For our first day of fun in St. Augustine, we decided to take an Old Town Trolley Tour, to introduce us to the city and give us a preview of the many things to do & see here. Technically, it’s a hop-on, hop-off tour, but we stayed on for the entire ride. Unfortunately, we didn’t feel like we learned much about the history of the city during the tour, but we did see a lot!

Once we finished the tour, we drove over to Flagler College to walk around the campus. It’s unbelievably beautiful, especially the centerpiece, the Ponce de Leon Hotel which was built by industrialist Henry Flagler who co-founded Standard Oil. The hotel was repurposed into student facilities when the college was founded in the 60s. The campus has been named one of the most beautiful college campuses in the world, understandably.

We were amazed and awestruck by the beauty of the Ponce de Leon Hotel interior…every detail was breathtaking.

This beautiful building is the Flagler Memorial Presbyterian Church, built in 1889; the architecture is an interesting mix of Spanish, Moorish, Italian, and Baroque styles.

On Monday, we spent the morning at Castillo de San Marcos National Monument. It is the oldest masonry fort in the continental US; construction was completed in 1695. Originally Spanish, the fort was British for about 20 years, then Spanish again, and finally American in 1821. What’s most interesting is the construction – it’s made of “coquina” which is Spanish for “small shells”…it’s basically ancient shells that have bonded together to form a rock similar to limestone. So different from other forts we’ve visited!

We continued our history lesson in the afternoon with a visit to the Fountain of Youth, which is the site where Ponce de Leon first arrived in 1513, and where the city of St. Augustine was founded in 1565. Native American remains recovered here indicate they occupied the region as far back as 2400 BC. An ostentation of peacocks roam the grounds, and there are many demonstrations around the property, including a cannon firing.

Tuesday morning we visited the St. Augustine lighthouse. We made the 219-step (14 stories!) climb to the top; it was a bit foggy, so the views weren’t as good as we would have liked, but it was still worth it! The keepers’ house is open to tour, and struck us as particularly large (it housed the keeper and an assistant, plus their families). This lighthouse replaced the original which was 350 yards closer to the ocean. This one was completed in 1874, and became fully automated in 1956.

The rest of Tuesday was pretty quiet. One of the best things about our time in St. Augustine is that our campground is only about 15-20 minutes away from all the places we want to visit, so we didn’t have to spend lots of time in the truck and we were able to have some downtime!

Wednesday afternoon, we booked a tour of the Ponce de Leon hotel at Flagler College. We were so impressed by the building on our earlier visit, and the tour would allow us to see the Tiffany windows in the old ballroom, which is generally not open to the public. Our tour guide, a student at the liberal-arts college, gave us a wonderful history of Henry Flagler and the hotel, shared details about the architecture and construction, and described the symbolism and meaning of the artwork throughout the rotunda. At the end, she led us into the ballroom and it was amazing. They use the space as a cafeteria for the students, and it’s absolutely the nicest cafeteria we’ve ever seen. Much of the furniture is original; the rest is carefully reproduced. The 40 windows designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany are incredible, and the college boasts the largest collection of Tiffany windows.

After we left Flagler, we went inside the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine which is the oldest Catholic parish in the current US. The building was completed in 1797. Beautiful!

From there, we strolled down St. George Street which is a pedestrian mall filled with shops, restaurants, and historic buildings. I enjoyed seeing the variety of architectural styles.

For dinner, we decided to check out Ford’s Garage, which is a chain of restaurants and an official licensee of the Ford brand. I love good execution of a theme, and this place definitely delivers. From the gas-pump door handles to the hose-clamp napkin rings and the bathroom sink tires, the décor was spot-on to what you’d expect from Ford’s Garage. Oh, and the food was good, too. I was just disappointed that they didn’t have preferred parking for Ford trucks…

Thursday was laundry day…a necessary evil when we’re traveling. We found a laundromat not too far way and spent about an hour there, followed by a grocery run. I went to the gym in the afternoon, and it’s time to start packing up to head further South tomorrow toward Ft. Lauderdale. It’s been a wonderful six days in St. Augustine – so much interesting history here and beautiful weather, too!