Today we go to St Augustine FL and just snoop around. We got there early enough that we could take the trolley tour (off and on bus) which is a great format for figuing out the town history. The Spanish were around from the mid 1500's and then the English showed up in the early 1700's and the Americans took over after the revolution. And then of course the Civil War, which we did not get a good historical sense of other than how the Castillo de San Marco (fort) was used during it. The fort is the historical anchor in the town and the Spanish built it originally. It was made of coquina which is like what they used up north (called Tabby). They mix sand, water, oyster shells and lime (made from burned oyster shells) together to make cement.
They claimed that this was the coldest day of the year with temps in the 40's and a very strong wind all day, so we got a couple hot drink stops in. We also visited the Lightner Museum which another rich guy named Lightner created. Very eclectic collection of stuff he bought. Paintings, musical machines, cut glass, toasters (yup, toasters), model boats, scientific instruments (microscopes, etc). The product of a really rich, very curious guy.
The town also has Ponce de Leon (Fountain of Youth guy) statues all over, and tacky stuff like Ripleys Believe it or not (think two headed calves).
All in all a fun town and lots of history cleared up (kinda).
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