1/10/08 We toured Flagler College. In 1883 Henry Flagler bought the Casa Monica and renamed it the Hotel Cordova for the rich and famous to come and play in the area. He even built a railroad to transport them to this area. The depression forced the closure in 1932. It was renovated and reopened as a private college. Our young tour guide was one of the students. He said it is only $18 thousand a year with room and board. The woodwork was absolutely beautiful. The wooden doors were massive at least 10ft tall and very thick. Stain glass windows everywhere. They students dining room is the lavish ballroom. I could just imagine all the goings on that occurred. Proper, improper and prudish.

1/7/08 We visited the St Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park founded in 1893. The largest was Maximo an Australian Born Alligator. He was an impressive 15 ft 3 inches and 1250 lbs. Alligators are not active creatures. They were basking in the sun some with their mouths open as you see here. They would also lye crowed. Crawling over one another or laying on one another.

1/6/08 We motored spirit into a bay in front of the oldest city in the US, St Augustine. The first thing you see is the tall Cross facing the inlet towards the Ocean. On this site, September 8, 1565, Pedro Menendez de Aviles landed with a band of settlers to found St Augustine on the feast day of a great Catholic Teologian St Augustine of Hippo. This
site was the first permanent Christian settlement in the United States. Father Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales, along with the Spanish pioneers celebrated Mass and named the first Mission Nombre De Dios -Name of God??"in honor of the Holy Name of Jesus. The founding of the Mission of Nombre De Dios marked the beginning of missionary work in the 16th century by Spanish diocesan priests, Jesuits, and Franciscans along the Atlantic coast from present day Miami to the Chesapeake Bay and west ward to Pensacola.