Pedaling it around

The hotel in St. Augustine had “free” bike rentals and we’d reserved them for the day, Saturday, March 26.  What a great day we had. 

The bikes only had one gear but were easy to pedal and to handle.  They were true cruisers.

And with typical cruiser style, Jaz found some "road kill" and attached it to her bike, making her a true biker.  Haha!!

We pedaled our butts all over town … to the downtown area, to the St. Augustine Lighthouse, back to a Publix across a bridge that nearly did me in with a long hill, through residential areas.  It was a great day filled with exercise that I could certainly use as well as some sightseeing.  And it’s really the best way to get around with all of the traffic. 

We came across an old town which appeared to be a touristy thing, but I couldn't resist a few photos.  Florida cowmen were nicknamed "Crackers" because of the sound made by their cow whip cracking the air.  This name was also given to the small Spanish horses used for working Spanish cattle.

There was a chain gang working out by the front of the old town ... glad I was never one of these kinds of guys.  In the heat and humidity you'd hope many of them would not want to go back to jail.  In 1877 the new governor put into practice the convict leasing system to help offset some of the state's expenditures.  Prisoners were leased out to individuals and large companies to do a variety of jobs from building railroads to working in turpentine camps.  The leasing fee was $26 per prisoner per year and they were obligated to provide food, shelter, clothing and medical care, pushing the cost to about $150 per year.  Still sounds like a real deal to me.

There was a pig ... had to have a photo.

We found the Fountain of Youth, but being young-at heart figured we didn't need to visit it.  This site does mark the 1513 arrival of Juan Ponce de Leon in Florida and the legend of the Fountain of Youth.

In a small lake we saw this heron.  I took tons of photos, but Jaz decided he wasn't real ... and was just a statue placed there.  We came back later.  The heron was gone.  It just appeared to be a statue because he stood so still, so intense and never moving except I saw his beak open and close once.  These are such beautiful birds.

 

We had to pedal across a drawbridge to get on over to where the lighthouse was located.

Surprise.  A metal grate part of the bridge.  We always think of Daisy Corn when we cross metal grates.  She hates them.  Ask her about it if you don't know the story.

 

The St. Augustine Lighthouse is another beautiful example of lighthouses.  We climbed the 219 stairs to get to the top ... and enjoyed the view before heading back down and on a tour to see some other things at the location.

At the lighthouse there is a boatbuilding program to preserve the art of building wooden boats, a tradition that has thrived in St. Augustine for more than four centuries.  This is a replica of a 1760 yawl.  Yawls, popular in the 18th century, served as ships' boats, used to transport people or supplies to a location that couldn't be reached by a larger ship.

While having some lunch, who'd a thought there'd be pirates roaming around.

 

Yep, our mode of travel.  Biker Bill ... do you recognize the bungee?

Although there were other choices,

Even a motorized one.  I think we did best with the bicycles.

 

As we’d pedaled to town we'd taken only little pocket cameras, but there were such gorgeous buildings, we went back to the motel to pick up our big Canons and then went back to some of them to get better photos.  But not the lighthouse ... that was quite a ways away and was closed by then anyway.

 

 

The churches here are beautiful, as they are in many other places.  This one, the Ancient City Baptist Church, reminds me of a lighthouse.

The Flagler Memorial Presbyterian Church is huge, covering what must have been a city block. 

Possibly it houses a number of people.  I don't know.  I just enjoyed the architecture.

There is a Moorish influence that is easily seen here.

St. Augustine was founded in 1565 and being continuously occupied since then, is the nation’s oldest city.  It’s known for its Spanish colonial architecture as well as its beaches.  I think we saw quite a bit; but we really needed more time here. 

This is a 17th-century Spanish stone fortress located on the St. Augustine Inlet.  We only saw it from the outside.

Flagler College was founded in 1968 and named for Henry Flagler, an industrialist, oil magnate and railroad pioneer. The driving force for the college was Lawrence Lewis, Jr., a relative of Flagler's.  The college offers a four-year liberal arts degree, with 29 majors and 34 minors.  Tuition for 2015-2016 was $16,830, excluding room and board.

The college is located on 19 acres, and is on the grounds of an old hotel.  There is a variety of designs for the buildings located on the campus.

We got inside one of the public buildings, and it was filled with beautiful, polished old wood and statues.  There was also a gorgeous skylight of gold-hued tones. Interiors of the hotel are decorated with imported marble, carved oak, painted murals and Tiffany glass windows.  While many celebrities and presidents stayed here, during World War II, the hotel served as a Coast Guard Training Center.

The college and its grounds are beautifully-maintained, and we could have spent more time wandering around the fountains and in-and-out through the buildings, some of which had gargoyles on the sides of the walls.  There are lots of bicycles of every style and color parked everywhere so we knew we'd chosen a great mode of transportation. 

Flagler built the Florida East Coast Railway, the Ponce de Leon Hotel (Flagler College) and the Hotel Alcazar (the Lightner Museum).  Flagler built the Ponce de Leon Hotel in 1888, and while it's part of the college, it's also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  It reflects the Spanish Renaissance style and was the first major edifice in the United States to be constructed of poured concrete, a mixture of cement, sand and coquina shell.

The Alcazar Hotel was also built by Flagler in 1888 and was the center of social life for wealthy winter visitors for about 50 years before closing.  Hobbies Magazine Founder Otto Lightner of Chicago purchased the building to house his collections of antiques and collectibles.  The building and collections were left to the citizens of St. Augustine upon his death.  The building now houses the St. Augustine City Hall and the Lightner Museum. 

We happened across a wedding party doing photos near the Lightner Museum and the photographer wanted them to be a little goofy.  I'm thinking all of the photos of these beautiful, young people turned out great.  Although I don't think he got a shot of the little boy dressed up in his wedding finery who needed to piddle and was being led off by his father to go in the bushes. 

The Villa Zorayda houses an extensive antique collection from the original owners and has been fully restored to its original grandeur.  Built in 1883 as a winter residence, the architecture is like a Moorish castle, and uses Franklin Smith's (the original owner of this magnificent building) creation of poured Portland cement and crushed coquina stone. Smith instructed Flagler's architects in the use of the concrete for the Ponce de Leon Hotel.

In addition to spending more time everywhere we went, there’s so much more here to see.  Another time maybe.

Yep.  It's a beautiful city, and I could spend more time here.

Especially taking photos of horses ... my favorite ... a brown-and-white.

It was a great day filled with exercise that I could certainly use as well as some sightseeing.  And it’s really the best way to get around with all of the traffic.  Another time maybe.