So Much for the Scenic Route

After nearly three weeks of hard work getting Pure Grace back into shape, Bill announced this morning that we were going to take the day off and explore our nation’s oldest city, St. Augustine. Although the 39-degree temperature this morning may have had something to do with his desire to postpone tackling another bit of re-assembly work, I think he was also eager to see the campus of the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind.

We took Route A1A south from Jacksonville, with the Intercoastal Waterway on our right and the Atlantic Ocean on our left. However, except for one or two brief glimpses of the ocean, both views east and west were well blocked by barriers of local scrubby trees and bushes or house after house after house. It was only a 45-minute ride to St. Augustine and the day turned out to be sunny with a little breeze. We walked through historic Old Town, checking out the Old Colonial Day exhibits, the oldest wooden schoolhouse in America, and St. Photios, a Greek Orthodox national shrine dedicated to the first colony of Greek people who came to America in 1768.

A tanner's shop and home in the Old Colonial exhibit.

The altar at St. Photios, the Greek Orthodox shrine.



We also walked along the oldest street in the country, Aviles Street, narrow, cobble-stoned and lined with old buildings and homes. Since Bill isn't much of a tourist-type shopper we left those for another time when friends and family visit next spring.

After lunch at an Irish pub (well, I did have a blackened mahi mahi sandwich) we toured Castillo de San Marcos, the oldest masonry fort in the U.S. constructed in 1672, where we watched a cannon firing out over Matanzas Bay before heading home.

It was a good day to be away from the marina as we discovered a Yamaha boat engine “open house” was taking place on our dock when we got back. And yes, Bill couldn't resist working up on the fly bridge some more, motivated no doubt by the lack of antenna and resulting erratic cable television feeds.