Historic St. Augustine 

St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied European established settlement within the continental United States … basically the oldest city in the country – founded in 1565.We enjoyed the history and the multi-cultural European feel to the town.  Fort Castillo De San Marcos is a National Monument (yippee for our senior passes!) built by the Spanish  (1672-1695).  It is the oldest masonry fort in the continental US.

There is a great collection of artfully manufactured 18^th century canons.

In the 1700’s, the average height of Spanish soldiers was about 4’11”, so the bunks in the fort are crazy small.

This narrow and short bunk was for 4 soldiers ! (two on the bottom, two up top) and the gear for all 4 needed to be stowed on the bench at the end.  Talk about traveling light.

St. Augustine is best done on foot, with narrow roads, courtyard cafés, street musicians,  small museums and nooks and crannies to explore.  We walked over 16,000 steps … in one day ! 

This cemetery only has a couple dozen grave markers, but there are reportedly nearly 500 people buried here, mostly in mass graves as a result of yellow fever epidemics.  The cemetery is not open to the public.  Illegal entry results in a $1500 fine.

Henry Flagler, co-founder of Standard Oil Company (Exxon/Mobile), was instrumental in the development of east coast Florida.  The magnificent Flagler Memorial Presbyterian church, was built in 1889, by commission of Henry Flagler, to honor the death of his daughter and her baby (both died in childbirth).  The church went from concept to completion in 364 days.  Henry Flagler, his first wife, the daughter (for whom the church was inspired) and the grandbaby are interred in a marble mausoleum within the church.

The BEST tour in St. Augustine might have been the tour of Flagler College.  Who knew?   Flagler College is housed in a building that Henry Flagler built in 1888, originally as a luxury hotel.  The interior design was done by Louis Comfort Tiffany.  The electric lighting was designed and installed by Thomas Edison.  This building had electric service two years before the White House.  The hotel eventually ceased function and the building was acquired by Flagler College in 1968.  There are 79 stained glass windows in the building, the largest collection of Tiffany windows in the world.

The lobby area has a massive rotunda dome, ornate columns, and a tile floor, laid one square at a time. 

The student dining room, surrounded by Tiffany windows, is breathtakingly beautiful.  I can only imagine eating there daily.

We toured a medical museum and learned how to do a 4 minute amputation, complete with 17^th century instrumentation.  Interestingly, the Spanish surgeons were influenced by Moorish traditions of frequent cleansing.  Rates of infection were significantly lower than that of American/English surgeons performing the same procedures during that era.

More ‘touristy’ tours in St. Augustine include the The Old jail and the Country store.  Kris landed in jail … for demonstration purposes.  This device was called a birdcage as it was is hoisted up into a tree with the prisoner inside - hence the name "jailbird".   The prisoner would be forced to stand for long periods of time, with not enough room to sit, sleep, potty etc.  The rest of the jail was of such contemporary design (for it’s day) that it was a model for Alcatraz.  No one ever escaped from the jail.

Tomorrow:  World Golf Hall of Fame and Cocoa Beach