Southeast Coastal Holiday

Dear Family and Friends,

During the first half of December, Chuck and I took a tour of the Southeast Coast.  We traveled from St Augustine, FL north to Charleston, SC.  Over the next couple of weeks I'll be sharing some pictures of our trip.  

This post will consist of pictures of St. Augustine, FL., the oldest city in the continental United States. We were only there for one day.  The first half of the day was watching their annual Christmas parade.  It was a fun, typical small town parade.  The second part of the day we took a trolley tour through the historic district.  

After the parade was over, we grabbed a bite of lunch and then went to the first trolley stop to grab a trolley to tour the historic part of city.

This is the St Augustine fort.  The actual name is Castillo de San Marcus.  It is the oldest masonry fort in the continental United States. It is a large Spanish stone fortress built to protect and defend Spain's claims in the New World. It is over 350 years old.

The church below is the Memorial Presbyterian Church located in the historic district.  It was constructed in 1889 by Henry Morrison Flagler. It was dedicated to the memory of his daughter who died following complications from childbirth at sea in March, 1889.

Below, is Flagler college.  The centerpiece of this college is the Ponce de Leon Hotel, built in 1888 as a luxury hotel.  The college was founded in 1968 and named for the same Flagler mentioned above, an industrialist, oil magnate and railroad pioneer.

The photo below is of the Lightner Museum.  It is housed in the former Alcazar Hotel and dates back to 1888.

This is hotel Casa Monica.  It was built 1888. Back in the day, wealthy people traveled from the north to spend the winter season in St. Augustine.  Today it is still a hotel and is operated by Marriot.  If you care to stay here for a night, expect to pay about $350.

Below is the oldest "Ripley's Believe It or Not" museum.  The museum is housed in a building that was built in 1887 as the home of William G. Warden of Philadelphia. Although it is huge, it was built as Warden's winter home. 

Here are a few photos for fun.

Chuck being sized up by the local sheriff.

We went to the Fountain of Youth.  FYI, it is a HOAX!

 A lovely street, lined with live oaks that are draped in Spanish moss.

A photo I snapped of someone's backyard.  I found it odd that it looked so lush in December.  It made perfect sense that the wealthy in the Northeast states would winter here.

A resident peacock near the Fountain of Youth.

It would have been nice if we had another day in Saint Augustine.  That is a downside to being on a tour.  Everything is on a fixed schedule.  On the other hand, we did not have to worry about booking hotels or transportation.  

The next place we went was to Jekyll Island, Georgia.

I will share about that in my next post.   

Love,

Nancy