We have been to Florida many times, but had never stopped to explore "the oldest continuously occupied European-established settlement in the continental United States." (Wikipedia), the city of St Augustine. Timucuan Indians lived here before the Spanish arrived in 1565. It was a 4.5 hour drive (see map) from our friends' Rainie and Tom in Plant City - as you would have seen in a previous blog entry, we dropped into the Daytona Speedway en route. We also visited Daytona Beach and Ormond Beach on the way - sadly, 50 people were pulled from the surf and 2 people drowned that same day. Rip tides sure are dangerous. There were red flags cautioning the rip tides, but it wasn't enough to deter all the swimmers.
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| Ormond Beach - see the red flag. A swimmer died here a few hours after this photo was taken |
St Augustine, on the Atlantic Ocean coast, was founded by Spanish explorer Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles on St Augustine's feast day in 1565, hence the name of the city. My brother Peter's middle name was Augustine, named after the same saint. I thought of Peter often during this visit. He was only 2.5 years older than me, but we lost him to Melanoma 30 years ago at age 35 years.
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| Aviles Street - named after the city's founder |
We started with a hop-on, hop-off trolley tour of the city, and were thrilled that the company picked us up from our RV park about 5 miles north of the city. After switching from the trolley to a free 'beach bus', we paid a visit to the Alligator Farm, expecting to mainly see alligators. The highlight of the visit for me was the Native Bird Rookery there.
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| Native Bird Rookery - birds in the trees, alligators in the water |
It was fabulous - there were birds with eggs in the nest and some with young fledglings. The sky was busy with herons, egrets, ibis, spoonbills and other species flitting about. I could have stayed there for ages. As well as the rookery, there were other birds in large cages - that is where the parrots, toucans etc were housed.
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| First photo in the top row has fledglings, and the third photo has eggs in the nest |
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Vulture - huge
I have seen an albino bison, but I had never even heard of albino alligators! We saw the adult (not a pretty sight) and then in a nearby enclosure we saw 5 babies. Ughh.
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| Ugly albino alligator |
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| Can you see all 5. 3 are under the red heat lamp, the other 2 are in the water |
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| This crocodile comes from Australia! |
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| First Catholic Mass held here in 1565. St Patrick (I was born on his feast day) gets his own altar! |
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| Some historic homes |
We finished off our day with a visit to a local beach. It was packed - well, it was a public holiday (Memorial Day). Lots to see and do in St Augustine - without even spending money at the Outlet Mall!
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| Beach just south of the city - it is a panorama, so click on the photo to optimise it |
We have been to Florida many times, but had never stopped to explore "the oldest continuously occupied European-established settlement in the continental United States." (Wikipedia), the city of St Augustine. Timucuan Indians lived here before the Spanish arrived in 1565. It was a 4.5 hour drive (see map) from our friends' Rainie and Tom in Plant City - as you would have seen in a previous blog entry, we dropped into the Daytona Speedway en route. We also visited Daytona Beach and Ormond Beach on the way - sadly, 50 people were pulled from the surf and 2 people drowned that same day. Rip tides sure are dangerous. There were red flags cautioning the rip tides, but it wasn't enough to deter all the swimmers. 
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