Continuing in St. Augustine

May 15, 17, 2010

Charlie and I both rode the Red Train van to Old St. Augustine. We decided to have brunch at O.C. Whites before we started touring on the red train. O.C. Whites dates from 1700's and has a huge growth of jasmine under which patrons eat outside. It was beautiful and fragrant. After lunch, we rode the train along the entire route and got off when it came to the Castillo de San Marcos, the large fort along the waterfront. A Park Ranger gave the history of the fort after which we walked around until the "Spanish crew" prepared to fire off one of the cannons. The firing exercise was elaborately choreographed, but very entertaining. The period clothing was grand looking. The officer in charge even had

a sword. Afterward we went across the street to the White Lion for a drink. It was advertised as an English Pub, but it had nothing resembling english pub grub! It was disappointing. We wandered through the old part of the town checking out restaurants. We looked at the menu of "Harry's" and walked to Scarlet O'Hara's, but ended up in the secluded courtyard of Herrera House, a small Italian restaurant. We took a cab back to the Conch House Marina where the Sunday Reggae Party was still going strong!

It started raining at 2 a.m. on Monday and rained heavily most of the day. we were expecting a service person to look at our refrigerator/freezer. He showed up a little late due to weather, but did a thorough job and declared it was working as it should. There were no freon leaks and the compressor was functioning correctly. The marina pumpout boat was still not fixed so we had to go to the fuel dock during high tide to be pumped out. At low tide we are stuck in the mud! we ate

at the marina for lunch and ate dinner on the boat. I had to throw out a bunch of meat that I was afraid was questionable due to the freezer not being low enough so often. We prepared to depart the next day if the weather was not raining cats and dogs.