Lions flanking either side of the Bridge of Lions crossing the Matanzas river to Anastasia Island

The former Ponce De Leon Hotel (The Ponce), now Flagler University

The Ponce de Leon hotel was constructed by Henry Flagler in 1888. Flagler was a pal of John D. Rockefeller and co-founder of Standard Oil. Flagler saw the potential of St. Augustine as a winter resort for wealthy northerners. The 540 room hotel was the first of its kind, constructed entirely of poured concrete. Thomas Edison was a personal friend of Flagler's; consequently the Ponce was the first building in the world to be wired for electricity and constructed with that in mind. Because guests were wary of this new technology Flagler hired staff to turn the light switches on and off. There is much more to know about the hotel, it's significance and opulence, but I'd bore you if I kept going..

In late 1967 the hotel was no longer viable and closed down operation. The following year it became the centerpiece of the newly established Flagler College. 

Normally one can tour the college and grounds, but due to Covid, access was restricted to students.  Next time! 

  Pedro Menendez de Aviles, founder of St. Augustine: in the flesh!

The Castillo de San Marcos was constructed by the Spanish in 1672. It is the oldest masonry fort in the continental USA.  Nine different wooden forts previously occupied this well positioned location on the Matanzas* harbor after the founding of St. Augustine. One after another, over a hundred years or so, each one burned down or was otherwise destroyed. Spain finally agreed to fund a more durable building material for the fort...

*Gruesome fact: Matanzas is Spanish for "slaughter".  The name derives from the execution of over a hundred shipwrecked French Huguenots by the Spanish under the leadership of Pedro Menendez de Aviles (St. Augustine's founder).  The French had established a foothold on the Florida coast north of St. Augustine.  The Spanish crown ordered Menendez to take out the French, as the Spanish didn't want to be competing with the French AND the British in North America. Colonial life was no picnic!

To be fair it wasn't totally ruthless on Pedro's part. The French had sent a fleet down the coast to St. Augustine to take out the Spanish. The Spanish lucked out when a storm destroyed most of the French fleet, leaving the survivors stranded and at the mercy of Pedro's guys. Dog eat dog world...

If you want to learn more about the founding of St. Augustine read this:

https://www.history.com/news/st-augustine-first-american-settlement

 

Flagler University

Nights of Lights

St Augustine public and commercial spaces throughout the historic district are lit up from mid November until the end of January each year. In 2011 and 2012 "Nights of Lights" was chosen by National Geographic as one of the ten best holiday lighting displays in the world. It was very cool!

From the Bridge of Lions looking at historic district Nights of Lights

Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia

Visited Jan. 23, 2021

By Janell

On our drive from Jekyll Island, GA to St. Augustine, FL, we decided to squeeze in a swamp tour. Normally, travel days are just that, and there are no extra activities. Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in Folkston, GA is the largest swamp in North America, covering roughly 700 square miles. Visiting it added an hour to our drive that day (plus the time for the tour), but it was so worth it!

Our guide, Jenny, a Naturalist

 

 

The water was so smooth and glassy!

 

For weeks now that we’ve been in the south, we’ve seen signs warning of alligators “No swimming - Alligators” or “Swim at Own Risk” (Really??!!). But we had not seen one gator! Mind you, it was a thrill I was looking forward to with a great amount of apprehension.

The reason we hadn’t seen any up to this point had to do with the weather. We had learned that gators don’t come out much if the weather’s not warm enough. This led us to wonder, where do they go? So, I consulted Google. When the temperature drops lower than 40 degrees, alligators go into a hibernation-like state called brumation. Their metabolisms slow down dramatically and they become lethargic. They stick their snouts through the surface, which allows them to breathe above the ice.

While the daytime temps we had been seeing weren’t that cold, it hadn’t exactly been sunbathing weather either. This particular day though, was probably in the mid-60’s, with sunshine. We had hopes for a gator sighting or two!

Our guide, Jenny, knew where a mother gator liked to hang out most days, and she steered the boat in that direction. Sure enough, there was a big gator snout sticking up just above the water. It was perfectly still though, and I did have to wonder if this was a real alligator or just some plastic prop. At another grassy site, Jenny showed us an alligator that, although we saw more of the body, it was again perfectly still. Another prop?

I think my skepticism comes from my dad. I remember being on a bus tour in Kauai when I was nine. A wild boar ran across the road in front of our bus. As the tour guide was excitedly pointing it out to us, I remember my dad’s skeptical comment to Mom and me, “there’s probably a guy out there who just let it go.” So, there you go!

Anyway, all that to say, these gators were the real deal! Not long after those two “still-life” gators, I spotted a gator head swimming through the water nearby! And then things got even more exciting after that, as you can see!

 

Does this guy give you goosebumps?!

Jenny pointed out this red-shouldered hawk, as well as lots of other wildlife

 

Turtles also like to sunbathe

We were in a boat just like this one

 

 

Back at the Visitor Center

 

Jekyll Island, Georgia

Visited Jan. 20-22, 2021

By Marty

What a find this place was! Just 90 miles down the coast from Savannah, Jekyll is Georgia's smallest barrier islands. We spent only three nights on the Island, one of our shorter stops. Our modus operandi is to spend 5-7 nights in each location. This gives us 4-6 full days (i.e., not counting the travel day) to explore an area (or to run errands, or stay "home" and do chores, research, relax, etc.) 

With just the three nights on Jekyll Island we had one full day to explore the small island but were precluded by rain from doing very much on our other day. 

Jekyll Island’s long ago claim to fame was the Jekyll Island Club, founded in 1888 as an exclusive hunting and recreational club. Its members came from many of the world’s wealthiest families, including the Morgans, Rockefellers and Vanderbilts. The club thrived through the early 20^th century but closed in 1942 due to the Great Depression induced declining wealth of its members and labor supply challenges during World War II. In 1947 the island was purchased by the State of Georgia from the club’s remaining members for $675,000  (As Pete Townsend of The Who once wrote “I’d call that a bargain… the best I’ve ever had.”)

The Jekyll Island Club was restored and reopened as a hotel. We did not have our crisp white croquet outfits on hand so we were not invited to play with these folks...  Cheerio?

Jekyll Island is one of Georgia’s barrier islands, one of only four islands that have a paved causeway connection to the mainland. The state owned island includes Jekyll Island State Park, where we stayed in the campground.

Driftwood Beach at sunrise

Reading about Driftwood Beach was the primary reason we chose to visit Jekyll Island.  Driftwood Beach did not disappoint!  We got up early to be there at sunrise (fortunately for us sunrise wasn't until 7:23 a.m. AND the beach was only a half mile from our campground.)

The beach is littered with dead pine and oak tress, some standing, some not. This is due to the island slowly eroding away and being deposited on the south end of the island.

There is a 20 mile multi use trail circling the island. Wherever we visit we look for off street bike trails, preferably paved but a dense crushed rock will suffice. My 3,800 miles of pedaling in traffic lanes in 2019 rather wore me out on competing with cars while we pedal. Jekyll Island has one of the best bike paths we've pedaled on our trip.  The pavement was in great condition and the scenery (water views, beautiful vegetation, and Spanish moss draped trees) was outstanding!

This house was built in 1743 by Major William Horton, the first English resident of Jekyll Island. If you're looking for a home with plenty of fresh air, this is the one for you! The home was constructed with “Tabby”, a type of concrete made by burning oyster shells to create lime, them mixing it with water, sand, ash and broken oyster shells. Tabby was normally protected with a coating of plaster or stucco.  Look closely at the exposed parts of the wall and you can see the oyster shells.

Intruder!