Wednesday - October 29

Bob: Started our sightseeing off with a trolley ride through historic St. Augustine. It was very informative and relaxing. When we finished we walked over to the Lightner Museum. Went through part of it then we had to hotfoot it over to Flagler College to do their 2:00 tour. Henry Flagler and John D. Rockerfeller were the founders of the Standard Oil Company. When Rockerfeller was asked if the Standard Oil company was the result of his thinking, he answered, "No, sir. I wish I had the brains to think of it. It was Henry M. Flagler." The college is pretty impressive as it includes the old Ponce de Leon Hotel. See pictures below. After that tour we went back to the Lightner Museum and then toured the Castillo de San Marcos, which is a fort built by Spain to protect its interests in Florida in the late 1600s. Then we went to dinner at the Raintree restaurant.

Entrance to Flagler College

One of the many Tiffany stained glass windows in the students dining area! These windows are valued in the millions. Antiques Roadshow has valued them "priceless".

Another hotel Flagler built.

Bonnie:  We are exhausted today after our tours, but it was worth it.  What an interesting city this is. There is much to see and we have only scratched the surface. It was 1513 that Ponce de Leon explored Florida and 1565 when Menendez settled St. Augustine.  The Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620. That's almost 100 years later! Something seems to be missing with the teaching of our history! Anyway, I am impressed with the Spanish influence here.
We saw some beautiful things at the museum and Flagler college, including the windows made of Tiffany glass. There was a large display of crystal in the museum that was awesome, too.  The fort we toured changed hands a number of times from Spanish to English, back to Spanish, and then to the US. All of these changes were done by treaty and not fighting.  No soldiers died! That's impressive.

Castillo de San Marcos

Castillo de San Marcos