8/6/2018 Stop #17 Anastasia State Park - St. Augustine, Florida and Latitude Margaritaville

From: casarollnotes.blogspot.com 

Tim and Linda Bunyan

We have traveled about an hour South to St. Augustine, Florida from the city of Jacksonville, Florida.  Mike and Sherry are at the KOA about a mile from us here at the Anastasia State Park at St. Augustine Beach, Florida.

Living in Florida is a living postcard, at St. Augustine.  A paradise that feels like a fantasy. soak-up-the sun on a stretch of fine white sand, communing with the tropical-multi-color birds, and the dolphins on our boat tour along the waterway.  Onshore, the lush palm trees shelter the coquina and stone fort.  St Augustine is the perfect place to see cultural establishments of the Spanish and French and English and final victor: Flagler.  

We stopped, on the way, at Discount Tires and got 4 new tires put on in about an hour!  Here is Tim putting away the spare. 

It tucks up underneath the RV on a nifty pullout rack that Tim added to CasaRoll.

New Endurance tires!  Made for RV and can carry more weight.  NOT....; but will enjoy living with a nice weight margin.

Mike and Sherry found a local Fish Market and had us for dinner, a couple of miles from our RV park at their place, at the local KOA.  The meal was fresh Halibut (huge and wonderful) and crab cakes (huge and wonderful)!  

NEXT DAY:

We have a Trolley Tour of St. Augustine...The Nation's Oldest City.   The trolley is a great way to get your bearings of attractions around the Historic Downtown District.  

The Colonial Oak Music Park is a pleasant venue for live music.  This beautiful old live oak spreads its branches over the seating area.

Nostalgic street of oaks and Spanish Moss.

After our Trolley Ride, we went on our own Walking Tour down St. George Street.

 We went to dinner at the A1A Ale Works Restaurant & Taproom. 
We tasted a flank sampling of seasonal, local beers served from light to dark on a plank.
  Mike enjoyed a  (high IBU)  bold Swamp Head, Oatmeal Stout from Gainesville, FL.  Sherry preferred the 'palate cleanser' light, and Tim liked the local Aardwolf with a citrus flavor.  I liked the taste of dark roasted malt flavors with hints of chocolate.

The TINI MARTINI  Bar ....next door;

not yet open for serving so we did a walk-thru and made plans to re-visit this intimate cocktail bar at the Casablanca Inn.

Our Walk-About on cobbled streets of St. George Street - Historic Downtown:

Passed by the cute  "LIKIT"  Ice Cream shop

Something for everybody on St. George Street.

Nice walk along the Matanzas Bay waterfront and the City Marina, the Bridge of Lions to the oldest coquina and masonry fort Castillo de San Marco (315 years old).

Nice breeze and Tim spotted the boat, owned by Y-Not travel friends: Chris and Cherie (Technomadia).  We are going to meet them for cocktails tomorrow evening.

The scenic grounds dating back to the city's founding.  Statue of Juan Ponce de Leon.  He landed here in 1513.

The landing area is much as it was in 1513.  This is the entrance; as you can read, 2 more blocks to the coastline....and that fountain of youth!!!  just 2 more blocks!

The old City Gates and Walls are a surviving part of the walls that once surrounded the nation's oldest city.  

An impressive site, The Great Cross stands 208'.

Cathedral Basilica Parish of St. Augustine

Lightner Museum, formerly Alcazar Hotel funded in 1888 by Henry Flagler.

Governor's official residence from 1710.  Government House constructed of Coquina, a sedimentary rock composed wholly or almost entirely of the transported, abraded, and mechanically-sorted fragments of the shells of mollusks, trilobites, brachiopods, or other invertebrates.  (Shell Fish).

We ended our Tourist Day back at Gator Bob's and took a step back in time.

Laurel and Hardy Music Box, still works for just $.25.

Tin Can Tourists - The First Recreational Vehicles in America.  Popular Mechanics (a magazine I recall my brothers read) gave the specifications how to convert Model Ts to campers.

A Step Into The Past.

For Sale: Everyone needs an Alligator.....from Gator Bob's!

