St. Augustine, October 13 - 20, 2014

It was an easy ride down the 95 from Hilton Head to St. Augustine.  We pulled into Ocean Grove RV Park about 3 o'clock and were totally set up by four. We took a bike ride around the park.  There is a beautiful pool and spa, laundry room, park store and fishing dock on the grounds.  The Inter Coastal Waterway is behind us and the Atlantic Ocean is right in front of us.  This location is ideal.  4 wheel vehicles are allowed on the beach, and when they say beach parking, they really mean beach parking.  The sand is perfect for cruising on our bikes.  It seems a little strange to be on the beach and not see the sunset, but it is completely visible from the waterway.  I am threatening to wake up early and be on the beach for  sunrise.

Like I said, you can drive and park on the sand 

in St. Augustine   Lots of folks take advantage of it.  The beach is so wide, and the sand so hard packed that it makes perfect sense.  You can only drive one way, so it is very organized and even has handicapped parking at every street entrance.


Whenever we get to a new area, we like to get the lay of the land before we decide what we want to see and do in the area.  On Tuesday we drove into St. Augustine to check out the city.  There is a beautiful waterfront district, historic downtown area, Fort Castillo De San Marcos, which is a National Park, several beautiful churches, incredible hotels, and the Flagler College campus.    We have decided to take the 3 day Old Town Trolley Tour starting on Wednesday to really see what this Oldest City in the nation is all about.

The Farmers Market/Art and Craft Sale on Wednesday morning was amazing.  We got a shark tooth necklace for Dominic, handmade by Shark tooth Steve, and saw some incredible photo cards that were quite inspirational as well as some mosaics that I would love to try to make.

The fresh shrimp were delicious, fresh and cheap.

The Trolley Tour is a great way to see the city.  There are 23 stops you can make.  Some of the highlights are Old Town, which includes The Old Town Jail

Pretty fancy on the outside, but pretty stark on the inside..

The Oldest Store Museum Experience takes you back in time.  The shop keepers were in full gear and had snake oil to sell (and then some):

i

The old fort was fun to tour, and we were able to see a reenactment of the cannon firing and musket loading.

The Fountain of Youth was another fun part of the Old Trolley Tour.  The water from the fountain (well) is the same well (dug deeper) that Ponce de Leon drank from.  It's very sulphuric...not good enough to buy it by the bottle.

We celebrated our 41st wedding anniversary with dinner at an authentic fish camp on the bay. 

On our last day in St. Augustine we rode our bikes as far as we could on the sand.  It was incredibly windy, a hard ride, but oh so much fun!

 It was a perfect ending to our stay in St. Augustine.  Now it's on to Clearwater to visit with our dear friends Frank and Donna and have some good beach time on the Gulf of Mexico.  Stay tuned for more living!