Ah my, what a day! And it's not over yet!

Through the night the wind persisted until about 0300 then began to die down until this morning when we awoke we began to experience the weather that we cam down here for in the first place. Sunny skies! Warm temperatures!

Ahhhhhhh!

Folks that live down here don't appreciate this enough.

I went in this morning to walk the wonder pooch so that Barb and I could have the day to ourselves wandering about and checking out more of this place. Definitely, cruisers should consider a couple of days if not more in this city. They have really upgraded the marina and managed to chase away all of the floating remittance men so it is really attractive and tidy, and the marina itself is well equipped and fully kitted out. You can anchor off and partake of the shoreside facilities for $10/day, but really, why would you if for $20/day you get the wifi, free pump outs as required, as well as the laundromat, showers and lounge. The fellow that came out to do the pump out did so in what was essentially a floating 1000 gallon holding tank with controls, and outboard and a pump attached. Everything was incredible clean and it was the first time on this trip that I could actually see through the little glass view pipe to determine if stuff was transferring and more importantly when it stopped. He said that they regularly clean everything out. Makes a dirty job easier.

Barb and I visited the Government House Museum today and had an eye opener regarding the Spanish contribution to the settling of North America. For someone like me, a Canadian, the real settlers of North America has always been the British and French and this was my first exposure to how much and in many ways how enlightened the Spanish settlement were. For instance, way back in the late 1700s the Spanish recognized free blacks and indeed were intermarrying with them and the First Nations people. There is a great exhibit that gives you an insight into the ethnology, the sociology, the politics etc at the time. It was way, way worse to be a Protestant in Spanish Florida than it was to be black or native. There were numerous occurrences of wholesale slaughter with the former.

We also walked out to the Fort and watched them fire off the cannon. If there is any criticism that I might have of St Augustine is that all of the museums have what I consider to be a pretty hefty price tag for admission including the Fort!

We also got in one free exhibit (how cheap are we?) at the Visitor Centre where there was an art display of the city through the eyes of major local artists over time. What I found most fascinating is that they were painting places that are still here but do not have the build up around them that you find now. It was also interesting to discover how many of the artists had Flagler as a Paton and who kept them in his hotel and gave them studio space to boot.

To get will be the last night for a while that we see Alan and Heather. They will be joining us for a BBQ and tomorrow we will head out for Titusville and the greatly anticipated visit with Daughter Kayte while they stay here to visit their own family. They might join us at the end of the month or early December as they are heading to Miami to fly home for Christmas. Perhaps we'll see them for that portion of the trip.