Road Scholar Tour, St. Augustine

 Wednesday the tour moved to St. Augustine.  There was an option to take the tour bus there, which would return to St. Amelia on Friday.  But, for me, that would have meant taking the bus back on Friday (about an hour and a half) which would have delayed me in coming home, so I drove over.

Yurgh.  No. I do not like driving.  I do no like driving I-95 through Jacksonville at high speed with too many trucks.  I had to remind myself that I couldn't close my eyes and panic, and that a white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel wouldn't help.  But we made it.

St. Augustine is beautiful - it's been too many years since Bob and I went there.  In the old city, (granted, catering to tourists) no fast food chains are allowed, and all architecture has to be in the old Spanish style.  A lot of the buildings date back to the 1600s.

Did you know that St. Augustine is the oldest city in the U.S.?  I have to admit that after 4 tours, I sort of got that drilled into my head.

My favorite place in St. Augustine is Flagler College, a small (2600 students) liberal arts college, simply because it is so completely outrageous.  In the 1880's, it was the super luxurious no-expense-spared Ponce de Leon Hotel.  The interior was designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany (and there is original Tiffany glass *everywhere*)  It was one of the earliest hotels to have electricity, put in by Thomas Edison (and which frightened the guests).  It had running water, courtesy of tall water towers disguised as bell towers.  There are crystal Tiffany chandeliers, enormous quantities of gold leaf.

And it's a fricken' college.  Students walking around in their shorts and t-shirts like this is a normal thing.  I really think it would be more appropriate for them to be wearing wizard robes and carrying wands.

The fountain of frogs

The overhead dome in the entry

One of the water towers.  A little hard to see, but between the windows on the left are a series of dragon heads, which would have held red electric lights)

The dining hall.  The cafeteria as FSU never looked like this.  And that's Tiffany glass in the windows.

The chairs

When one went to the Ponce de Leon, one was expected to stay for "the season" - three months, for the equivalent of about $300,000.  The overflow (or for those without that much ready change) could go to another posh hotel, which is now the Lightgate Museum.

I had to photograph this harmonica for my brother - you just blow into it, and then turn the little crank to make the melody.

A quite elaborate bicycle (which, admittedly even at the time was more for show than for riding)

And I fell in love with this incredible piece.  I couldn't get a decent picture, but I search and neither could anyone on the web.  It's blown glass, and just too impossibly intricate.  To top it off, it's a working steam engine.

So that took up Wednesday and Thursday and the end of the tour.  Marty, Bernie, and Lynda got up early to head to the airport and I headed for home - with another white-knuckle drive through Jacksonville, this time with a lot of construction going on so I was trying to follow detours while dodging orange barrels and trucks.  But I eventually got on I-10 for a few boring hours.