We left Savannah and headed south with St. Augustine as our destination. As soon as we hit the expressway we started to hit the ”love bugs”. They covered our windshield and I thought that I was going to have to really work on the front end to get it clean. Then the downpours came and although the driving was slowed the bugs were washed away.
Thank goodness!
We crossed the St. John’s River near Jacksonville on our way down:
It’s such a beautiful structure!
The rain slowed our progress as we were trying to get set up in time to see the Artemis I launch. We learned that the mission was scrubbed and it would be rescheduled at a future time.
St. Augustine is the oldest settlement in America? You thought it was Plymouth Rock of 1620, right? Wrong! In 1513 Ponce de Leon claimed Florida for Spain. In September of 1565 Pedro Menendez along with 700 colonists and soldiers landed in St. Augustine making it the oldest continually occupied European settlement in North America! And now you know!
We stayed at the St. Augustine Beach KOA where we had stayed the first time we were in the area three years ago. Nothing special but a great location! We decided to head into the historic downtown area and look around to find a place to eat. Here’s a view of the pedestrian St. George Street:
We settled at a little place called Boat Drinks for dinner at the bar.
Fun place with decent food and drinks!
Facebook can be used for all sorts of things, but my favorite is to reunite with people from your past. Case in point, Cindy Page (Insel) a classmate of mine from our years at St. Peter’s Lutheran Elementary in Schaumburg, IL and I reconnected. Cindy and her husband Patrick moved to the St. Augustine area six years ago to take care of Cindy’s parents. Via Messenger we had a chance to meet up with them for dinner the following evening at the Conch House.
What a fun place with great seafood! We met out in the Tiki Bar on the pier for a few drinks and we could hear the band playing. We had to wait over an hour to get a seat, but once we got in we were served quickly. Check out the place as viewed from the pier:
Those are individual tables perched over the water!
Cindy and Patrick invited us over for a home cooked meal at her dad’s house the next evening. We said our goodbyes and headed home.
The next day Katrina found pickleball:
Nice courts with some competitive play! She was able to play a few times whilst we were there.
We headed over for dinner and had a wonderful evening! Patrick had smoked a brisket and Cindy made the rest if the meal. It was very nice having a sit down meal at a real dining table! They even invited Bear to come over and enjoy running around! Well I can tell you it was a great evening because we forgot to take any pictures!
The next day Katrina and I got some work done around the coach before heading over to Salt Life for dinner. We sat near the bar so that we could watch some of the US Open. We had wonderful Ahi Tuna – it’s nice to be back on the coast. After dinner we went back to the Busse Bus.
The following day we headed over to see and climb the lighthouse.
The eight tallest along the eastern seacoast. 219 steps up:
Worth the views:
We could even see the Conch House:
Guess what? There were 219 steps back down!
We left the lighthouse and headed over to Ponce de Leon’s Fountain of Youth. A natural spring that is supposed to extend your life if you drink the water:
After a cup of the fabled water I do feel a bit younger! The Fountain of Youth is an archaeological park that offers many other attractions other than the spring.
Monuments:
Re-enactments:
Homage to Native Americans:
One if the most interesting displays was called Discovery Globe which we didn’t get a picture of. State of the Art back in the 1950’s and still interesting today.
We had dinner in and relaxed the rest of the evening.
The next day we did a little more shopping in the historic downtown area before we found a great little place for a drink called Chianti. The bartender was extremely qualified as he mixed up some type of bourbon drink for me. Since we were meeting Cindy and Patrick for dinner I let them know where we were and they joined us for a drink. We walked over to Casa Reina Taqueria and Tequila for a delicious meal. They had not been there before so it was an extra special evening! Once again we had such a great time that we forgot to take pictures! After saying our goodbyes to my long lost friend we headed back to the coach.
Goodbye Cindy and Patrick! It was great seeing you and getting reacquainted! Next time we won’t forget to take more pictures and even show your our house on wheels!
The following morning we packed up and were in our way to central Florida and Silver Springs.
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