St. Augustine

 

I have had St. Augustine on my bucket list of cities to visit for a while, so we decided to stay in port and take a sightseeing day.  What a neat city!!  Everyone is so proud of being the oldest school house, etc. and what Henry Flagler did to bring culture to the city.  The Bridge of Lions is right next to the marina and will be the next bridge we go through.  The Lions were donated to the city by the son of Flagler's physician.

 

Of course, growing up on Boston, we had the fort at Castle Island.  The Castillo de San Marcos was built earlier by the Spanish and was made with cochina. 

 

The Mission of Nombre de Dios, the site of the first Catholic Mass in this country, was so contemplative.  The grounds are very peaceful under the trees and overlooking the inlet.  Fr. Francisco dedicated the land in the Name of God (Nombre de Dios).  An altar stands at the site and a statue of Fr. Francisco.  There are many grottos honoring Mary, St. Francis, etc.  The cemetery inters some of the Sisters of  St. Joseph, who educated the freed slaves after the Revolution.



Site of Altar



Fr. Francisco Statue

 

 

 

Cross given to the city from the Vatican

Next we headed out to the lighthouse. 

219 steps later, I took the following pictures from the top!

Looking back on the city and our marina

 

Inside of the lens

Looking down on the Light Keeper's home

Looking North at the Inlet
 

The Lightner Museum has collections of nearly everything.  Many are expensive artifacts, carrara marble statues, some are unusual, a mummy and shrunken head, some are odd, art made from cigar bands.  But we ended the day with an artifact that was common 25 years ago but not today, a telephone booth.  We saw several around the city.  A call costs 25 cents.

Anybody have a quarter?