Well, Trace and I decided to whittle away at some of our USA Bucket List. There are so many places right here in the US that we have added to our Bucket List that we thought in 2024 we would just do the USA. Ok, so for Trip #1 of this year, we decided to go to St. Augustine, Florida and Savannah, Georgia. Neither Trace nor I had ever been to St. Augustine and Trace had never been to Savannah, so we decided to check off two bucket list places in one trip. We flew into Jacksonville, FL and then drove to St. Augustine. We spent four nights there, and were going, going, going the whole time. Then we drove up to Savannah, GA and spent three nights there. We had a blast and the weather cooperated as well. We had one evening/night where it rained, and the rest of the time was mostly sunny. It was nice to get some fair weather since we seem to be in some sort of rain pattern down here in Texas. In both April and May (thus far) we have drastically exceeded our normal amounts of rainfall. Last year we had a drought and this year we are overflowing with water. Crazy-ass weather….but I digress!!
Back to our trip, I brought my trusty camera and shot over 150 pictures. Obviously, I cannot post all of them as it would probably crash my website!! But I will try to post some good shots and also provide a little useless trivia that may come in handy someday!
St. Augustine Pics
The two photos above were shot in the historic district of St. Augustine. The first photo is of St. George Street, which is now a pedestrian mall full of restaurants, shops, and museums. The second photo is of Cuna Street. Both of these streets are in the Colonial Spanish Quarter of St. Augustine. Some of the buildings on these two streets date back to the 1600’s. Here’s a bit of historical trivia for you. St. Augustine is our nation’s oldest city. Ponce de Leon claimed Florida for Spain in 1513. Shortly there after, the French established some garrisons there. This made old King Phillip II of Spain angry and so in September, 1565, he sent Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles and 700 soldiers and colonists to Florida. They founded St. Augustine. Menendez and his soldiers successfully were able to destroy the French garrisons, and the rest as they say is history! Ok, here is the real reason I wanted to go to St. Augustine…the Fountain of Youth! Ol’ Ponce de Leon did more than just discover Florida. He discovered this natural spring that could sustain life in this new land. So naturally, Trace and I had to partake of these magical waters. Well, it tasted horrible!! This “natural spring water” tasted like it had sulphur in it…TERRIBLE!!!! But hey, if it works, then it’s worth it.The photos above are of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine. Construction of this church began in 1793 and was completed in 1797. It was remodeled in 1887 after a fire nearly destroyed all of it. It’s a beautiful church and you can really see the Spanish influence in its architecture and decoration. But what’s with that red ceiling???The above pictures are of what I consider as the most beautiful building in St. Augustine. It was built by Henry Flagler. Flagler was a business partner with John D. Rockefeller and amassed a fortune of his own. He then decided to bring his fortune to St. Augustine and start a hotel business. This was his first hotel, the Ponce de Leon Hotel. It is one of the finest examples of Spanish Renaissance architecture. In 1967, this hotel was turned into Flagler College. Can you imagine going to school here??This is the statue of Henry Flagler that stands outside the entrance to the college.The domed ceiling in the atrium of Flagler College…yes, that’s gold leaf in the ceiling frescos! Flagler spared no expense when he built his hotel.The above pictures were taken in the dining hall of Flagler College. This was once the restaurant of the hotel. The stained glass windows were designed and built by Tiffany himself. Today they are insured for 130 million dollars! Again, can you imagine being a student here??Ok, this is for all my friends back in Denver. Does this look familiar? Well, it was purchased by the City of Denver just prior to the 1987 Super Bowl between the Broncos and the New York Giants. As most Bronco fans know, that Super Bowl did not go so well for the Broncos. As a result, they thought this statue was what jinxed the Broncos and banished it from Denver. It ended up in the parking lot of the Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum in St. Augustine. True story!!This was Flagler’s second hotel. It was called the Alcazar Hotel. It’s like right across the square from his Ponce de Leon Hotel. This hotel closed in 1931. It now houses a museum and the St. Augustine City Hall.This was the third hotel of Henry Flagler. Flagler must have hated competition because this hotel was actually built by Franklin Smith in 1887. He named it the Casa Monica Hotel. But in 1888, Flagler bought the property and all its furnishings. He renamed it the Cordova Hotel. It became the County Courthouse in 1968. In 1997 it was bought and completely renovated. In 1999 it was re-opened as a hotel with its original name of Casa Monica, complete with a Starbucks on the corner!As you can see, there are statues of Ponce de Leon all over St. Augustine. The crazy thing about these statues is they are all larger than life, literally. Turns out ol’ Ponce was only 4 feet 8 inches tall in real life. Hard to imagine a fearless conquistador at only 4 feet 8 inches tall!These photos were taken atop the Castillo de San Marcos, which is now a national monument. It was constructed by the Spanish in 1672 to replace the wooden fortifications that they used in the past. It is considered the oldest masonry fortification in the United States. The stone that was used for building this is called “coquina” which