Acting like a tourist in St Augustine

The ICW gets crowded when Dumbo fisherman
anchors in the channel!

On Saturday August 3 we cruised 35 miles north to a marina that costs about half what we were paying in Daytona Beach.  We ended up at Marineland FL (pop. 5, except for the dolphins) where the Marineland Dolphin Adventure oceanarium has been re-opened.  I remember visiting this place around 1960 on a family vacation, but it's changed several times since then (so have I).

Sue drank from the Fountain of Youth
and obviously, it worked for her!

We had a good 4-hour cruise up here, with very good weather (that means we avoided the thunderstorms).  I was surprised that there were so few boats on the ICW, for a Saturday with good weather.  Maybe this weak economy really has decreased the number of active boaters.  We saw homes and docks all along this stretch of the ICW, so we traveled at no-wake speed all the way.  The Sunday after we arrived, we saw Don & Becky R. one more time as they kindly drove our car up to us from Daytona Beach.  Marineland is rather remote, so having the car makes us a tourist again.

We huffed & puffed our way up
219 steps to the top of
St Augustine Lighthouse

 
 
 
The native Indian, Spanish, French, British, and American history in this area is astounding.  We've spent the past week learning more about what happened when.  Y'all know that Ponce de Leon "discovered" St Augustine & the "Fountain of Youth" in 1513, but he came to the New World on Chris Columbus' second voyage this way.  Remember that Columbus was an Italian (from Genoa Italy), who got the Spanish Queen to finance his wild ideas.  Everyone set up shop in Puerto Rico until Ponce left after Chris' son was made governor, rather than Ponce.  The history of St Aug is littered with routine enemy attacks & burning, ruthless admirals & generals from Spain, France, and England, and the overlying theme of "If you ain't Catholic, you ain't welcome!"  Our boating friends will appreciate that one of the most important things that Mr. Ponce discovered was the Gulf Stream just offshore, which allowed the Spanish treasure ships returning to Spain from South & Central America, to reduce their voyage by 3 weeks.

The Old City areas of St Aug are pretty close together and you can hike to all of them.  But we found that the tourist trams are a very good way to familiarize yourself with the city and its history.  And speaking of a weak economy.........St Aug was wall-to-wall tourists each day we were there.

Church that Henry Flagler built in 321 days
to memorialize his daughter

St Aug history since 1880 centers around Henry Flagler, who made his billion$ as the co-founder of Standard Oil Co with John Rockefeller (and, since there was no federal income tax, he got to keep it all!)  He came to town to build the Hotel Ponce de Leon, designed for the wealthy to spend the winter months away from that white crap on the ground up north.  The guests had to rent the room for the entire 3 winter months, which was the only time the hotel was open.  Flagler built more hotels south to Miami, and then bought/built railroads to get his guests down to his hotels.  His Florida East Coast Railroad eventually extended all the way south to Key West.

Special programs allow the kids to swim
with the dolphins at Marineland
Dolphin Adventures

In addition to visiting St Aug, we took our first kayak trip as part of an ecological tour of the nearby estuary.  We beached our kayaks on a sand bar to take a rest & listen to the guide stress the importance of the saltwater estuary.  It was quite unique sitting in the morning sun at high tide in 6" of clear water, watching the hermit crabs crawl along the bottom.  That afternoon, we visited the Dolphin Adventure & were amazed at the research going on there.  And the dolphin tricks made me take so many pictures, the camera battery went dead.  This Marineland opened in 1938 & was the first "oceanarium", long before Sea World got into the act.  Our marina is right across the road from the Atlantic Ocean & we can hear the surf at night. 

And then on Wednesday, we're at a free music concert at St Aug Beach pier and pavilion when the crowd starts cheering & pointing to the south over the ocean.  We look to see a red glare in the evening sky -- looked to me like some fireworks shooting into the sky, but never bursting into a show of lights.   As the light kept climbing higher and higher, we realize that we're watching a rocket launch from Cape Canaveral, about 75 miles to our south.  We watched the rocket exhaust for over 2 minutes as it climbed into the clear sky, and saw the first stage separation as the rocket was high enough to come into the sunlight.  Quite a sight!!

Dolphins were born at Marineland and have never
been in the wild.  These ladies are waiting to
get their treat after doing their tricks

So let's pause a moment and consider.........would you rather be doing this stuff, or would you rather be stuck in rush-hour traffic on the Huey Long Bridge in New Orleans, heading to another boring staff meeting at work???  (this is an I.Q. test).