St Augustine to Brunswick - Loop Trip Days 110 - 116

There's a lot going on in Saint Augustine and we're beginning to think that our stay will be too short, but today it's off to catch the tour trolley and see how much we can see. The trolley is a pretty good deal. We got a two day ticket which makes it even better. They narrate the ride so you can learn about the city's history and you can get on and off all day long. We got on at the winery and rode to the old fort where we got off and walked to breakfast at the Maple Street Biscuit Company. Great spot, quite inexpensive and interestingly located on Cordova Street, go figure. From here, it was on to the Oldest Schoolhouse. Boy, were things tough back in those days. You had to bring wood for the fire, food for the teacher and if you misbehaved, you got put in the closet under the stairs! How do you think that would go over these days? After that, we went to the Castillo de San Marcos, probably better known as the Old Fort. Lot of history here and an interesting engineering lesson about how the coquina stone could stand up to bombardment without failing. While there, the Park Service did a demonstration of the firing of a cannon! You would be deaf from doing that with any regularity. From the fort, we went to the Colonial Quarter for a tour of what life was like during the various occupations of the city. John was our guide and he did a great job narrating the tour. Amazingly the day has flown by and it's time to head to the Prohibition Kitchen for dinner. This place has a decor from the 1930's and jazz music daily. We got in just before the hoards arrived and packed it to the gills!

Old school room

Old school ouse and kitchen

Marker

Old City Wall

The Old St Augustine Fort

Firing the cannon

Interior of the fort

Ship building at the Colonial Quarter

Prohibition Kitchen

Yesterday was windy and about 44 degrees, but this morning the wind has died down and the temperature is closer to 60. Much better! We walked to our trolley stop and waited, but no trolley. Much to our surprise today is the St Patrick's Day parade and a Celtic Festival is going on so downtown is a total mess. Now those tickets aren't looking like such a deal. Anyway, the only way to town is on foot so we're walking. Our plan was to go to brunch at the Casablanca hotel, when we arrive it will be an hour to get seated and place an order. Next door is the Harbor View Grille which is a little diner that has been here for 30 years. We met Mary, the owner, sat at the counter and had a great meal. From here, the next stop is the Pirate and Treasure Museum. Paul, at the marina, told me about this place and how the interior was done like the inside of a ship. Actually, part of the design was done by Disney and the exhibits are excellent. From here, we were finally able to get on the trolley and rode from the Old Fort to the Oldest Jail. The tour of the jail was quite a tale! It was funded by Henry Flagler when he came here to rebuild the city and his hotel. He gave the City the money with the requirement that it be at least one mile from his hotel. This was not a place you would have wanted to be. The six foot by six foot cells with four bunks typically housed 12 to 16 prisoners!! After the jail, it was back on the trolley to get back into the downtown area. We went back to the Prohibition Kitchen to watch the Vols in the SEC semifinals and have dinner.

Pirate Museum

Pirate Museum

Our convict tour guide at the Old Jail

Cell interior

Sunday morning, we left for the next leg up the ICW. The first part goes past the downtown area and the Old Fort. You pass under the Bridge of Lions which is a really cool, historic structure. Just past here, the ICW turns east straight toward the St Augustine Inlet and then makes a hard left turn. The waves were breaking and the view was great. For about the next ten miles, the waterway is wide and almost totally undeveloped with no speed restrictions. This was great until about 12 miles below Jacksonville where the ICW suddenly becomes very narrow with houses, docks and restaurants lining the banks. Now the restrictions are back and the next six miles are slow. At least there is stuff to look at. After what feels like an eternity, this is finally past and it's only a few more miles to our stop for the day which is Palm Cove Marina . Track and photos - www.ramblr.com/web/mymap/trip/273527/979991

Passing the Old Fort on the ICW

Our plan was to leave early this morning, but for some I woke up even earlier than planned. While trying to figure out why, I looked at the weather forecast to see that the front is moving faster expected. So I woke up the sleeping Admiral, much to her dismay, to let her know we had to go - now! We got rolling quickly. This is an ugly, windy, drizzly morning and almost no one else is on the water. This is a good thing as we need to get to Fernandina as early as possible. Just north of where we had stopped is the St John's River and huge ship building facilities. Going through this makes you feel really small and compared to even the smallest of these ships, we are! The area beyond here is probably very pretty on a nice day. Most of it passes through a preserve area and two state parks. Desolate, untouched, islands, swamp and sea grasses like it all must have been years ago. Arrival at Fernandina City Marina was at 11 and wind was already blowing straight out of the west at about 15 mph. West was good because it blew us right onto the face dock where we tied up. The rest of the day wind increased to about 30 mph and the waterway looked like the ocean. Thankfully, there is a floating dock between us and the open area that was badly damaged in Irma, but is stopping the waves before they break on us. We braved the windstorm and walked into town for dinner at the Salty Pelican, great food at this waterfront place. The winds will be dropping during the night so tomorrow should be a much better day. Track and photos - www.ramblr.com/web/mymap/trip/273527/980695

