St. Augustine, FL

The afternoon we arrived in St. Augustine, the weather was warm and sunny but you could see cloud formations indicating rain. We checked into our campground and headed to the World Golf Hall of Fame. Tickets to the venue are good for two consecutive days, so we spent an hour or so checking out the Hall of Fame and the rest of the grounds in anticipation of spending several hours there the next day. Just as we were leaving, the sky became dark and thunder began rumbling. We saw a bolt of lightning in the distance. We headed back to the campground concerned about the possible effects of lightning after our experience in North Carolina. We were lucky and only had to deal with some rain.

We spent several hours at the World Golf Hall of Fame the next day. The tour of the facility introduces people to: the history of golf, information about many of the tournaments and trophies, the evolution of golf clubs and golf balls, and famous male and female golfers. In a section called the locker room, there is a minutia of famous golfers’ memorabilia set up to resemble their lockers. There were many videos of great moments in golf and interviews with famous golfers. One whole section of the Hall of Fame was a tribute to Bob Hope for his support and dedication to the game of golf. After touring the Hall of Fame, we moved on to 18 holes on the putting course where Pete beat me by two strokes, but I had the shot of the day when I got a hole in one on the very difficult 18^th green!!!

The following day we spent time at Castillo de San Marcos, a Spanish fortress that was built in the 1600’s. It took about 24 years to build and is made from a sedimentary rock called Coquina, which is loaded with sea shells. During battles, ships firing cannonballs at the fort were surprised when the cannonballs could not shatter and penetrate the fort’s walls. The composition of the rock absorbed the shock of the cannonballs without damaging the wall. The fort was made with more than 400,000 blocks of Coquina that were all cut and set by hand. Laborers included Indians and Spaniards, a few convicts and some slaves. There were also masons and master workmen. The thickness of the fort’s walls is about 20 feet at the base and then the walls taper upward 35 feet where they are about nine feet thick. There was only one way to get in or out of the fort. The fort is part of our National Park System.

We spent the rest of the day roaming all of the side streets filled with shops and places to eat. While walking down one of the walkways, we saw a couple walking their dogs. The dogs were wearing sunglasses and one of them had a Go-Pro video camera attached to a harness on his back. It was the coolest thing to see. They were getting video from the dog’s point of view. The couple said the videos are really fun to watch!

No visit would be complete without finding some good eats. We enjoyed dinner one evening at Collage, a small bistro restaurant in the historic old village of St. Augustine. We shared a Burrata, which I had never heard of before. It was home made mozzarella stuffed with a goat cheese mousse. It looked like a large ball of mozzarella when it was served but when you cut it open, the inside was soft and fluffy. It was accompanied by an apricot and a raspberry confit, spiced walnuts and foccaccia crostini. It was sooo good. For entrees, Pete had the black grouper that was coated with a Parmesan, pecan and brown sugar crust. It was baked and finished with a Beurre blanc sauce. I had the diver scallops served on butternut squash with a chiffonade of Brussel sprouts. It was topped with bits of bacon, pear and pomegranate.

We couldn’t pass up dessert. We had read rave reviews about their chocolate bread pudding and just had to try it. We ordered one to share and it was a delicious ending to a great dining experience.

Next stop…Key West, Florida!