Brucato's Blogging Across America: Richmond Hill, GA to St. Augustine, FL

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Greetings from hot and sunny St. Augustine! (Not now, actually, as the sun has set – but boy, it was hot and STEAMY when we were at the fort this afternoon!)

Actually up about 6 this morning, and out the door of the hotel about 7:30 a.m. As our destination was only something like 2 hours 45 minutes away, we took many, many detours winding our way down the coast. This part of the coast is very, very interesting, with lots of bays and inlets and rivers coming down to the ocean. In many places, there were houses lining the shore high above the road, and it almost felt like we were traveling through English hedge rows, as we had no view at all! We stayed on highway 17 for quite a ways, finally crossing into Florida. We did not want to tackle downtown Jacksonville, so

Mayport

instead we followed route A1A. The benefit of this is that we got to cross the

Chicopit bay to Mayport

On the Ferry

on a car ferry! It was

GREAT! We were able to drive right on – along with a taxi, a police car and three or four

other vehicles. The ride was a quick 10 minutes, but as R says, we cut off quite a bit of driving – and had a boat ride to boot!

On the Ferry

Spanish Salami

We worked our way down the coast, going through Ponte Vedre and other posh suburbs, until we reach St. Augustine about 11:30 a.m.

As we couldn’t get into our B&B until 3, we decided to have lunch before hitting the fort. We did a quick driving tour of town so that R could see Flagler College and the Casa Monica Hotel as well as the fort, from the outside. We parked at the fort parking area and headed into the historic district. There were so few other tourists that it felt like we had the town to ourselves! And when walked into the Tasting Room Spanish Restaurant, we actually DID have the place to ourselves!

Trio of cheeses

Empanadas

Lovely restaurant! We decided to share three different tapas plates – one with three kinds of Spanish cheeses along with caramelized sweet onions and roasted red peppers; one with three kinds of Spanish meats – a chorizo and two salamis, olives and blanched almonds, and the third – three empanadas – one duck, one chicken and one vegetable, each with a different sauce. Everything was yummy, and it was great sitting in the nicely air conditioned room with a good glass of Spanish wine!

Saragossa Inn

The Castillo

After lunch, we drove to the Saragossa Inn (fortuitously on Saragossa Street!) and left the car (and luggage) in their parking lot. From the Inn it was about a 10 minute walk to the fort, reaching there about 1:45 p.m. We were very fortunate that a really funny ranger dressed in Spanish period costume did a great talk about the history of the fort. After that, we toured the battlements and the open rooms off the courtyard – getting VERY hot and sweaty in the process!

This is a park ranger (?)

Once done with the fort, we decided to head straight back to the Inn for a rest…which, by then, we really needed! Lovely room in the B&B

– very, very tiny, but beautifully decorated, and the bed – which is

REALLY high with step stools on either side – is amazingly comfortable. And, the A/C was on! Yipee!!

Robert brought our bags in from the car – although it was difficult finding places to put things!! And we both decided to jump into the shower just to cool off! That was a GREAT idea; it was wonderful to feel so clean!

Bronze cannon from 1724

We talked about my homesick

feelings, and decided that after

we leave Brenda and Chris’ house in Atlanta, we’re going to go in a straight line home. New Orleans and San Antonio will have to wait for a future trip! I was able to do the cancellations and book new hotels – first night in Shreveport, LA and the second in Carlsbad, NM and then HOME! We should reach there on the 19^th, which only cuts off two days, but that’s fine with us!

So…with that decision being made and acted upon, and the outside temperature cooling a bit, we decided to walk into town. We headed to the Casa Monica hotel, where we had glasses of wine; then back to the B&B in a lovely, cool breeze!