We have toured St. Augustine for the last 2 days so it is time to post. Dan Pedro founded this place in the 1500's and Ponce de Leon searched for the fountain of youth but never found it. The place he thought it was at is still here though. The archictecture here is predominately Spanish but there is some English influence also, as St. Augustine was governed by both countries back and forth before the United States bought it in the 1800's for $5 million dollars.

Henry Flagler one of the owners of Standard Oil Co. and a man with very deep pockets settled here and built the Flagler Hotel which is now Flagler College. (bottom pic) The cafateria where the students eat lunch and study, used to be the formal dining room at the hotel. It has beautiful stained glass windows and at today's cost, that room with all the immenities would cost about $300 million to build. Great place to get an education. The other pictures are from the Lightner Museum across the street from the College. Mr. Lightner was a collector and most of the things in the museum are pricless and hand done. I will post pictures of some of the other antiquities on the other picture blog later. It really is a beautiful collection.

We have one more day on the tour and then it will be beach time and rest up before our ten days at Disney World and Sea World. We will be meeting our friends the Taekema's there so we should have a good time with them. The park we are in has the inter coastal waterway on one side and the ocean on the other. The beach here has millions of shells on it and the sand on the beach is ground up shells. After every swim in the ocean you need to shower as the shells stick to you. It is a beautiful beach and the water is so warm. I did not know that the Atlantic is warmer than the Pacific. Live and learn. The inter coastal waterway was made during the second world war so the US ships deployed here were safe from german U boats. Big job. Take care. Jim