Two days in St. Augustine. Laundry and shopping taken care of. Enjoying Camachee Cove Marina again. A marina with everything. We had dinner at the Kingfisher grill the first night, good food as always. Yesterday spent wandering downtown old St. Augustine. This town is the oldest in the US, dates back to the early 1500’s. Spanish then British, then Spanish, then American. We visited the original Spanish military hospital. Really interesting. I was amazed to find that many of their old surgical techniques are still used today. They had some very advanced ideas concerning infection control as well, although they did not know why they were doing what they were doing, just that it worked to prevent the spread of infection. This includes isolation and aseptic surgery. The apothecary was quite advanced as well, with many natural remedies that are still known to be effective to this day.
Today I visited Flagler College. Henry Flagler was a tycoon, of the Rockefeller era, who built the Ponce de Leon hotel in St. Augustine, that is now Flagler College. Pictures at www.picasaweb.google.com/bcaldoc. Quite amazing. All the windows and chandeliers were done by Louis C. Tiffany and Thomas Eddison did the wiring. Tom is sick with a cold and skipped the tour. Weather wonderful, up to 29C today! I have put away the winter clothes and donned shorts today.
Tomorrow we will head off to New Smyrna, a two day trip.