Fryedaze Cruising Adventures: Saint Augustine Florida

WOW! What a gorgeous city and unlike Marineland my childhood memories did not disappoint. We timed our arrival into the marina at the start of slack tide. Currents run very swiftly through the area during high and low tide so we were advised to arrive at slack tide- which we did around 1:30. It was a very different "run" up the ICW to St. Augustine as we actually needed to waste time so we followed a sailboat. This proved to be advantageous in the really skinny water areas (if he could go through so could we) and it ate up some of the time. We ended up having to go around him at a bridge that he needed to have an opening and we did not. Then as luck would have it (or not) we picked up a push from the current and were going 10 mph- not what we wanted for our scheduled 2:30 time. But we got to the marina and had excellent help getting tide in and Dave did a great job pulling right in! This marina has lots of experience with cruisers having difficulty because of the current and insists that you not call them until all your fenders and lines are set. Not a problem on FRYEDAZE! When we pulled in our always ready friends- Ben and Jane were there to assist. Ben helped the dockmaster tie our lines and gave us his usual hearty greeting! Jane and I immediately made plans to catch a cab to Publix as soon as their mechanic left the boat. We went with a not too scrupulous cab driver who took as to the Publix the farthest away. Oh well, we very efficiently finished all our shopping and were on the way back to the marina in under 35 minutes!

That evening we had plans with Jane and Ben to go to Scarlett O'Hara's for dinner (thanks Bonnie for the great recommendation) and then to the Ghost Tour at 8:20. Dinner was excellent, checked out the haunted bar upstairs, had a quick drink at Sangria's and then on to the tour. It was a lot of fun and we weren't too spooked until afterwards when we looked at Ben's pictures and Dave's video. There were orbs in almost all the pictures and Dave's video around the cemetery was creepy with what we all described as white noise and film. We stopped at the No Name Bar and reviewed the pictures and enjoyed one last nightcap!

JamminJane left the next day and Dave went to visit with his friend Greg Hartaft who has the sister boat to FRYEDAZE. He was gone the entire day so I got to do something that I haven't done since we left on the Loop. I went shopping (well mostly window shopping), walked all around the area scoping out places to go the next day and went back to the boat and binge watched so many of my shows that I had not been able to keep up with since we started. What an enjoyable day for both Dave and I!

The next day we still had Dave's rental car so we did a quick run to Wal Mart so Dave could change the oil, had a nice breakfast out and drove to the St. Augustine Lighthouse which was not yet open (and we ran out of time and did not make it back out to climb to the top). Later we decided to take the Trolley Tour around the city to find out exactly what stops we wanted to explore further. We also signed up for an additional day at the marina as there was still so much that we wanted to do. Over the next two days we toured the Lightner Museum, Fountain of Youth, Flagler College and the Castillo de San Marcos Fort. Our Castillo de San Marcos tour was much more interesting than I remember at the age of 11 or 12! The Spanish began the fort in 1672 to construct a more secure fortification, the Castillo de San Marcos. It stands today as the oldest fort in the United States. Its construction took a quarter of a century, with many later additions and modifications.We watched a reenactment of Spanish soldiers preparing the cannon and then firing out over the water. We spent the entire morning exploring and walking all around the fort.

Lightner Museum is housed in the former Alcazar Hotel built in 1888 by Henry Morrison Flagler (1830-1913). Lightner bought the hotel to store and display all the treasures that he bought all over the world during the Great Depression. Today it is home to one of the best collections of fine and decorative 19th century art in the country.
We visited Flagler College but were unable to tour as it was their graduation day. We were still able to walk around this beautiful university that was formerly another Flagler Hotel. Everything about the school was beautiful and the grounds pristine. If we ever get back there we definitely want to go on one of the student guided tours.

The Fountain of Youth was nice and I am glad we toured it but it seemed very contrived compared to other places that we visited in the old city. We enjoyed seeing all the peacocks all over the grounds and the oak and moss lined streets.

Finally we went to the Pirates Museum which houses more authentic pirate memorabilia than anywhere else in the world. It was fun but more exciting to watch the children as they went through the museum learning and exploring about Pirates!

Our pre-Ghost Tour cocktail at Sangria's. Jane found banana bread bear!

We wish we would have had more time listening to this trio- they were awesome!

Our pre-tour ghost dress encounter!

Gallows at the jail

Castillo de San Marcos

Flagler College

Magnolia Street (sans magnolias!)

This decorative fence was used to put across the harbor to stop foreign ships from approaching the city. If a ship did not stop this wicked chain would tear right into the haul