Drakes Raid

First, for the folks at Isle of Hope.  Bill and I were walking through the plaza yesterday and look who came running up to us to say hello.

Yup, they have made it this far.  They are doing great, have been here for about a week but said they will be moving on soon.  They said the people here are not as friendly because they don't like them hanging out in the plaza.  It was good to see them though.  Pam, I showed them a picture of Olivia.  They said "awwwww...another dog?"

They do a lot of reenactments here.  Yesterday it was Sir Francis Drake's Raid on St. Augustine.  The raid happened on June 6, 1586.  23 ships with 2.000 Englishmen under Sir Francis Drake's command approached St. Augustine's harbor.  The next day there was a battle at the fort.  On the 8th they captured the fort and they drove the Spanish  rear guard from the city.  Drake then ordered the City sacked and burned, including the fort. 

The first reenactment was during the day in the park at the Fountain of Youth.  We opted not to go to that.  In the evening the soldiers marched down St. George Street.  Women running to warn us they were coming yelling "The Drake is Coming!!". 

This little pirate was going to defend his family by sitting on his dad's shoulders.

And here they come.  You could not break their concentration.

This woman actually looked scared.  I don't know if she knew what was going on.

There is so much history in this city.  Everyone should come to visit and spend at least a week here.  We are still exploring.

Patti and Bill  :-)

Making Enigma a Florida Boat

First I would like to show you a new feathered friend in our area.  He was fishing over by the Santa Maria Restaurant and had his back turned or face in the water.  Maybe he will come to our marina at some point.  It is a Rose colored Spoon Bill.

Since Bill and I are now Floridian with our mail going to Green Cove Springs, our Drivers Licenses and our voting registration now it is time to have Enigma be a Floridian too.This will be a process.  Since she is a documented vessel we got our renewal in the mail.  There is a place to change your mailing address and send it back, OK, but if you want to change anything else, like the hailing port, you need to send in the application and fee as if you were redocumenting.  This seemed strange to me since the address is three lines and the hailing port will be three words.  So I called to confirm this.  The answer I got about the hailing port was "You need to change your address under the managing owner but as for the hailing port, it is up to you.  The Coast Guard doesn't care".  So for now her hailing port is still in Connecticut. 

Next was the insurance.  I emailed our agent to find out if we need a whole new policy to keep her in Florida waters all year.  If no, how far south can she be and how much more will it cost.  He sent back a note that our current insurance does not cover Florida to stay in after 6/15.  He found us another policy the next day that covers us here.  Cool.  Now the price????  About $30.00 per year less.  WOW.  Sign us up.

Now the registration.  At first we thought we would need to apply for a title, since in Connecticut we don't get one for a vessel, but they do in Florida.  Looking into this more it seems that as long as the boat is Federally Documented, which Enigma is, you don't need one.  The fee is much less here than in CT for a 35 ft. boat, but more for our dinghy.  Oh well.  On our next trip to the DMV we will register her here.

It didn't rain last evening but the sky was puffy clouds and pretty.

 Hope everyone has a great day..

Patti and Bill  :-)

Lightner Museum

For those that read the blog yesterday we are looking for a possible new name for Robo Dog.  So far we only got one comment.  I know you guys are creative.  We got a good one from Pam and Dave.  They suggested Rober, a play on Rover.  I took a few more pics for you.

Isn't he cute?  There was a new place that had it's Grand Opening 3 days ago so Bill and I tried it for lunch.  YUM!!

I didn't count how many different kind of toppings they have but I am guessing around 25.  Bill just had salt and I had Canadian, which is gravy and cheese.  Soooo good.

We decided to do another touristy thing.  We went to the Lightner Museum.  It is in the old Flagler Hotel.  We were told that Mr. Flagler built this hotel for a place his rich friends could come and vacation.  He was a very good business man.  Mr. Lightner was one of his friends.  When he passed there was an estate sale.  Back in the early 1900.s, when there was an estate sale you bought everything, not just an item or two. Both men and their wives were considered very eclectic, so the items in the museum are very different.  Many Brides choose this place for their wedding pictures.The grounds are beautiful and kept that way.

To let everyone know this was his hotel Mr. Flagler had a statue of himself in the front.

Just inside there is a courtyard with a bridge over a small pond that was filled with Koi.

  Back in CT we had a pond with Koi.  Bill got some food and started a small feeding frenzy.

Inside there was three floors.  There were very interesting things throughout, along with the hotel itself. Most were behind glass and set aways back so bear with some of the pictures. This is a dollhouse.

My favorite collection, purses.

Being that this was a hotel at one time, a barbershop.

There were many items in the music room.  This one was small and you had to crank it to play music.

There was a science section.  It had many rocks and artifacts.  And this.

Yes, that is a real mummy from Egypt.  The date here says 500 BC.

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The furniture was very ornate.

Mr. Flagler wanted to be sure his guests would come back, so he had a Russian style sauna.

And a multi-jet shower.

The ballroom was HUGE.  I could imagine people dressed in that time and dancing.

Some chairs looked so comfortable.

And some not so much.

There were quite a few statues.  This was Cleopatra.  Looks like she had a wardrobe malfunction.  Haha.

Looking below is where the pool was.  It was kept at a nice 70 degrees.  It is now a restaurant.

The next floor was full of crystal.  I felt like a bull in a china shop.  No pics as I kept both hands firmly behind my back.  You will just need to come to St. Augustine and go through the museum yourself.

On the way back we did walk by the Casa Monica Hotel.  Now many hotels have a van or car to pick you up or drop you off.  This is the one for this hotel.

Have a great day everyone.  As I am writing this it is starting to rain.  But this to shall pass.  It always does.

Patti and Bill  :-)