Florida Road Trip #3: St. Augustine to Amelia Island

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Our hotel had a restaurant attached to it that served breakfast and we had been given a coupon for some money off, so we headed there. I think that there was also a free breakfast in the lobby, but it wasn't very appetising, so it was a win for the restaurant. The restaurant was pretty big and quite empty. Me and my friend weren't feeling too hungry, so we decided to share a meal. We had one of the many different omelettes on offer and it was pretty good. It set us up well for a day of sightseeing. Once we had packed the car up, we headed into downtown St. Augustine to explore. As we drove into the city proper, I was surprised at how pretty it was and how different it was compared to other places we had visited. The diversity of the USA continues to surprise and please me. We managed to find a parking space pretty easily and set off to explore on foot.

Our first stop was the Lightner Museum, we didn't know what it was but the building was so beautiful, we just had to head over and take a better look at it. This place was so grand looking. It had obviously been well care for over the years as it looked immaculate. I loved the style of the building, so beautiful nothing like anything I recall seeing before. We had a look in the first part of the museum as it was free, we were being cheap and didn't fancy paying the entrance fee to look around the whole place. We headed across the street to the Government House Museum, which was free and air-conditioned, to learn about the history of the area. The museum was interesting and definitely worth a quick visit.

We headed over to the Historic District to have a look around there. The small streets were filled with lots of very old and quaint houses. At first, we just wandered the streets looking at the houses from the outside and reading the signboards that told us information about them and their original occupants. After a while, we decided to go into some of the houses. The first one we went into was the Father Miguel O'Reilly House Museum. The house was part of the original settlement established in 1565 and the house was constructed in around 1691. In 1785, Father Miguel O'Reilly, an Irish priest bought he house at the beginning of the Second Spanish period. I never knew that Spain had extended its empire this way and I had learnt a lot from the Government House Museum earlier. The house became home to the Sisters of St. Joseph, who have cared for the house ever since. It was really nice to walk around the house and learn more about the area. It was interesting to see how the nuns had lived. There were a couple of nuns there, running the museum and we chatted to one. She was lovely and told us that St. Augustine was a really nice and safe place to live. She told us about an annual festival that takes place there and attracts very little to no crime, quite an achievement for any city and one this city can be proud of.

Our wanders took us to the 'Oldest House' next. This place is, as the name would suggest, the oldest house in Florida, it can't take the title for the oldest house in the USA as that goes to Fairbanks House in Massachusetts. The 'Oldest House' in St. Augustine is probably older, but it hasn't/can't (?) be verified. The house is also known as the González-Alverez House. There are tours of the house every half an hour and there was space available on the next one, so we had a quick look around the attached museum before our tour started. Our guide was very knowledgeable as he led us around the house. It was interesting to find out about how the house functioned and who the occupants were. I liked the water container/collector at the front of the house, it was so hot that I would have happily drunk some, however the guide told us that it would be filled with germs and would probably kill us.

We were starting to feel hungry now, so we opted to take a break from sightseeing to have a spot of lunch. We were walking along one of the main pedestrian streets in the Historic District and had come across a cafe, La Herencia, which specialises in Cuban American cuisine. I was intrigued to try this place as I have never had any Cuban food before or really much Latin American cuisine, bar the odd Mexican meal. The cafe wasn't too busy when we enter as it was pretty late for lunchtime. We got a table and looked over the menu. We ordered three different thing and all tried a bit of each other's food. I had ordered a fish and mango wrap. I really enjoyed it, but my friends weren't too fussed on it. We also got a Cuban sandwich to try and a rice and meat dish. These were both good, too. I really enjoyed the fried plantains that came as one of our sides.

After our lunch we headed over to the Spanish Military Hospital Museum, which our hunger had prevented us from visiting earlier. This was definitely my favorite of all the places we visited in St. Augustine. The tour took about 45 minutes and the guide was excellent, very informative and funny. She really had her spiel down. I like looking at the instruments that they used ti treat people with, they looked more like instruments of torture than tools to help healing. The bed with the hole in the middle and a commode underneath was an ingenious invention. The guide was did not sugar coat what happened back in the day and it sounded pretty horrific, I am glad society and medicine has advanced. Learning about the apothecary side of things was also really cool. I knew that plants and herbs could be beneficial, but I never knew how much. I liked seeing the herbs and plants growing in the Hospital museum's garden and the lizards playing in the sun.

We headed back to the downtown and walked along the river. This was pretty and it was nice to watch the comings and goings on the water. We came to Castillo de San Marcos. This is the oldest masonry fortification in the continental United States and played an important role as the anchor in St. Augustine's defense system. It replaced the previous nine wooden forts that had help the Spanish maintain their dominance of the area. I really enjoyed walking around the outer wall of the fort. It was cool to see how the walls were built, as we had read about the technique used earlier in the Government House museum. We were too late to go inside and I would have really liked to have explored the inside of the Castillo. I really wish things were open later here, especially since it is summer and the nights are long and light. Lastly, we took a walk around the downtown area, looking in some of the shops. I was totally taking the piss and posing with the 'Vote for Trump' t-shirts, little did I know that many people would actually be that stupid. We passed the St. Augustine Cathedral, which was another gorgeous building. Feeling that we had seen and done a lot in St Augustine and it was now around tea time, it was time to move on to our new home for the night, Amelia Island.

The drive to Amelia Island didn't take too long, only couple of hours if that. We found the hotel we were staying in pretty easily. It was right by the beach! Check-in was simple and we headed to our room. It was right near the pool. I'm gutted that we didn't have time to go to the pool. I think it closed not long after we got there. One of my friends was feeling tired, so decided to stay at the hotel, while me and my other friend went in search of some dinner and ran an errand. We drove to the main downtown area and picked a place to eat at. The Salty Pelican looked like the place to be as it was pretty late and one of the few places still open that was serving food. We headed upstairs and got a table, unfortunately we didn't have a great view of the outside. Since we weren't starving, we just ordered a couple of appetizers to share. The portions were huge so it was enough food. We got the tuna nachos and crab dip. I thoroughly enjoyed them both. Since we weren't having a main meal we opted for some dessert instead. We had the key lime pie, which was really good, too. We popped into a bar around the corner, it was so smoky. I didn't know that smoking indoors wasn't banned in Florida. I found it really strange as the US had banned smoking years before the UK, however it must be up to the individual states. I was so not used to it anymore. I couldn't wait to leave. Back in our hotel room we spent the rest of the night chilling. 'Pretty Woman' was on TV and that made perfect viewing for the night.

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