NEXT DAY:

Laundry Day at the State Park.  One washing machine; one dryer........got 'er done!  Tim went to the Wells Fargo Bank and stocked up on rolls of quarters!   Tim also installed LED strip lights inside my closet.  Motion activated ON.  Recharges with a USB.  Tim went to the Propane store and filled our tank.  Used 20lbs (7 1/2 gallons) in these past two months......Good to GO!
NEXT DAY:
Sherry and Mike reserved an ECO TOUR for the four of us.  We saw dolphins swimming around us. 

We waved to our Technomadia.com MobileInternetinfo.com Resource Center travelers Chris and Cherie as we passed by their boat.

"Y-Not" waving as we pass by on our ECO Boat Tour.  They are traveling the Intracoastal Waterway and have connected to a ball while they take a week here in St. Augustine.

Scenic drawbridge built in 1927, The Bridge of Lions.   The bridge connects downtown St. Augustine to Anastasia Island (where our rv park is located) across Matanzas Bay.







Happy to be boating: Mike and Sherry on the ECO Tour boat on the Intracoastal Waterway.

Sherry has a pink feather of the roseate spoonbill, the official bird of St. Augustine.  We spotted one on the shoreline eating their favorite food: shrimp.

We met up with Technomadia (Chris and Cherie) at the Tini Martini Bar for lots of travel talk!

NEXT DAY:
Lightner Museum
Mike and Sherry and Tim and Linda set the alarm to meet up for the 11:00 Mechanical  Music Demonstration.  The exhibit displayed many at-home listening experiences.   1877, Thomas Edison invented the phonograph while working on improvements to the telegraph and the telephone. 

Roller Organ: at-home model of music play.

 Stella music box that produces musical notes by using a set of pins placed on a revolving disc to pluck the tuned teeth of a steel comb.

Also at the Lightner Museum is a museum of antiquities from the collections of Chicago publisher, Otto Lightner. 

 The museum was originally commissioned as Hotel Alcazar in 1888 by Henry Morrison Flagler.  It is a Spanish Renaissance Revival architectural style of Carrere and Hastings.  Notable for being among the earliest examples of poured concrete buildings in the world.   The Breakers is also a gilded age mansion in Newport, Rhode Island, belonging to the wealthy Vanderbilt family.

The fine collection was stunning....from the (1870-1900) Gilded Age. 
Button Wall collection.

This is a display of important plumbing faucets and assorted handles.

Wall of Handbags.  

Mike, looking in at Fine China......so interested!
This place setting includes decorated Sugar Cubes......an art my Grandma Klaus accomplished!!

Crocheting stitches of interlocking loops.

 Glass and Crystal collection.

 

Excelsior Steam Engine of Blown Glass.

The above is just a sampling of Otto's collections; we are happy a place of home is found for the fine display of turn of the null century null.!

Across the street from Lightner Museum is a private four-year null college:  Flagler College.
Architects were Carrere and Hastings working for industrialist, oil magnate and railroad pioneer Henry Morrison Flagler.  Completed in 1886 as the Ponce de Leon Hotel was an exclusive luxury hotel built by millionaire developer and Standard Oil co-founder: Henry Morrison Flagler.

Tim at the doorbell at front entrance!




Mike and Sherry having fun taking a picture while including the magnificent domed ceiling above!

The woman's Drawing Room where they would retreat to be served tea, and tell stories.   I love this chandelier.

The menu from the Hotel Ponce de Leon.  Dinner leads off with Blue Points: New York small oyster.  Hors-d'oeuvres of Shrimp, Robert (butter, mushrooms, white wine, and milk base).  One of many types of meat dished: Lamb and Roast Ribs of Beef.  Other menu selections: boiled golden plover on toast.  Vanilla Ice Cream for dessert on menu 1888, about 10 years prior to facilities for making and storing ice began in St Augustine in the early 1900's.  

Mike enjoys what he sees at the former Hotel: Ponce de Leon; now Flagler College.

The dining room filled with early Charles Tiffany windows.  This area is still used as the Flagler College Cafe.

Period dresses 1888 at the Ponce de Leon Hotel.

Mike at the Flagler College

   Mike and Sherry strolling around campus!

"ICE is the cornerstone of the American Bar and an integral component of a well-made drink".
Historic St. Augustine Distillery, first legal distillery since Prohibition.   

 We enjoyed our tastings of St. Augustine "Florida Mule".
 
The meal of the day where grassroots entrepreneurship and history meet at St. Augustine Distillery next door at The Ice Plant restaurant.  Great food, atmosphere, and the staff were great!  Homemade chips were a crowd pleaser!  