The floating dock protecting us from the waves

Whitecaps 

Tuesday morning was entirely different than yesterday. It was cool this morning, but the wind has basically stopped and the water is flat. The marina had a breakfast place listed as the best in town so this was a must visit location. The name was Bright Morning Cafe so I Googled it to find where we were going. Turns out it was only about three blocks away. When we walked up to the restaurant we both said, "we've been here before", which was two years ago and it was still a great place to eat. From here, we went to the Maritime Museum. It didn't look like much from outside or when we first entered, but turns out that the guys who run it are actual treasure hunters and knew Mel Fisher, the renowned treasure hunter who has the museum in Key West. This museum had some amazing artifacts and the guys had so much personal information that was very interesting. Don't miss this if you're in town. The typical tourist shopping stroll through town came next. Midway through that, we came to the 1892 historic courthouse and decided to walk in. The security guard met us right inside the door, but was really nice and invited us in to look around and see the old courtroom. What a beautiful old building, well preserved and cared for. We walked all around town before deciding to stop at the Green Turtle Tavern. While sitting in a couple of tall beach chairs outside, we met a couple from New York who were here to see their son who is stationed at King's Bay. He is a submariner and has some very interesting history of the Navy. We were very impressed by his enthusiasm and commitment to his service and training in the USN! Around the corner from here was an Italian restaurant we stumbled into and Ciao turned out to be an excellent choice. We got back to the boat in time to see another Florida sunset.

The Maritime Museum

Old Courthouse

The Courtroom

Marker

Lesesne House

Sunset

On Wednesday, the wind picked up again and it was rather chilly. We hung out on-board for a while to let it warm up some and then broke out our bikes. I had been told that Old Fernandina was a place to go see so that was the plan. It was about 2.5 miles, but that didn't take too long. Unfortunately, there's nothing there so this was a bit of a let down. The map showed a nearby road leading to Fort Clinch so we went a little further only to find that it was a locked gate. Determined to make something of this trip, we headed back toward town, then east, to the main entrance to the park. From here it was a pretty, but three mile uphill, ride to the visitor center and the fort. I seriously thought my legs were going to fall off by the time we got there and I literally toppled over at the destination. The fort turned out to be a pretty neat place with a video history and a lot of details added to the various rooms in the structures. It overlooks the ICW and the Saint Mary's Inlet so we will hopefully see the water side tomorrow. After touring all over the fort, it was back to the entrance and then west back to town. The whole trip was just short of 15 miles - quite a workout for one day! And no Rob, we're not professional riders like you!  Back at the marina, we went to the Shrimp Museum before putting the bikes away and walking to dinner. Our pick was 29 South Eats, a place that we went to a couple of years ago. It's located in a little house and is very good. They were literally booked for the evening, but we had gotten there early enough that they squeezed us in!

There was a fort in Old Ferandina

Pippy Longstocking House

Fort Clinch

Guns over the waterway

The Quartermaster Room

Kitchen and laundry buildings

Big guns!

Foundation for Officers' Quarters which were never constructed

Sunset

It was again cold, but no wind, on Thursday morning when it was time to leave. We eased out and continued the voyage north toward Saint Mary's inlet and then past Cumberland Island. This is a really long island and very remote. The scenery is nice and we saw a few dolphins along the way. At the top of the island is St Andrew Sound, you actually go into the Atlantic Ocean to get around a shoal in the middle of the inlet. Thankfully, it was a very calm day and the inlet was a smooth crossing. Just north of here was Jekyll Island and another narrow creek that made up this ICW section. At the north end of this island is St Simons Sound and the Brunswick River. Our destination is to the west and off the ICW. We will spend a the next few days at Brunswick, Georgia to explore this town. Track and photos - www.ramblr.com/web/mymap/trip/273527/982538

Our neighbor - about the same size??

Sunset