Sunday, June 28, 2009

This morning we had waffels for breakfast! Yum! Hotel breakfasts are getting better than they use to be. We got tickets for the Ripley's Red Train tour. This was a great way to see the city. Ryan loved it...what boy doesn't love trains? Aiden even slept on the train. Yeah! And Daddy and I got to hear and see the history of the city. What a remarkable thing...to see and walk and touch the same places Ponce de Leon discovered. Well, the Native Americans discovered it, but Ponce de Leon claimed it for Spain. We saw Castillo de San Marcos, the Spanish Fort. It's the largest still in America. We heard and saw the canons fire. Did I mention we heard them? wow loud! The Spanish soldiers yelled "Cover your ears!" and they weren't kidding. I got a great pic though of the moment it fired. The only price I paid was just a little hearing loss. I tried to cover one ear on my shoulder and the other with my hand, but then trying to snap the photo was a little difficult. But I got it! Ryan enjoyed crawling through one of the rooms that had a pint sized door. Scott had to crawl in after him. I wasn't about to go in. Some of the others on tour were talking about how they felt ghosts present. They were getting all creaped out and acting like they just felt the spirits of the dead crawling all around. Some people...

We hopped back on the train and saw other neat things like the Winery (they use muscadine grapes native to the Southeast), the oldest wooden school house, Flagler College, downtown St. Augustine...everything is old there: increadible houses, monuments, and gardens. I just love that sort of thing. And of course the train tour was narrated with cool historical stories. Well worth the $15 to tour for 3 days! We all had a great time. The only thing was I was wearing a sleeveless shirt...and no sunscreen on my arms. I put some on my face, but my arms rarely get burned. This was a rare day to say the least!

We ate lunch at a great place called Pizalleys. Great pizza! Great atmoshpere! Great air conditioning on a HOT day! After getting refreshed we walked the cobblestone streets in the old city and saw a Greek Orthodox shrine, did a lot of shopping and picture taking. We found our Christmas ornament! Actually three. Every year we get a Christmas ornament on vacation or of something that characterized that year. One shop had some hand carved wooden ornaments of things around St. Augustine. They were so neat we got three.

After all that fun in the sun, we had to go back to the hotel and rest a bit. Did I mention I love cold, dark hotel rooms? While Scott and the boys napped I would catch up on facebook and email. We decided to go light on supper and ate at McDonalds...can you believe it? I never eat McDonalds. Well, I guess never, say never huh! We drove out to St. Augustine Beach to find a location of a place our last night's waitress told us about. We actually drove straight to it by mistake. It was great! And it was beautiful. The coquina (shell that has turned to rock and used in all the buildings down there) was plentiful on the white sandy beach and the sand dunes were paradise. SO...I had a crazy idea of trying to get that perfect family picture again. Well.....a storm was brewing and we had to work fast. Again, the boys wanted to play more than pose for a picture. The sand ended up blowing in our faces and it looked like snow. We never got that perfect shot, but we made lots of memories. The clouds and lightening were crashing all around us and the photos did not do justice, but it was amazing! We let Ryan play a little, but the rain came and we had to go. We ended up driving around the town at night seeing the sights, the lighthouse was gorgeous at night too, and we rode the antique carousel. Another great day!

The old city gates from the inside. The only thing left standing from the original city wall.

The Old sugar mill. They use to mill cane sugar. Now this was our first train stop where we parked the van.

Palm trees everywhere!

Presbyterian church.

Oldest working Drugstore in America.