St Augustine, day 1

We made it into St. Augustine just ahead of an approaching storm.  We knew the front was wreaking havoc all across the country and wanted to be someplace secure.  Moorings are generally much safer than being at anchor and sometimes even over being in a slip.  No chance of a fender slipping or a spring line breaking and having your hull slam against the dock.  This isn't an ideal mooring field due to the swift run of water in the river.  As I write, we're experiencing steady 20 kts with gusts in the 30s.  The boat shifts with the running of the tide so sometimes we are at a 90 degree angle to our mooring ball.  We went to shore to register in a ripping current and opted to take a walk and wait for the tide shift.  The wind would still be against us but  the current would be better.  We didn't want to battle both.  It was a short walk to check out the church we'll attend on Easter and look at some of the spots we had visited a while back by car.  The weather is due to be horrendous for about 36 hours so this was our chance.  We had originally planned on only a few days but have decided that this is the place we'll stay until I go home to Fort Walton to take care of the house and yard and generally catch up with friends and even work a few shifts at West.  David has his list of projects to take care of while I'm gone.  I know we'll miss each other but we're both looking forward to our own projects.

On the way up the river, we passed so much marshy scrubbed.  Then
it opened up to this vast savanna of marsh grass.

You can see why it's called the Palm Coast.

This is part of the original Fr. Matanzas built by the Spaniards in the 16th
century at the now shoaled in  Matanzas Pass.  Now a National Monument and accessible
by a park ferry.  On our list of some-day places to visit.  It matches the fort at the mouth of the
inlet at St. Augustine.  I hope we get the time to visit there since we missed
it on our last trip to St. Augustine.  

This is a large flag, usually requiring over 15 kts of wind to fill. Yep,
it's windy out and still building!

Once an elegant hotel built by Henry Flagler as a destination for East Coast
vacationers.  Now the site of Flagler College.

This is a scale model of the Alhambra Castle.  Also on my list of
places to visit this time.

One of my favorite museums ever, the Lightner.  Mr. Lightner was a wealthy
man who didn't have time to really shop for his treasures so he specialized
in buying entire collections and he didn't seem to care what the collection
involved.  You can see china sets, clocks, egg cups and hundreds of other
subsets of items.  Very eclectic and some things are quite beautiful.