St-Augustine Day 2. High 78F Low 57F

Well I said there was lots to see and I was not kidding. This is the oldest European settlement in the United States and we were reminded of it every few minutes.

We took a trolley tour of the city, hopped on around 9:30 and did not get back to the boat until 6:30pm. Man what a town! I lied about the Basilica yesterday though. It was open to the public, just not when we went by yesterday. We did go to see it today and it is one ornate place. 

We also saw the oldest town square, the oldest pharmacy; the oldest hotel and on and on it goes.

One quite interesting place we visited was the distillery. It used to be an ice making factory but it closed down many years ago. Some young folk turned it into a distillery which now makes Burbon, Vodka and Gin, however they just opened in 2013 so their first batch of burbon will not be ready until 2016, and their premium stuff will be ready in 2018...I guess we'll have to go back! What makes this place really interesting is the fact that they use only locally made produce to start their liquor, so they are helping local farmers of wheat, corn, sugar cane and citrus fruits to stay in business. There is no mass producers involved at all. Their bottles feature the farmer who supplies the produce on the label. 

Since their burbon is not ready yet, we had to settle for taste testing the Vodka and Gin only. The vodka was served as a Florida Mule. Mint, bitters, lime juice; syrup and vodka. It was pretty good. The gin was served as a gin and tonic, but I am not a gin lover at all, so I cannot comment on how good it was.  I will admit it was not strong on the pin flavor through.

We also visited the Ponce de Leon Hotel and the Lightner Museum building which were unbelievable.

At the Flagler College, there are stain glass windows in this College that were hand made by Tiffany himself. At the time he was just a young man with no reputation, but today these windows are valued at $30,000,000. That is a lot of zeros! 

I got to visit Nombre de Dios and the Shrine to our lady of La Leche. The statue depicts Mary as a nursing mother.

I got to see some  wild life, A peacock perched in a tree (did not know  they could fly) and a red creased wood pecker.

Oh and one of the 10 most beautiful streets in the United states according to National Geographic.

Anyway, That's about all I can write about, We could have easily spent 3 days here, but alas we must continue North. So Tomorrow, up the coast we go, however I will leave you with one last little thought. 

 Tata for now.