St. Augustine

After eating that amazing lunch, I arrived in St. Augustine... so ready to sleep.  I found this awesome bed & breakfast hostel called the Pirate Haus.  It's a colorful and fun place that has dorms as well as private rooms.  I elected the female dorm, which ended up being just as good as a private room due to the fact that I was the only guest in there for the night.  The big bed was  easily mine for the following 16 hours :)  I pretty much used all of Friday as a catch-up day: caught up on sleep, picture-printing for the album, and laundry.  Didn't explore until the following day, after the free pancake breakfast, of course!

 

St. Augustine is an interesting place to wander, from Flagler College to the oldest wooden schoolhouse to the outer structure of a fort.  The architecture of the buildings that make up Flagler College is really cool, along with the stunning look of the church.  I stopped at an arts and crafts fair in the Colonial Spanish Quarter to see some of the products made by locals.  It was fascinating to see the people that actually still work at their trade as an occupation: handmade clothing, leather bags, quilts, metal accessories (buttons, toys, belt buckles, jewelry, utensils, etc.), pottery, and soap.  Most of the things that would be seen as made in people's hobbies are actually these residents' jobs. 

The fort stands near the coast and is quite worth taking a walk around, if not going to pay the admission fee to go inside the walls.  I personally was satisfied just observing the outer shell, still surrounded by a moat (empty) and ditches.  They also have cannon firings on the weekends. 
Walking through the narrow streets and passing by the little shops and restaurants was a nice way to just absorb the town.  I didn't do any of the ghost tours because if I started doing that, I'd be broke- almost every vacation city has those things!

Left the old city in the afternoon and stopped in Blue Springs State Park to try and rent a tube on the river.  Unfortunately, I arrived too late for a tube but was still able to swim.  There are a couple different entry points to the river for swimming/ diving/ tubing.  Otherwise one has to kayak through the other parts because manatees and alligators inhabit the area.  It was a nice refreshing swim, and then I walked to the head spring.  Willows and palm leaves surround both the walk and the river- what a nice change of scenery, especially while floating downriver.