Daytona Beach, FL to St. Augustine (yes again!)

On April 4, we left Daytona Beach and cruised to St. Augustine, the oldest city in North America.  We visited here back in February with our son, and decided we wanted to see more.  

Our cruise this day took us through the Haulover Canal, a canal cut through the barrier island, to allow boats to get from the inside ICW to the outside ICW; but still inside the barrier islands, so not in the Atlantic.

You can see the Haulover Canal on the boat's electronic charts.  The closeup is on the right with the flyover view on the left.  It's literally a cut through the land to get from one side to the other.

Haulover Canal on the electronic chart

Haulover Canal from the water.

It was a busy place inside of the Canal.  Lots of boats at the boat launch.



When we came out the other end, there were a lot of RV's, marinas and beach homes.


Even a tiki pontoon boat!






In case you've ever wondered what it looks like 
under a metal bridge.

New home being built to hurricane code

Outskirts of St. Augustine



We've never seen this marina arrangement before.  
It appears that every boat is out of the water on a lift.

So pretty!


We planned a full day in port in order to see St. Augustine.  There's a lot to see and do.  For instance, this fire hydrant is very unlike any others I've ever seen.  

A different type of fire hydrant

The oldest street in St. Augustine (therefore in North America), is Hospital Road


Two Lions Bridge

Spanish Military Hospital Museum on the oldest road in St. Augustine.  And yes, we visited the Spanish Military Hospital Museum.  It was an interesting experience.

Spanish Military Hospital Museum

Quaint roads

Some of the pictures and text below are from https://www.flagler.edu/about-flagler/history/hotel-ponce-de-leon/

"In 1888, Flagler built the Hotel Ponce de León, his first in a series of luxury resorts along Florida’s east coast. A masterpiece of Spanish Renaissance architecture and the first major poured-in-place concrete building in the United States is now known as Ponce de Leon Hall. A National Historic Landmark, it serves as the centerpiece for Flagler College.

The grand hotel launched the careers of young architects John Carrére and Thomas Hastings who are noted most for the New York Public Library and The House and Senate Office Buildings adjacent to the Capitol in Washington, D.C.  Interestingly, Carrére and Hastings, were young men right out of college when they designed the hotel.

The Edison Electric Company powered the building with steam heat and 4,000 electric lights, making the Ponce one of the nation’s first electrified buildings. Louis Comfort Tiffany is credited with the building’s interior design including the stained glass and mosaics."

The Hotel Ponce de Leon is now Flagler University




Tiffany built this dome. 





We had some good meals in St. Augustine too.  We found a place called the Drunkin' Horse.  It did not look it, but it was a very upscale restaurant.  We had a charcuterie board with Pate, foie gras, and some wonderful cheese. That was followed by seabass. A memorable meal for sure.

What's left of the Charcuterie board when I remembered to take a picture 🤣

Seabass - mmmmm!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Taurus Great Loop Statistics

Image
Days on the Great Loop ~ 335 Days at Marinas ~ 329 Numbers of Marinas ~ 101 Lock Walls ~ 3 Barge tie-up ~ 1 Convention Center Wall ~ 1 At Anchor ~ 1 Diesel Fuel Used ~ 6,597.6 Gallons Nautical Miles ~ 4,875 Statute Miles ~ 5,610
Read more

Melbourne, Florida - Our Winter Home

Image
We made it to Melbourne, FL, Taurus’s home for the next three and a half months!  Melbourne is also where our son lives, so we are going to get some good time in seeing him this winter. So great!!  We saw him after work and for dinner today.  It’s been too long. We need Covid-19 to be done please! We left Fort Pierce this morning and had an uneventful cruise.  We saw an old favorite - a tug pushing a barge! We saw some more electric wires crossing the bay for those in the barrier islands. Once we were settled in our new marina, Fred and I took a walk to the Eau Gallie Art District (EGAD). We walked through an older residential neighborhood. There were Aloe Vera plants that are humongous! Aloe Vera plants in the neighborhood near our marina Plus there were cactus There were a couple of historic signs And at the end of the night - Christmas lights!
Read more

Georgetown, SC and Rice!

Image
We spent today in Georgetown, because for the next few days there won’t be much to go see.  We went to the Rice Museum where the  Brown’s Ferry Vessel remnants are located.  It sank in the 18th century in Black River carrying 25 tons of bricks made on a plantation. Artifacts, including green glass English wine bottles, oars, millstones, iron pots, a straight razor and smoking pipes made of gourds.  The items enabled historians to date the time of its sinking to between 1730 and 1740. This period is about 50 years earlier than previous American shipbuilding discoveries. Model of Brown’s Ferry Vessel  The ribs are made from cypress trees  by the water  that were plentiful here in South Carolina.  The planks on the sides were hewn by ax and are all the same thickness.  I’m not sure how you do that with an ax.  Remnants of Brown's Ferry Vessel We also learned about rice growing in South Carolina.  The planters bought 40,000 acres of lan...
Read more