 CHEERS!

FINAL DAY:

We took Woodstock, the kitty cat to Pet SuperMarket for his annual shots and went to the Fort to honor those that came before us to this beautiful, first city in America.

Castillo de San Marcos

The fortress is located on the western shore of Matanzas Bay in the city of St. Augustine, Florida.  Designed by Spanish engineer Ignacio Daza.  Built with masonry stone made of a stone called coquina.  (small shells).

Coquina mined here......just outside the RV park where we reside in Anastasia State Park, St Augustine, Florida.  Coquina and wild flowers remain.

 Our final night at Anastasia State Park, St. Augustine, Florida.  Our meteorite shower got 'rained out'.  Tim and Woodstock getting thru it.  Too many clouds.  We went to the 'other side' to Mike and Sherry's neighborhood for an evening of sheer visiting enjoyment instead and walked the kitty cat around the KOA rv park.

Time to move on from Anastasia State Park, St. Augustine, Florida to Johnathon Dickerson State Park in Jupiter, Florida  We are stopping, midway near Daytona, for a visit at 55+ Latitude Margaritaville community development which broke ground January 2018.

Latitude Margaritaville +
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Located near Daytona, Florida 

 MINTO Builds Quality and Energy Efficient Homes

Beach - Island - Caribbean Single-family and Villas Collection:
starting at $253,990 - $363,990 

Monthly Association Fees $264.65

 Clubs and Activities: Pickleball, Sewing, Live Music, Yoga, Volleyball, Art Club, Water Aerobics, billiards, Lawn Bowling, Dance, Chess/Checkers, Guitar Lessons, Scrapbooking, Needle Art, Tennis, and Bingo.

Lot Premiums: $1,500 - 33,500

No CDD Fees, 9 Models Now Open!  Beautifully furnished.

The sky is the Limit!

ONWARD to our next residence at the gated community of Johnathon Dickinson State Park in Jupiter, Florida

7/31/2018 Stop #16 Pecan Park RV Resort - Jacksonville, Florida

From: casarollnotes.blogspot.com 

Tim and Linda Bunyan

FIRST STOP with Mike G and Sherry have come East to join up with us in Florida for the month of August!  Mike stopped in Mesa, Arizona for a visit with Stan and drove on to the airport to pick up Sherry arriving in New Orleans. 

 "Looking Out Our Backdoor"....Jacksonville, Florida.

We have met here at Pecan Park RV Resort: Jacksonville, Florida.  Mike and Sherry's rig Montana on right and CasaRoll on the left side.  Mike and Sherry enjoyed Panama and Dustin Beach Florida and stayed overnight in Tallahassee, Florida on their way to the eastern seashore to meet us in Jacksonville, Florida.  

We had dined and wined and had spaghetti at Mike and Sherry's house and talked about our travels:

We have traveled since June (2 months) from New York, through Princeton, NJ onto the outer Atlantic Seashore through Delaware State Park, 20 miles tunnel under the Chesapeake and Norfolk Virginia, the outer banks of Carolina to Charleston, South Carolina to Savannah, Georgia to Tybee Island and now into Florida.  Tim has a fresh oil change on the truck and a fresh truck wash.  Tim has designed the front door to swing open to a latch.
Sherry has spent valuable, smart time to mend her knee from a championship pickleball game with Stan.
 Mike has installed a super-duper inverter in their rig.     

          

With only a month together, we did not waste any time by starting our first day out on a 20-mile bike ride.  Sherry found the Jacksonville-Baldwin Rail Trail on the map.  We loaded our bikes on our trucks and drove to the trailhead.  

It is a wonderful bike trail which is part of the federally initiated "Rails to Trails" program.  This program turns abandoned railroad lines into linear parks. The trail was once a part of the CSX railway line (2013 sponsor for the No. 34 race car driven by Landon Cassill in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series).  CSX Transportation remains up and running.

The paved trail was raised with woods and marsh along the edges.  There were restrooms along the way, a second trailhead, and a bike pump at Baldwin train station.  
Mike gave a boost with his electric bike to get me over the finish line.   After homemade burgers at the Bunyan's, we had apple pie dessert and watched a Jerry Seinfeld episode with Julia Louis-Dreyfus: Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee.  

