Day two of our trip to St. Augustine was a jam packed day and probably one of my favorites. We went ahead and bought tickets to the Fountain of Youth and to see the Old Jail. I’m sure if I had priced around a little more I could have found the tickets cheaper. Alas, this trip was a fly by the seat of our pants sort of deal, so everything we picked to do was just a spur of the moment kind of thing.
The Old Jail was somewhere in-between a tourist trap and a history experience. There’s an interactive tour guide there that will give all the history stories as if you went back in time. Our guide even threw me in one of the cells! 😀 Don’t worry, the jail is air conditioned despite the fact that it wasn’t from 1891-1953. YIKES
This was part of the jail cell and a statue of what the Sheriff looked like back then. His house along with where his family lived, was attached to the jail cell. Kind of an eerie thought that your kids are sleeping right next door to criminals.
It was almost impossible to get a clear picture of the guns that were used back then. There were hundreds of them! Something we noticed about them is that they were incredibly little compared to our hand held guns today.
My husband was brave enough to walk through the jail cells. I went just past a cell and I swear my heart jumped into my throat as I they had fake people resting in them. Scared me half to death as nobody warned me!
This wooden piece was called the Gallows. It was crazy how back then when a criminal was sentenced to a hanging, it was considered a social gathering for others. Our guide told us a few stories of men who were hung from this giant wooden plank. People would pack lunches and come out to see the men hung from this creepy thing.
Our next stop was to Ponce de Leon’s Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park. We spent a good three hours out there and when you get by the ocean, you’ll never want to leave. It’s beautiful and cooler!
The water actually didn’t taste bad, just different. It is filled with 40 different types of minerals.
Part of the Timucua Indian Village.
A church within the Timucua Indian Village.
The dock at the end of the park.
These little red crabs were everywhere as you walked out towards the dock! We watched them for a good thirty minutes as they were just absolutely fascinating.
After we completed are trip to the Fountain of Youth Park we decided to go back and enjoy the ocean waves.
This was probably the most beautiful beach I had ever been to.
We sat on the beach for about four hours before we decided to grab some grub. One of my favorite parts about “winging it” trips is not having a set schedule and being able to just mosey around until you find something you want to do. That’s exactly what happened when we just stumbled upon a restaurant who miraculously had just taken down a canceled reservation and were able to seat us right away.
This restaurant was a mix between classy and urban. EVERYTHING was fantastic between the food, wine and service. Even the view was just quaint as could be complete with horse drawn carriages strolling by. Oh, and as soon as we were taken to our table people who came up to the host stand were told it would be an hour wait. Yet one more perfect timing scenario!
To be continued…
