Wednesday - 6/17/2020 - Think the oldest city in The Americas requires a second day exploring

We had planned all along to stay at least two days in St Augustine.   There is so much to see and do here.  Our morning was spent by Renee accomplishing a good amount of school work while Erik made a big breakfast to start using up the food we have in the fridge (yes...it is that time of the trip where we need to start thinking that way.....boohoohoo!).   While Renee continued with her school work Erik gave the boat a freshwater bath to remove all of the salt from yesterdays trip.

Hard to see well in a picture but we had a visit from a sea turtle this morning at the back of the boat

View from 'The Bridge of Lions' down at the St Augustine Municipal Marina where we docked
If your eyes are good enough Aquaholic can be spotted

Around noon we set out on bicycles towards the St Augustine Lighthouse and the beach.  We cruised over the Bridge of Lions which was substantially less steep and shorter than the bridge we rode over a few days ago :-).   A nice view of the city and of the marina where we are docked was had from the top of the bridge.   We stopped briefly at the St Augustine Alligator Farm and Zoological park which is the oldest running attraction Florida dating back to the 1890's.   It looked pretty neat with not only the alligators but also zip-lining through the park, however, we did not pay the $28 to go in.   We rode on to the St Augustine Lighthouse and museum which we did pay to enter.   It was a quite impressively restored and kept up lighthouse, keepers house and grounds.  A huge amount of history here and the non profit that runs it has done a great job of putting together exhibits and displaying the history.

The Alligator farm is one of the oldest attractions in Florida created specifically for entertainment
It dates back to the 1890's 

We deduced that this sign for the farm is not the original from the 1800's

The St Augustine Lighthouse as we were riding up toward it....very stately old gal

A closer view

Rear view of the lighthouse keepers home
Much larger and nicer than others we have seen at other lighthouses
It is actually a double intended for two families

292 steps and 14 stories
We made it to the top with a gorgeous view of St Augustine and the Atlantic
Not such a good view of Erik's hair

View from the top

The lenses on these things are impressive

Time to come down

Volunteers on site at the lighthouse build handmade wooden boats
You can purchase tickets for $5 for an annual to win one of the hand built boats
We did not purchase a ticket because we thought shipping a 13 ft / 700 lb boat might be pricey

They also had a nice museum with many artifacts and models
This is the original lighthouse that only a few years after being built fell into the ocean.....oops!  

The sun was out and the day was beautiful so we rode an additional three miles or so out to the beach and pier where we spent a couple of hours laying out, swimming and people watching.   The surf at this beach was MUCH more manageable to swim in then what it was at Daytona Beach a couple of day ago.   It made for some fun recreation.   The highlight of the people watching at this beach was the surfers....many of them.   We keep saying that one day we are going to attempt surfing; not today though.   Maybe next time! 

               Let's go surfing now, everybody's learning how, come on surf safari with me! 

When we got back to the marina this boat which is a Chinese 'Junk' that we saw anchored out while we were cruising in yesterday had arrived at the marina an docked across from us
It reminds us of our fellow looper friends Kim and Jim who owned a very large 'Junk' before getting a different boat to to The Loop

AND......Erik thinks that he may have found his next boat!
This 50 ft cruiser is beautiful with a really nice layout and gorgeous color
Since it is likely at least a $500K boat we are pretty sure it is NOT in our future

After riding back to the marina we showered up to remove the sweat and sunblock (two things there are plenty of on us lately) and after an hour or so of resting we headed out to dinner.   We chose a restaurant directly across the street from the marina (O.C. Whites Seafood) because we had passed by it last night and saw that the atmosphere seemed nice, live music good and the menu looked appealing.  Our instincts were correct and we enjoyed a perfect evening dining on the outdoor patio with shade and lots of Florida vegetation.   The dishes were delicious....and WAY to large so we have some good leftovers for lunch tomorrow.   With full bellies and happy hearts we made our way back to the boat where we caught up on some family phone calls and readied a few things for tomorrows departure. 

Sitting at our outdoor tale for dinner next to bandanna trees
Appetizers maybe ??

Another absolutely beautiful evening

78 degrees, nice breeze, tasty food, good atmosphere and great company

Tomorrow we will cruise to our second to last stop, Ortega River Marina in Jacksonville where we will meet up with a fellow AGLCA member and also Marinette owner that we met a couple of years ago.

May as well end with a pretty flowering tree
Who doesn't like those ?