the queen travels: The sweet smell of candy

March 23 we got up and on the road. We went north from Titusville, leaving the rocket launch and mermaids behind. There was a preserve and we were hoping to do some more walking around, maybe see more birds, enjoy nature. We’d made a motel reservation in Yulee, and now we had to find the place. Good thing we have two GPS devices … a real GPS and a phone GPS. They get us to where we want to be, although sometimes we have to use both of them as one or the other gets goofy. It is NEVER operator error!!!

Once again we were drawn to the beach and stopped to enjoy it. I’ve discovered a love of walking barefoot on the beach. I don’t normally ever walk barefoot because it hurts my feet, but beach walking seems like a tonic for them. And there’s the added fun of collecting shells.

There are lots of birds in Florida, and we've seen so many different kinds.

By March 24, Thursday, we were working the lighthouse scene, stopping at the Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse located on Ponce Inlet near South Daytona. I’d visited the lighthouse years ago with my friend Verlie, and we’d climbed the 203 steps to the top of it. The lighthouse was built in 1835 and originally known as the Mosquito Inlet Light, but renamed later. It was first lit in 1887, is 175 feet tall, and is the tallest one in the state, and one of the tallest in the U.S. We chose to not climb but only photograph this one.

Ponce Inlet Lighthouse.

We continued north toward Jacksonville and decided it was time for lunch. We Googled and found a place in the heart of Jacksonville, and off we went, following directions and getting there like we knew exactly where we were going. The Candy Apple Restaurant. RAVE!!! The food was great, but there was an even bigger draw … about which we had no idea.

These chairs were on a deck outside of the restaurant ... I absolutely all the colors.

A candy store, Sweet Pete’s. This thing is multiple levels, has every kind of candy you can imagine, and I was going crazy from the sugar fumes. They make the candy, and I got hooked on the free sample of salted caramel we were given when we went into the restaurant; and then there’s a peanut butter candy one of the employees told me about. I have no idea what’s in it other than peanut butter, although it looks like some kind of marshmallow crème. It’s wonderful.

There were all kinds of fun things in this candy shop. It was a fun and unique design for a shop.

Candy. See the yellow peep?

The candies are all hand wrapped, and as we watched I started to swoon from the smell. It takes you away, back to being a child and literally being “like a kid in a candy store.” I bought a lot … oh well. I can diet later.

Hand-wrapped caramel ... YUM!!!

We were finally able to pull ourselves away from the addictive scent of sugar and spice, and wandered around downtown as there were some beautiful buildings, as there seem to be everywhere we go.

A beautiful church captured in the window across the street from it. I love it.

A little local Jacksonville color ... I didn't hear him playing. I think he was on break.

Then it was time to find our home for the night and a beach to walk for a while. Burney Park … our afternoon beach walk … it sure makes me feel like a kid again … grinning, walking in the water and sea foam, letting the water and sand water wash over my feet, picking up shells with not a care in the world except for what the next shell find will be.

This beach had something for everyone ... people drive vehicles on it, fish.

This foam looks like meringue to put on a pie. The feel of it on my feet was glorious.

And there were some pretty elaborate sand castle cities.

On Friday, March 25, we set a course for St. Augustine, where we planned to spend a couple of nights. We made a stop on Fort George Island at the Kingsley Plantation, a National Park Service site within the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve.

This map shows the layout of the Kingsley Plantation. The main house is at the top and the bottom semi-circle is where some of the slave quarters still stand.

Zephanaih Kingsley relocated to this island and lived here from 1813 to 1839. You can still see the plantation house, kitchen, barn and the ruins of 25 of the slave quarters. Kingsley had several plantations and 32,000 acres of land where he grew cotton, timber, rice, indigo, citrus and other provisional crops. He also had shipping and mercantile businesses. There are tours, but we chose not to do that. We really like exploring on our own, so we just wandered around.

The main house was constructed by John McQueen in 1798, making it the oldest standing plantation house in the state of Florida. In order to preserve it, visitor access is limited. It was built with comfort in mind . Each room used windows and fireplaces to capture the breezes coming off the Atlantic Ocean.

The trees were old and beautiful, many with twisted branches that gave you the idea you wanted to climb right on up.

We found out that Kingsley operated under the task system, meaning when his slaves finished a task they were assigned, they could tend to their own gardens or crafts that they could use or sell, even keeping the proceeds.

The 25 remaining slave quarters housed 60-80 men, women and children. They were built using the same type of material used in the kitchen ... something called "tabby." Tabby is a mixture of sand, water and oyster shells and when mixed together forms a type of concrete.

The tabby fascinated me as I thought it was beautiful. They would build forms, much as people do today, and then place a layer of tabby, then another and another until they had formed a wall; it was very labor-intensive. Cutouts would form the windows, and the tabby would be placed around each of them. Tabby was also fire-resistant and, as you can see, durable. I love how the shells show up throughout the walls.

Many cultures believe that beads have supernatural powers and can be worn to provide protection from harm. Archaeologists recovered several blue beads from two of the slave cabins. The shape and size suggest they were carefully selected, and there is a belief that the blue color had spiritual or religious meaning as well. There was also some buried iron that was found at the back doorway of a cabin. There have been other items found at another cabin, including a hoe and an axe blade. It was believed iron prevented harm from entering the house. Some cultures also thought that natural objects were spiritually charged and collected objects such as smooth stones to be used as house charms.

Anna Madgigine Jai, Kingsley’s wife, was purchased as a slave but freed in 1811. She became a successful business woman owning her own property. However, once Florida passed some harsh restrictions, Kingsley moved his family to Haiti, where some of their descendants continue to live.

During the Civil War there was little money, so women made dolls for the children out of handkerchiefs. If the handkerchief belonged to a loved one who had gone off to war, the doll helped to ease the pain of separation. They were also known as "church" dolls as they provided a quiet toy for a child and was silent even when dropped.

The moss in the trees is beautiful.

On we went to St. Augustine, where we quickly realized we should have stayed three or four days as there’s so much to see and do. We got checked in and then went for a walk. We saw some beautiful old homes in a residential area and found a carousel, with that awesome old-fashioned look to it. We just had to spend a buck for a ride on a carousel horse that went up and down. Besides, it would be great practice for a horseback ride I’ll be doing later this year. Yee haw!!