St. Augustine, Florida

Set off about 9 a.m. to go to St. Augustine. It’s about 90 miles southeast of our campground so got there about 10:30 a.m. Went to the Visitor’s Center and bought a ticket for the Old Town Trolley. This is the same company that operates in San Diego and we also saw them in Key West and Savannah. Advantage is that you can get off and on. They had 18 stops, including the Ponce de Leon Fountain of Youth.
Now for an editorial comment on tourist towns from my perspective. Some of them seem like real places and some of them seem more like Disneyland. St. Augustine was more like Disneyland to me.
Our ticket included admission to the Lightener Museum. Mr. Lightener lived in Chicago and collected all kinds of “stuff” including glass (Tiffany, cut, blown), Majolica pottery, coins, buttons, mechanized musical instruments (player pianos, etc.). Because of his health he moved to St. Augustine in the 1940s, bought the Alcazar Hotel built by Mr. Flagler in 1888 and moved his collections here. When he died he gave it to the City and today the Museum shares space with the City Hall.
City Hall and the Museum are across the street from the Ponce de Leon Hotel, also built by Mr. Flagler. It is no longer a hotel, but houses the Flagler College. The Hotel was designed by Bernard Maybeck who was very influential in Southern California architecture and the dining room has Louis Comfort Tiffany windows. It attracted rich folks who wanted to winter in a warmer climate and Mr. Flagler just happened to have a railroad they could use to get here.
Henry Flagler and John D. Rockefeller were partners in a company that became Standard Oil. When Mr. Flagler came to St. Augustine in 1885 he started a long relationship with the city. He built hotels, a railroad (all the way to Kay West eventually) and helped many local churches that needed funds to rebuild after fires or other disasters.
I thought it interesting that Henry Plant built hotels on the west coast of Florida to give his railroads business and Henry Flagler did the same thing on the east coast, including the Breakers in Palm Beach. Two of their big hotels now house colleges.
We got home about 7 p.m. At 8 p.m. Mom was complaining of a mild earache. I went off to Wal-Mart to get a new heating pad and some eardrops.