St. Augustine, FL



Another stop that is a favorite - St. Augustine, FL! 

The Approach....

Fort San Marcos

St. Johns Bridge

Getting near where we'll take a slip.
We made it on our last trip right in time to see their famous city of lights -  starting at 10 they had a countdown and they lit up the lights and the whole city exploded with lights everywhere!  What a sight!  We made it this year and got to see it again!  Still just as fabulous!





 


Santa was around all day entertaining the children (and us adult children)

We were still with friends, Bruce and Gayleen, and this made our stay even better, sharing it with friends!  They have been live-aboards for some 5 years or so and they know a lot about the towns along the ICW.  

We learned that St. Augustine has a winery - San Sebastian Winery and a Distillery - St. Augustine's Distillery.  We took a tour of both of them and did a lot of taste testing.  Lots of fun!

The winery...






















The Distillery...

Our very theatrical, enthusiastic tour guide



Our hostess with the mostest with our taste tests!  They served us different kinds of drinks with the spirits that they made there.  They served drinks made with their rum, gin, vodka and bourbon (this was the last but not least taste test)



Inky Rose has not been completely forgotten!  She got out for an excursion and was beside herself!

She was busy reading my book (she is so mischievous!)  when I told her we were taking her along so she could see the lights.  You should have seen her jump into my backpack!


Here she is as snug as can be!


And here she is trying to open up a present early!  (and she wonders why I can't take her everywhere!)  Back to the boat she went after this! 


We love to walk around St. Augustine. 

North mooring field

A scenic walk along the water

This is part of a wall that is made of Tabby which is a type of concrete made by burning oyster shells to create lime, then mixing it with water, sand, ash and broken oyster shells (copied from Wikopedia).  City is made of this.


There is a Pedestrian Street where there are lots of stores and people walking through them.  These young people were there with their pythons.  They were from a python rescue organization collecting donations.  Florida has a big problem with pythons!





 




Another outing that we took with Bruce and Gayleen was to go into the entrance way of Folgier College.  What a great place to study! Full of history.  It used to be a famous hotel.







This reminded me of the Gargoyles on the Washington Cathedral in DC!

Another very special event happened - I got to see a former Stampin' Up demonstrator friend who used to live in MD many years!  She commented on my face book page when I posted about being in St. Augustine, her present residence.  Her and her husband, also named Ed, and us had a lovely dinner at a bar and grill.  What fun it was to catch up with each other in person instead of on face book!



Some of the fauna of St. Augustine...

 
This squirrel stayed like this for awhile, then going up the tree like this.  Maybe he thought we couldn't see him?




 

 The following are catfish that were near where our slip was.  The strange thing about them is they were swimming upside down eating stuff on the surface of the water!




Dolce Vita at night.

Bruce and Gayleen's boat, Pearl, at their mooring sight.



Inky Rose didn't want to leave St. Augustine and wouldn't let go of my jacket!  I knew how she felt!



Fair Winds to All,

Joan 


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