NEXT DAY:

We meet Molly for the Jacksonville History and Architectural Tour at Jax Landing along the Riverfront of the St. Johns river in Jacksonville, Florida.  

Andrew Jackson, First Governor of Florida

We toured a few highrise buildings.  This city is filled with banks, corporate headquarters, and Insurance, and Healthcare offices.  The Wells Fargo Center building is 27 stories tall with two floors of an underground parking lot.  It was the tallest, built in 1974; however, the Bank of America Tower topped 617' in 1990 and currently stands the tallest.

The Atlantic National Bank Building is the first skyscraper, built in 1908.  At 135' it was the tallest building in Florida (1908).

We toured the underground from one bank to the other where the United States, State, & City Depository held its safe deposit vaults made by Diebold Company. 
Here is a picture of Tim and Mike at the Vault door and below is Mike reaching the large, heavy door of a safety deposit box.

The Diebold Company founded in 1859 is the worldwide producer of automated teller machines, banking-industry services, equipment, safes, and vaults.
  Here is a photo of the 1859 employees of the Florida Diebold Company.


Formerly known as the Century Revival Carling Hotel was built in 1925, located at 31 West Adams Street.
Since 1964, the Carling serves as a residential building.  The entrance remains with Doorman located just inside the lobby on the first step.

The second floor was used as the Guest Registry; now a place for solitude for those living at the Carling.

The second-floor loft adorned with iron.

The Museum of Contemporary Art features an exhibition:

The Project is in the Atrium by Scottish-born, Claire Ashley transforms ordinary plastic material into inflatable painted sculptures.  This is an image of God extending his arm to give life to the first human.

Mike and Sherry walked around it and gazed up at it much what one would do to view Michelangelo's fresco The Creation of Adam, in the Sistine Chapel.  This a fictional, humorous body of art with a cartoony hand that reaches down to touch visitors.
  OK, we got our ART lesson of the day!

The Walking Tour ended at the Jacksonville Public Library, founded in 1791.    At the entrance, Molly told us this is a display of art by local citizens called upon to each enter their own art onto a 4"x4" block.  

These blocks are put together to form this art wall with many delightful pieces.  The Peace Sign and Happy Face and Heart stood out to me; Tim referred to it as "Love, Peace, and Happiness" art piece.  

The afternoon: We board the (free) 2.5-mile long, elevated monorail Skyway that glides us high above the busy streets of downtown.  

The monorail system crossed us over the St Johns River to Kings Avenue on the Southbank. 

 We headed to the hip AArdwolf Brewing Company Distillery to find it closed...so we crossed the street  ........

to authentic La Nopalera Mexican and tasted many beers while getting many 'must see' places to visit from a local Sheriff, Jimmy Rick, and his side-kick: undercover cop, and

 

we came upon a Kid Play Park as we walked around the city.

Monorail station

Distinct South Jacksonville City Hall, built in 1915 in masonry vernacular style. 

NEXT DAY: World Golf Village.

World Golf Hall of 'Fam-ers' !!

Old Tom Morris 1821-1908  Keeper of the Green and Golf Professional Royal and Ancient Golf Club, St. Andrews, Scotland.

Honoring the Golf World

We spent the afternoon in the air-conditioned Imax Theatre at Golf Village watching one of the "Greats".

 






















We ended the about-town day at Rivercity Brewing Company restaurant along the St. Johns River with a view of Jacksonville Landing across the river. 

We strolled Museum Circle at Friendship Park after dinner.

Downtown Jacksonville in the background, a wonderful view of St. Johns River bridge and Friendship Park.

The fountain at Friendship is located on the south bank of the St. Johns River.  It was the world's largest and tallest fountain when open in 1965.

This lighted and mirror artwork lines the walkway underneath the bridge.  The Roux Art wall separates the meandering walkway from the river !!  We've seen the area's best attractions.

NEXT DAY
We took the day off by catching up on laundry at Pecan Park facilities.....and spent some pool time!

Geese, very busy, pass by our RV site.

Our final day here, at Pecan Park, near Jacksonville, Florida.  We prepare to head South to the oldest city in America: St. Augustine, Florida!

Tim has put on the spare tire.  In anticipation of purchasing a new set of tires tomorrow.  If one tire is worn; all tires have to go!  Woodstock, the kitty cat supervises from his resting post, cool concrete underneath the RV.

Onward to St. Augustine, Florida!