Tortuga Tour Day 49-50: St. Augustine

Tortuga Tour Day 49-50: St. Augustine

June 7-8, 2021

Touring St. Augustine With Miriam and Phoebe

As with so many of the well-known tourist cities that we travel to, there is part of the city designed especially for visitors to enjoy, and then there is the part tourists rarely see – the engine and power that supplies the tourist sector.  This was the case in both Key West and St. Augustine.

St. Augustine City Marina with Betty Lou about halfway down on the left

Founded in 1565, St. Augustine is the oldest continuously inhabited European city in the contiguous US. We arrived early enough at the St. Augustine City Marina, in the historic district, to get laundry done and then take a walk–with the ultimate goal of getting ice cream!  We have been without for a very long time!  There is a long walking street with shops and restaurants on both sides and plenty of visitors walking around.  It was late enough to eat supper before ice cream, and we had all agreed on pizza.  Miriam guided us to a place called Pizza Time (the 2nd best pizza in the US!) with good choices and pizza by the slice so we could each get what we wanted.  There was a long line, but it moved quickly.  The large pieces were filling, but with this crew, there is always room for ice cream! 

Years ago, when we first visited St. Augustine in our old Betty Lou, we were introduced to Kilwin’s.  It is still here, but we opted to try a local ice cream shop, a place called Tedi’s Olde Tyme Ice Cream.  Servings and taste satisfied our craving, and we were all happy.  Showers, clean laundry, a beautiful city to explore, two nights in a marina with AC, being with family, what more could we want or need right now?  Tomorrow we would visit the old fort, try another ice cream shop, and get groceries to last the rest of the voyage.

Waking before noon can be a struggle for teens and those who recently graduated from the teenage years.  We did however succeed to rouse our crew early enough to take advantage of seeing a very old fort within walking distance of the marina. 

Up “early” on the way to Fort Castillo de San Marcos; passing the statues that give the name to the Bridge of Lions

Due to COVID, only 100 people are allowed in at one time.  We ended up having to wait in line.  There was no shade, so Fred offered to stay in line while the rest of the crew sought shade.  When he called us back, he was near the head of the line and holding a sun reflective umbrella provided by the park service.  I didn’t know there was such a thing, but if I find one I can purchase, it would be worth every penny.

Waiting to get into the fort

The name of the fort is Castillo de San Marcos.  It is a National Monument and is North America’s oldest masonry fortification.  Ground was broken in 1672.  Heavy slabs of coquina were quarried from Anastasia Island and hauled to the mainland.  Over 150 million pounds were quarried.  That’s a lot of heavy work without the equipment we have available today.  The fort has a rich and interesting history which I encourage you to look up and read.  I have included some of the history in the photos [see end of this post].  It was built by the Spanish long before Florida was a state.

By the time we finished touring the fort, it was lunch time.  Miriam found a place called Spanish Bakery and Café.  We all agreed to try it which seemed appropriate after visiting a Spanish fort.  The food was not unique, but it was fine.  Truth be told, the anticipated ice cream stop was more exciting than lunch anyway.  We checked out a shop called Mayday Ice Cream where Miriam got a combination of strawberry mint and a lavender flavored ice cream.  The rest of us decided to go to Kilwin’s – so good!

Spanish Bakery & Cafe

Touring the business side of St. Augustine (getting groceries)

We spent the morning as tourists, but the afternoon would be for grocery shopping and boat washing.  Some marinas will provide a car for their boat guests.  This one does not.  Our options were taxi, Uber, or bus.  Walking or bike riding were not recommended.  We had a bus schedule and the times for going and returning from the Publix worked with our schedule, and it was the least expensive.  We needed more groceries than two people could manage but with four of us it was doable.  So we took our cloth bags and two backpacks and walked to the bus stop which was right in front of the Flagler College Auditorium. 

St. Augustine bus stop at Flagler College

One of the attractions I remember the most from our previous trips to St. Augustine, is the Spanish style architecture, and the buildings of Flagler College are examples of this.  We were early enough to catch the bus that we had time to get some pictures.  Flagler College is a small, private liberal arts college founded in 1968.  Probably one of the most well-known buildings is what was the Ponce de Leon Hotel which was built in 1888.  The college was named after Henry Morrison Flagler, industrialist, oil magnate, and railroad pioneer. 

Old Ponce de Leon Hotel, now Flagler College
Lightner Museum courtyard

I was surprised when the bus pulled up. Instead of the usual city bus size, this was the size of our church bus.  There is very little mask wearing in St. Augustine, but masks are required on the bus, and everyone complies.  The bus took us right to the front door of Publix.  We divided the list, found everything we needed, self-checked, paid, and bagged, all in the amount of time we had before the bus returned to take us back.  We only waited about 10 minutes, and it was the same bus and driver.  I am glad we opted for the bus.  It was a positive experience and gave us some exercise.

While we were gone, another boat had pulled into the slip next to us.  The owners were washing the outside.  We were also greeted by their nine-month-old puppy, Hugo.  Our groceries barely made it onto the boat.  Miriam and Phoebe seem to fall in love with every dog they meet.  Hugo seemed to fall in love with them as well.  They entertained each other for about 30 minutes. 

Hugo

We cooked and ate supper on the boat, took showers and prepped for our trip to Cumberland Island.                                                                

Best restaurant in town

Captain’s Comments:

Rock Hill has a nicer bus system than St. Augustine.  Yeah!!!  Riding the bus always gives a different perspective than driving a car.  In this case, the bus driver had to drive in to each big box parking lot to drop passengers off reasonably close to the stores, turn around, and go back out to the main road—very inefficient.  Imagine if a city was built so the places people needed to go to (stores, offices) were right next to the road/sidewalk/bike lane, with pullout lanes for mass transit, with parking lots for cars in the back of the stores.  And with shade everywhere.

This trip wasn’t planned to be a review of US military history, but it is ending up providing some good lessons.  This time, the old Spanish fort in St. Augustine, along with the many times it changed hands as a result of war/treaty.  We passed another fort at the Matanzas inlet that guarded the back door to St. Augustine from Cuba.  Later, we’ll pass a fort at the entrance to the St. Mary’s River, prior to passing the US ballistic missile submarine base at King’s Bay.  So much of our (both the US and the world) history is shaped by war.  I’m regretting not being a better history student in my youth.

Two stops for ice cream didn’t seem like enough after such a long drought, but it will have to do.

Peace  fks

Carvings like this were on the walls everywhere. Many British ships around 1800 had stripes that looked checkered when the gun port doors were opened–referred to as the “Nelson Checker” after Horatio Nelson.
Replica British-era (1763-1783) bunk would have slept 4 soldiers, two on top and two on bottom. These “mess mates” were the basic unit in the British Army. Space at the foot of the bunk for 4 guns and 4 coats.
Parade ground
Protection for land attack
So many inventions great and small while trying to kill the other before they kill us