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Historical Society
This is for Michael Shaw who donates many hours to preserve records of the past in another city. ... you might want to visit this lovely old city for a few days. It's touted as the oldest city in North America.
Yes, we did make it to St. Augustine by anchoring in the harbour south of the Lion's Gate Bascule Bridge, despite warnings about currents from our cruising guides. As we were out staring hopefully at our newly set anchor, we had an awesome experience. A pair of huge manatee swam slowly past the bow of the boat, noses out to breathe before they disappeared. We took it as a good omen and also congratulated ourselves for observing the SLOW SPEED Manatee zones posted in many places on the ICW.
The St. Augustine City Marina staff and facilities are very welcoming. $10 a day to tie up your dinghy gives access to lovely showers, a Captains' lounge and new laundry. The best part is that it is located right in the heart of the old city centre, which is alive with people at all hours. Shops stay open, wedding parties celebrate in the street, groups saunter, trollies give tours according to your taste for history or ghosts and the many restaurants offer a wide range of affordable
St. Augustine Harbour from our anchorage
Dark skies promise thunderstorms and cooler air. food.
We are not history buffs, nor are we fans of tourist traps, but this town really has something for everyone. I remember coming here as a child on a family vacation and being thrilled with colourful stories of Ponce de Leon and the "Fountain of Youth". It was magical, with lots of flowers and enchanted places right out of fairy tales. Although it is said that you 'can never go back', the Fountain of Youth is still here!!! and the whole place actually surpassed my earlier memories, which was a delightful surprise.
Jane Jacobs, the late revered scholar of urban development has said that a city cannot thrive without fostering 'bohemian enclaves' to nurture the arts that give soul to a community. This city would probably get A++ on that score. It has been nicely restored but not developed to the point of being expressionless and interchangeable with a thousand other cities.
Since it was published in the '70s, I have been a fan of Christopher Alexander's eccentric architectural bible, "A Pattern Language", which is a synthesis of research collected by a team to reveal the physical spaces where humans report being the most 'happy'. A
Chris admiring plants
...at a typical door that guards a secret garden. person could take a month off and try to count all the 'patterns' which are satisfied or fulfilled in 20 square blocks of downtown St. Augustine. True to Alexander's model, the city is happily frequented by the local population.
Teens stand about, socializing freely, shaking their teen feathers among buildings that are allowed not to be perfect. Cops on bicycles mingle, keeping in touch with the backchat on the laneways. Animal foster parents donate their Saturdays, staging fairs to help people adopt rescued pets. We admired all the friendly dogs, including a super lab called Ginger, who jumped right up on me twice, but safe to say, our Ginger is still an 'only' dog.
As we mentioned in the last blog, we have a perpetual quest for 'live music'. And again we hit it lucky in the 'ole town Saturday night. Strolling was the best way to sample the bands; classic rock, country, jazz, folk, carribean, funk, Cuban and alternate music bounced out of these building like giant boom boxes. One ear could be doing the rock thing while the other ear was grooving to reggae. Very cool. Not surprising for us, the music that we enjoyed the
Narrow Streets
Many shops and surprises are tucked along these cobblestone lanes. most was offered by the very accomplished, solitary street musicians.
The day was stretched tightly through a couple of thunderstorms, one of the dramatic scale where you hide in the laundry room to elude travelling lightening. Storms are part of the daily routine here at this time of year. Every morning it is predicted that a front from the ocean will come in from the east to meet a front coming out over the land from the west. When they finally get together and hit it off on their afternoon date, sparks will fly and gallons of rain will quickly fall. Waiting for this event brings high heat and humidity, making us glad when the storm gods have finally had their blind date. The aftermath will be cooler temperatures, breezes and lower humidity, for an hour or two. You can also expect these fronts to get it on again in the evening, up until midnight, maybe with very strong winds. Last night we were lucky. It was just 'sprinkles'. Through all this the pirate ships, schooners, cruise boats and eco-tours ply their way up and down, including the weather as a special feature. We are working on adopting their
Ginger clings to Frank
Dinghy riding is pretty exciting for a boat dog. attitude.
Because we had such an interesting time yesterday, we decided to stay over another day, despite more storm warnings and try again for groceries in another direction. Ginger has now conquered her rip and tear, flight or fight behaviour problems in the dinghy, by making a few trips in a really large bag with her head sticking out. So today she accompanied us on our 3 hour grocery hunt which wore her right out.
Now we are gearing up for another run to town, this time to do laundry and hunt down some dinner. The odor of deep-fried seafood wafting across the harbour is ancient, primitive and impossible to ignore. We'd better get over there before the weather fronts schedule another party.
We have another 100 photos of grand main street institutions, pet rescuers and pirate ships on another camera. Perhaps we'll add them in at a later date or you can come and see for yourself. For now, we've had a quick taste of St. Augustine from the vantage point of the harbour.
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Gord
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St Augustine
We visited St Augustine in 1975 during one of our trips to Daytona during motorcycle speed week. The place I remember most was the old Jail with the wire mesh floor! Pat would have liked to put me in there!!! Keep safe me hearties! Gord..........