St Augustine

Not far from Jacksonville is St Augustine  the USA's oldest city. Which was settled by the Spanish. Although the weather on the Wednesday morning was horrendeous we still decided to venture out in the afternoon after Nathan and Mick had been for a run.

 

 Nathan and I took quite a few touristy snaps in St Augustine. It was fun to look round but quite different at this time of year compared to when I have been there in the summer and it is so busy. I really enjoyed our nose around but was sad to see that a lot of the shops have become tacky tourist stores.

 

Lightner Museum:  The former Hotel Alcazar, built in 1887 in the Spanish Renaissance style.

The lobby of the museum has recently been restored to the opulence of its early days as the Alcazar Hotel.

  

 I loved this car- it looks so retro!

 

 

 Fishes in the pond inside the museum.

 

Trying to take a nice self portrait but laughing too much. I think this actually works better than the posed photo we were trying for.

 

Flagler college is named for Henry Morrison Flagler, a Gilded Age industrialist, railroad pioneer and partner with John D. Rockefeller in Standard Oil. In 1888, Flagler built the Hotel Ponce de Leon, his first in a series of luxury resorts along Florida’s east coast. A masterpiece of Spanish Renaissance architecture and the first major poured-in-place concrete building in the United States is now known as Ponce de Leon Hall. This National Historic Landmark serves as the centerpiece for the Flagler College.

 

Nathan was trying to take a photo of me sitting on this Spanish cannon but do you think I could jump up there! So instead he kindly took lots of shots of my pathetic attempts to jump up there!! 

 

 I give up! After lots of giggles I decided just to stand by the cannon instead!

 

Tourist shot number 55!! 

 

 One shop that is still going strong is the candy store where we bought a toffee apple and Nathan got a praline and pecan snapper! Talk about chocolate, nuts and toffee overload!

 

 So tasty!

 

All the Christmas decorations were up around the town. At night they had thousands of fairy lights up on all the buildings which looked stunning! An entire town covered in twinkly lights!

 

Mick recommended we go to the Conch House just outside St Augustine. It was lovely and I can imagine when it is warm it is a delight to sit outside on the deck.

We ate an appetizer and had a drink. The highlight was the Gator Tails and Hush Puppies that we ate. Gator just tastes like chewy chicken but with a slight fishy flavour!

 

Pretty lights outside the Conch House.

After our early evening snack we drove back up the road and went to Target (I LOVE TARGET!) Where I bought lots of cheap Christmas baking materials and a few little pieces. I could have bought SO SO much more if I had the room in my luggage- Christmas tree skirts, picture frames etc.

We then went to the beach and picked up BBQ at Sticky Fingers to take it back to the house to enjoy with the McDaniels family. Maybe not the most traditional thing to do the night before Thanksgiving- stuffing your face with pulled pork but it was SO tasty!!