More Sights of St. Augustine

The Cathedral of St. Augustine is home of the oldest Catholic parish of the present day United States.

As we learned at The Fountain of Youth, Ponce de Leon discovered Florida in 1513. The plaque on this statue proclaims very specifically that he "landed near this spot". How near we are left to wonder.

St. George Street's pedestrian mall has quite a variety of shops and restaurants.

Castillo de San Marcos National Monument served as protection for the city of St. Augustine during many colonial wars from the 16th to the 19th century.

"I'm crushing your head! I'm crushing your head!"

A horse waits patiently for a paying customer.

In the early days, only Catholics could be buried inside the St. Augustine city wall. The wall's gate is shown below.

Marlon bears an uncanny resemblance to someone else besides Napoleon.

Doug poses with an old friend from the Spanish Military Hospital Museum just before beginning A Ghostly Encounter Walking Tour of St. Augustine.

The Military Hospital is an "authentic" haunted building known for performing hundreds of amputations from 1784-1821.

This was the hospital's recovery room where spirits have often been encountered.

As history goes, the amputated body parts are buried under the cobblestoned Aviles Street on which the hospital stands.

In this photo, our tour guide demonstrates how he can turn himself into a ghostly spirit.

Searching for ghosts in the cemetery...spooky!

For more pictures of these St. Augustine activities, click HERE pictures 179-256.

Back near the RV park we found this huge Harley Davidson store.

Next we are headed to Georgia.

To be continued...

Old St. Augustine Village

Next we headed over to the heart of downtown St. Augustine.

Behind this wall you will find Old St. Augustine Village.

Also known as The Dow Museum of Historic Houses, named after founder Kenneth Worcester Dow, the Village is comprised of nine historic homes dating from 1790 to 1910.

The houses are arranged on one city block with courtyards and sideyards similar to the era represented.

Marlon thinks.

Most (if not all) of the houses of this era featured wooden stoves similar to this one for cooking and heating.

This is the second floor of the Prince Murat House. Prince Achille Murat, living within these walls in the 1820's, was this house's most famous occupant. Nephew of Napoleon, the Prince came to marry great-grandniece of George Washington, Catherine Gray. Through her marriage to Prince Murat, Catherine became the first American-born princess.

Here Marlon attempts to demonstrate his resemblance to who we believe is Prince Murat's uncle, Napolean Bonaparte. The resemblance is uncanny.

Making music on this harp is harder than it looks. No harm came to this stringless harp in the taking of this photograph.

Fountains and chairs in the courtyards outside the houses make for a quiet place to relax.

Wildlife was abundant in Old St. Augustine Village.

It was on this site, now part of Old St. Augustine Village, that President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation was officially issued in Florida.

This room is part of The Carpenter House. The Carpenter House has a unique lean to it which resulted when it detached from its foundation most likely during a 1944 hurricane and flood.

A typical bathroom of the early 1900's, when running water was available of course. Note the apparent lack of storage as compared to most modern bathrooms with vanities. And no shower here.

The streets surrounding old St. Augustine Village were of the original cobblestone variety.

For more pictures of Old St. Augustine Village, click HERE pictures 98-178.

To be continued...

Old Jail of St. Augustine, Florida

After visiting The Fountain of Youth, we headed just down the street to see St. Augustine's Old Jail up close...

Doug got to see it up close AND personal when he got to occupy the birdcage.

Built by the same company that would later build the infamous Alcatraz, this old jail featured the gallows for the really bad criminals.

Doug tried out a bunk in Maximum Security.

Marlon experienced the insanity of solitary confinement first-hand.

This is said to be the only known photograph of Sheriff Joe Perry who served as St. Augustine's sheriff from 1889-1897 and 1901-1919. Seems strange he was voted out one term in between.

Marlon rests in a general jail population cell.

Different varieties of cuffs and shackles used throughout the years.

The sheriff's family resided at The Old Jail. This was their parlor located on the ground floor near Maximum Security.

The family's bedrooms were on the upper level near the general jail population.

This is the children's bedroom. A display in the living quarters stated that "the children knew that danger lurked on the other side of the wall and said their prayers nightly."

Here's a video from The Fountain of Youth and The Old Jail. For more pictures, go to HERE pictures 64-97.

To be continued...

The Fountain of Youth in St. Augustine, Florida

Today we headed toward the oldest continuously occupied European-established city in the United States, St. Augustine, Florida.

This city is the home of Ponce de Leon's famed Fountain of Youth.

After leaving office as first governor of Puerto Rico, Juan Ponce de Leon discovered Florida while searching for the famous healing waters in 1513.

This animated globe stands two stories tall and illustrates the discovery of The New World.

The Planetarium at The Fountain of Youth lets you view the night sky as the discoverers of America did more than 500 years ago.

Marlon grins and bears it as he samples water from The Fountain of Youth on a good day when the smell of sulfur is not so bad.

Timucuan Indian remains have been found on site at The Fountain of Youth park. The item below was a smoker used by Timucaun Indians to not only smoke meats, but also to smoke enemies' scalps for preservation as trophies.

In the 14th century, peacock such as this were only owned by the rich and powerful. This one was wandering freely through the grounds at The Fountain, enjoying its retirement from NBC.

No, this is NOT The Fountain of Youth. The Fountain is now actually an underground spring.

For more pictures of The Fountain of Youth, click HERE pictures 1-63.

To be continued...

Ormond Beach & Daytona Beach Pt 3

For lunch in Daytona, we headed to Cruisin' Cafe on Atlantic Avenue. This restaurant is a museum of Daytona 500 artifacts.

Retired race cars have been converted to big booths for your dining pleasure.

Many different companies are represented on the signs and race gear. Doug's mom, Jean, worked at one such company-Exide Batteries.

Marlon takes a break and enjoys a drink before eating his soon-to-be-delivered steak sandwich.

Each booth features a different driver...ours featured Bobby Allison.

The bar area features hundreds of pictures of the Daytona of yesteryear.

Here's a picture from 1905 of a classic car owned by a Vanderbilt...a 90 hp Mercedes.

In the '50s the Daytona races were run partially on the beach and featured stock cars racing 200 miles.

Lifeguard headquarters on Daytona Beach

For several hours while we there, lifeguards and other rescue workers combed the water for a missing 19 year old.

Daytona Pier features a skyride out over the water.

Doug and Marlene got a chance to do a little surfing.

We just happened to visit Daytona on the night of the 2nd Annual Bayou Boil festival with crawfish galore (as the sign says).

We passed on the crawfish galore, but thought this little puppy looked kind of cool.

This beach rescue vehicle is built on a golf cart chassis.

This monument memoralizes the motorcycle racing on Daytona Beach which took place from the '30s to the '60s.

The amphitheatre located on the Daytona Beach Boardwalk was built by the WPA (Work Progress Administration) in 1938 entirely of coquina rock quarried from the Atlantic Ocean.

Similar to crop circles, these writings left by aliens can often be found in the sands around Daytona Beach and the world.

Just before dusk birds take over the beach after a long tiring day of flying.

A video of many of our sights in Ormond Beach and Daytona Beach can be viewed below.
For more pictures of our time here, go to http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2008/april/ormond-beach-and-da/ pictures 70-134.

To be continued...