Glorious Dei A-Go-Go!: 29°53′39″N 81°18′48″W (St. Augustine, FL)

A bit of an explanation to begin this post. We (I am graciously sharing the blame with Thad)

are way, way behind in actually writing this blog. Suffice it to say that as I am writing about each of the legs of our journey, it actually happened one - two months ago! (except for the road trip, and that was written as it was happening) Remember several posts ago, when I said hooray, we finally have this blog up and running? I meant it when I said it took me a long time to figure out how to do it. And how to get my pictures from my cameras to the computer itself, how to format the blog, etc. These are the times when you miss having your kids right under the same roof, so they can come to your assistance, ahem, rescue, to help you figure out all things technical. Thanks, kids, for all of the

What I wish I looked like after blogging

many times you have helped me out!

What I actually look like after blogging!

We love Florida. We love living in Florida. We love the fauna and flora of Florida. We love boating in Florida, especially in our own local waters. We loved cruising across and then heading east up Florida. And now we were coming to our favorite stop in Florida, St. Augustine. Neither of us had been there before. Had whizzed by it as we went north/south on I-95, never taking the time to stop. First, on the way from Titusville to St. Augustine, we stopped in Daytona Beach, overnight, at an anchorage. This anchorage gave no indication that it was anywhere near Daytona Beach. Here, judge for yourself.

Our early morning neighbor at Daytona

Peaceful and picturesque

I was so happy to actually have to cook again when I fixed our dinner. I was so happy I took a picture of it!

Yum, taco salad

Stopping in marinas makes it all too convenient to eat out. I like it, well usually, when I am forced to fix dinner myself.

The ICW, between Daytona and St. Augustine began to look a little different. We loved it. The land became marsh-like and the tides were about 4 feet in this area. It was very interesting with lots to look at and enjoy. We even saw beautiful pink flamingos flying. We tied up to a mooring ball in the south end of the St. Augustine municipal mooring field.

North mooring field

Our view in the south mooring field

They do it right - the line from the mooring ball was neatly coiled right on top of the ball so it was not even wet! We got in at 2 p.m. so had the rest of the day to explore the city.

Twofer at Happy Hour = a Double!

St. Augustine was where Eloise started becoming a real dog. At least a start at becoming a real dog. If you know Eloise, you know she does not hold other dogs in much favor; in other words she wants nothing to do with them. Our theory is that she thinks she is a person. She can even be stand-offish with people. Never mean, just not very interested, unless she already knows you. And, to be entirely truthful, she is a mommy's girl. Or daddy's, if Mom is not around. She personifies the term "lap dog." We had decided to take her with us whenever possible, so she came along when we dinghied to the dinghy dock

Eloise rides comfy in the dinghy

and ventured into St. Augustine. And she surprised us. She marched right along, through the throngs of people (it was pretty crowded all through the old part of the city), sat nicely with Thad while I went into shops, allowed people, especially children, to pet her, and even greatly surprised me by sitting quietly while we ate dinner. She even rode along, looking around, on the hop on-hop off red sightseeing trolley tour we took. I do not mean to be bragging, she just thoroughly surprised us with how adaptable she was. We know the Lord is doing some work on the two of us as we take this trip, but we did not foresee that He would bring some healing to Eloise!

Beautiful B & B

We so very much enjoyed our day and a half in St. Augustine.

And we enjoyed exploring Castillo de San Marcos, the fort dating from the 1670's. Wonderfully accessible to visitors.

Castillo de San Marcos

The famous Bridge of Lions was just a few hundred yards from the marina. I posed Eloise on top of one of the lion statues.

Eloise at the famous Bridge of Lions

We also saw a boat that so reminded us of Dale Harvey, Sr., Thad's father, as, for its name, it bore a similar expression to what he used to say when breaking out the Cutty Sark.

Dale Sr.'s Boat!

It is a beautiful city and so walkable. And, needless to say, chock-full of history. Our second day saw the arrival of El Galeon the 175' historically accurate replica of a 17th century wooden Spanish galleon, in support of Viva Florida, to commemorate Florida's 500 year old history. It docked right at the municipal marina and will be in St. Augustine for several months. Unfortunately they started tours of the ship the day we left the city.

El Galeon

I also began taking the first of many pictures of flowers. They are everywhere and so colorful they just beg for picture taking. So bear with me, as in posts to come you'll often have to suffer through pictures of flowers at each of our stops!