5 March 2013
Even though we made our reservations months ago, we could
only get two nights of camping here at Anastasia State Park. So we took what we
could and are very glad we came. All the sites are extraordinarily private, and
feel almost as if you’re camping in your own isolated piece of some jungle. Plus
today was the perfect weather—sunshine and mid-70s.
We decided to devote today to seeing historic St. Augustine,
an easy drive from the park. Alas, we are both disillusioned with the historic downtown
we saw today—a dense zone of shops, shops, and more shops, detracting from the
historical aspects.
We did enjoy very much our time at Castillo de San Marcos
National Monument, originally a Spanish fort built from 1672 to 1695, and then our
lunch at Barnacle Bill’s Seafood Restaurant, but Great Husband summed up his
disappointment with the rest of historic downtown St. Augustine this way, “It
wasn’t very sincere.” I agreed and thought that he had elegantly expressed it.
(He was thinking of Linus who decided that the Great Pumpkin must have found
his pumpkin patch not sincere enough.) Maybe the problem is that we have been
spoiled by Colonial Williamsburg and by the way the National Parks interpret
history, and we hoped to find something similar in this historic Florida city.
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While using the park’s WiFi, Great Husband went undercover
so he could
see the computer screen. Funny, but before long, other people were
imitating the towel method!
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Crossing the dry moat into the Sally Port of Castillo de San
Marcos. The moat was designed to be dry
and was used as a place to keep
livestock when townspeople retreated into the fort under siege.
Unfortunately,
to make the moat look prettier, it was filled with water from 1938 to 1996,
and
that did lots of damage to the fort.
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| An artilleryman of 1740 in the fort’s central plaza |
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San Carlos Bastion looking over Matanzas Bay
The fort was built of a seashell limestone called Coquina,
which is very fragile.
This means ongoing preservation problems.
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| The historic area of St. Augustine is densely packed with shops. |
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| Playing a didgeridoo for tips |
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This parish, Cathedral/Basilica of St. Augustine, was
founded in 1565.
We found it of no particular beauty either inside or outside.
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| Perhaps the oldest wooden school building in the United States |
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A view of Flagler College, formerly the Ponce de Leon Hotel
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| St. Augustine Lighthouse |
Can a didgeridoo play more than one note? If not, the tips probably aren't going to come flowing in too rapidly.
ReplyDeleteThe Cathedral still has the high altar and communion rail. Not a bad start!
The little dog more than makes up for the limitations of the didgeridoo!
DeleteAs for the Cathedral, I remain cynical. Who slathered all that gold paint on the high altar? The overall effect of the church interior was too much diversity and not enough unity. There was also recorded churchy-type music playing in the background. Is there no place we can be left to the silence of our own thoughts?