Touring St. Augustine second day - Yr 1, Day 211

St. Augustine, FL

After meeting Fred & Twila for breakfast, we got a (free) ride by the trolley company from our hotel into town so we could finish up our journey (again - you'll have to wait a few weeks for the photos.  I can't send them from my phone, as someone suggested, because I don't have a smartphone or a data plan with which to do that.  I also didn't have batteries to replace in my camera, although I don't have the cable for that either).

Anyway, we began the day by taking the trolley to the Colonial Quarter.  There is a walking promenade where we all went the other night, but behind the stores are very old buildings and a museum.  We had a costumed tour guide who brought us through the various quarters of the town: from the Spanish period, British period, Revolutionary period and Civil War days.  Again, we learned quite a lot of history, especially about how the city was burned down numerous times because the only protection around it were wooden forts, until finally they discovered something called coquina, which is made of hard shells and sand.  It held the fort through numerous battles and finally staved off the pirate attacks.  Pirates were the main enemies of St. Augustine until the British arrived (although many "privateers" were from England).

After the tour, we walked around the historical area a little bit.  We found a place that sells jerky and had salmon and tuna jerky (peppered and teriyaki), so we indulged in the treat.  Then we found a really wonderful bagel place called Schmagels Bagels, which makes them the correct way by boiling them: just like in NY and NJ, so we stopped there for lunch.

Afterwards, we got back on the trolley and headed to the St. Augustine distillery for a tour of their plant (and free tastings, of course!)  Unlike some of the big brands, this is a small, craft operation which makes everything by hand instead of computerized machines.  They make vodka and gin and just started with bourbon.  I prefer bourbon myself, but the first batch won't be ready for another 2 years so I didn't get to sample that.  I would have loved to since I've only ever had the well drinks (aka the cheap stuff).  At the end of the tour, they made us 2 drinks: a gin and tonic (with their homemade tonic solution), and a vodka/lime drink (they were served in shot glasses).  Pretty good stuff.  The vodka is made from cane sugar rather than potatoes or other grains and was quite different from what we've had.  We bought a bottle, which was far more expensive than we'd ever spent in a liquor store.  Better make it last a while!

We then went outside to catch the next trolley and returned to the starting point (that's where the Old Jail and Oldest Store were), where we visited the history museum and took a tour of the Tea & Spice Exchange.  The museum had a lot of interesting artifacts (including some real pirate treasure and stuff from the Indians who lived there first).

You may recall back when we were in Charleston that I came upon a tea and spice shop which I absolutely fell in love with (having confessed tea and spices are my weakness).  Well, it turns out that the store is actually part of a franchise, which began in St. Augustine, so the one we visited today was the first Tea & Spice Exchange.  The tour was more of a sales pitch, describing the different types of teas and how to correctly infuse them, as well as how to use the various infusers.  Needless to say, we stocked up again on tea and spices (which we finally ran out of a few weeks ago).  It's good to know they're in 31 cities, so we'll have to scout them out when we travel, just like we try to find a Trader Joe's and BJs.

After that store, we hung around a little bit while waiting for the shuttle to bring us back to the hotel.  We landed at 5:00.  I did a little bit of work while Mitch took a nap.  We found that between my lunch and dinner leftovers from yesterday and some corn and mashed potatoes from KFC across the street, it was more than an adequate meal for the of us.

Tomorrow we head back to Jacksonville, where I must devote my day to work and Mitch to finding a mechanic to fix whatever's making the fuel leak.