is a shellrock that they quarried on Anastasia Island across the bay. It must be pretty hard because it withstood two sieges by the British but was never captured by the enemy. Oh yeah, that pirate ship in the first photo is used by a tour company to re-enact a pirate attack on the city.The above pictures are of the marina in the harbor, the lighthouse on Anastasia Island across the bay, and a sunset picture on the bay. That last picture was taken from a tour boat that we hopped on. I just liked the light at that moment and had to capture it.These photos were taken at the Mission of Nombre de Dios. This is where Pedro Menedez Aviles landed and established St. Augustine. Included in Menendez’s entourage was Father Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales (these Spanish names!!) who established this mission. In later years our Lady of La Leche Shrine was established at this mission. The cross was erected by the Diocese of St. Augustine to commemorate 400th anniversary of the city. The cross is constructed from stainless steel and is 208 feet tall and weighs a whopping 70 tons. The statue in front is of Father Lopez.This is a shot of Magnolia Street which was dubbed by National Geographic as one of the most beautiful streets in the country. The trees that line this street are live oaks, some of which are reportedly over 100 years old. They are dripping with spanish moss. Ok, here is what I learned: spanish moss is neither Spanish nor a moss. It is actually an air plant that is in the family of the pineapple. Here’s another tidbit. As tempting as it might be to grab a handful of this stuff, you may not want to as it is usually loaded with chiggers! Ok, I couldn’t resist taking this photo. While we were at the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park, we saw all these Peacocks putting on a show for us….or at least we thought it was for us. Turns out what you don’t see in the foreground of this picture is the female peacock. It was mating season for the peacocks so the males were putting on the show to get the female’s attention. I just got to take advantage of their mating ritual and get this fabulous shot of it.
Savannah Pics
This is the Riverfront area of Savannah. It’s in what is considered to be the historic district. This area is chock full of restaurants, artisan shops, and hotels. Our hotel was at the end of the street, or as you are looking at the photo on the left edge of the photo. I shot this photo from on top of a riverboat that we boarded for a river tour.This is the gold dome atop the City Hall of Savannah.Does this look familiar?? It should if you ever saw the movie “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”. This was the house in that movie. In fact, most of the movie was filmed in Savannah. This house is actually the Mercer House, and it is said to actually be haunted. We learned that Savannah is one of the most haunted cities in the country. There are more than a handful of homes/buildings in the historic part of the town that have had paranormal activities going on in them. Yet another one of the huge mansions in the historic district of Savannah. Boy, these people really know how to build a house!This is a photo inside the cathedral basilica of St. John the Baptist. This church is absolutely beautiful and rivals some of the great cathedrals of Europe.The two shots above were also inside the Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist. The stained glass window was one of many. But look at the detail in it. The second picture here is one of the side altars. Ok, you are probably wondering why on earth I took these three photos. Well, I have been a Catholic my whole life, even went to a Catholic school for twelve years. But I learned something on this visit to this church that I never knew. The three things that a cathedral or church has that distinguishes it as a basilica are: 1. the Ombrellino (the Papal Umbrella) 2. the Tintinnabulum (Bells) 3. the Papal Cross Keys Getting a church or cathedral designated as a basilica requires papal approval after a long and ardious process. That’s why there are not many of them. There’s only 93 in the US, all of which are minor basilicas.
(If you look at my previous photos of the basilica cathedral in St. Augustine, you will see the Ombrellino in that photo. Learned something on this trip!)This is a photo of the lighthouse on Tybee Island, just off the coast of Savannah. This is an actual working lighthouse operated by the US coast Guard. You can see in the photo that maintenance was being done to the outside of the lighthouse. I actually climbed all 176 steps to the top of the lighthouse. Had no problem going up, but my knee was killing me after descending those 176 steps!Proof that I made it to the top of the lighthouse. This is the view from the top. The buildings below are mostly part of the Coast Guard base.
Hilton Head Island Pics
Ok, so we took a little side trip to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. After that short little trip, I decided to add Hilton Head Island to my bucket list for a future vacation spot.
Just a couple of photos of the coastline in Hilton Head Island. In the top photo, you can see the bridge that you have to take to get out to the island.This is a photo of the St. Simon Lighthouse on Hilton Head Island. Unfortunately, they would not let us go to the top of this lighthouse. Would have loved to get some pics from the top of that lighthouse!And here it is…our selfie from the beach at Hilton Head Island. Definitely got to go back there again!
So that’s it. We had a blast on this vacation. I hope y’all enjoy the photos and the bit of useless (albeit historically accurate) information I threw in. We got a couple more vacations planned for this year and as usual, my trusty camera will be going along as well. Ciao for now!!
