'Bye to St Augustine

As we say good-bye to St Augustine, I thought I'd share with you a few last photos of this lovely city.  Below is the massive Presbyterian church that business tycoon and St. Augustine benefactor Henry Flagler had built in one year (1889) and dedicated in honor of his daughter. That year, both she and her child died following complications from childbirth at sea. Flagler, his wife, daughter and grandchild are all buried here.

This is Casa Monica, a fancy hotel that is typical of much of the architecture of St Augustine.

The Governor's House...

A church steeple clad in wooden shingles

And the oldest street in the Unites States, Aviles Street. Home now to many restaurants, shops and art galleries.

One of the buildings decorated for the "Nights of Lights" downtown.

On the waterfront at the fort -  Castillo de San Marcos - there are regular displays of firing cannons by guys in period costumes. Yup, they're covering their ears, but probably half of them are deaf by now from doing this over and over. 

While I was on the boat over the holiday, Jim went to Wilmington Delaware to visit family, including these two cute little guys, now about 11 months old. Here's Andrew...

And here's Ryan... so adorable! Jim had a blast with them, and with their mom and dad and other family and friends up north.

Over the holiday weekend our friend Sunny Wilson drove down to St Augustine from Charleston to keep me company. Unfortunately, like many people all over the place,  we were both sick with awful colds that have lasted a couple of weeks (and now Jim is sick). But we did our best to get out and about anyway.  Here we are downtown on Christmas Eve.

While at River's Edge Marina we've become friends with the cruisers in the next slip. This is Rosalita, the sweetest Rotweiler alive. She's named of course for Bruce Springsteen's song by the same name.   Apparently she doesn't recognize "Rosalita" when it's played, but she sings along when she hears a song she likes.  When we hear her howling melodically in the cockpit, she's probably listening to one of the skippers favorites called "Kiss My Irish Ass".

Here's Rosie with Liz and Sean, first mate and skipper of "Caribbean Soul", also headed south and to the Bahamas.

More again soon when I have photos to share from new places.