Recommended by bartenders, hotel clerks, and fellow travelers alike was to take Route A1A, which begins on Amelia Island and pretty much follows the Florida coast right on the ocean for much of its way to Key West.
A St. John's River ferry was being repaired, so we had to detour west toward Jacksonville. Passed the largest oil power plant I'd ever seen, and my photo shows only part of the campus.
Just liked this bow-tie bridge near Jacksonville.
There are long stretches of preserved land along A1A, like this in the Guana Tolomato Matanzes National Estuarine Research Reserve (a mouthful there). We were the only ones in the beach for miles, and in fact we saw few other cars. Talk about a getaway!
The beach's orange-y color comes from coquina shells.
There are mounds of them all along the way, dumptruck loads' worth, and when you plunge your hand into a pile, it's nothing but shells. Hard to imagine the vast number of individual creatures represented here.
We' visited St. Augustine several years ago, but both of us came down with the flu and we spend several miserable days holed up in an awful Super 8 motel. I wanted to revisit the town in an attempt to get rid of the awful memory, so we spent a warm afternoon here, first time we felt a good Southern sun.
Cool to see some archeology going on.
Public art around town featured copies of the local basilica dome like this one, artistically enhanced by local artists, in honor of the city's 450th anniversary.
Beautiful City Hall was originally built as Hotel Alcazar. Today the building also houses a museum, shops, and is a popular site for weddings.
Interior courtyard is so lovely.
Outside the building is a life-sized statue of Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, Spanish founder of the city. This reminded me so much of John Cleese playing Nearly Headless Nick in the Harry Potter series.
Standard Oil magnate Henry Flagler had the incredibly beautiful Ponce de Leon Hotel built in St. Augustine. Now it's home to Flagler College, replete with sand volleyball court and swimming pool.
Merrill Auditorium in Portland is designed by the firm of John Merven Carrère (November 9, 1858 – March 1, 1911) and Thomas Hastings (March 11, 1860 – October 22, 1929), one of the outstanding Beaux-Arts architecture firms in the United States. My friend Marianne Carrere shares a surname therein, so I had fun taking photographs of other building designed by the same team around St. Augustine, including Flagler College/Ponce de Leon Hotel, and City Hall.
Not bad for the interior of a women's dorm and dining hall.
Bountiful real Tiffany windows.
The fellow on the left let me know nonverbally how he felt about my taking this photo.
Flagler lived next door to the Presbyterian church he had built adjacent to the Ponce de Leon. This building was also designed by Career and Hastings.
Flagler's third wife was a Kenan, from Kenansville, NC. Together they endowed the Kenan-Flagler School of Business at UNC. Small world.
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