Captain's Choice blog: Family Fun in Florida

It was a 32 mile trek from our anchorage at Cement Plant to the St. Augustine City Marina on Tuesday. The marina is located downtown which enabled us to walk to many attractions as well as restaurants and shops. St. Augustine's lays claim to being the oldest city in the US and is known for it's Spanish colonial architecture.
While Mark was washing the boat we visited the Cathedral of St. Augustine which was completed in 1797, damaged by fire in 1887 and restored just after that. Later that evening we also joined fellow loopers Dan and Jean on Time Out for dinner at O.C. Whites, which was a great choice!
With so much to see and do we decided Wednesday we would take the Old Town Trolley (hop on hop off) to get a lay of the land and then head over to the St. Augustine Lighthouse on Anastasia Island. This would leave us the opportunity to hop on hop off at all the attractions on Thursday that were of interest to us. Flagler College was first on the list as this use to be the Ponce De Leon Hotel which began construction in 1887 and opened to the elite in 1888. Henry Flagler was the co-founder of Standard Oil along with John D Rockefeller and Henry found St. Augustine charming but the hotels and railroads were inadequate. Flagler wanted to bring the wealthy from the north to the south so he built 2 hotels, The Ponce De Leon and the Hotel Alcazar. He was also the founder of the Florida East Coast railway that would bring the northerners down to Florida. The hotel was only open during "vacation season" which was January through March. Our guide told us that the cost for those 3 months in todays currency would be $200k. As we walked around the grounds I could picture the people showing up for their "holiday" and being swept away by the beauty. This was truly a magnificent hotel and the grounds were equally as splendid. During WW II it was used as a Coast Guard Training Center and opened as the Flagler College in 1968.
Next on the tour was the Whetstone Chocolate Factory, San Sebastian Winery and St. Augustine's Distillery which all included samples of their products, which I know I thoroughly enjoyed. After a late lunch, Mark ventured over to the Castillo de San Marcos Fort while us girls had a little retail therapy time.

The weathermen were calling for high winds Thursday and Friday and luckily they did not materialize. That allowed us to leave St. Augustine Friday morning and head 62 miles to Jacksonville, of which approximately 25 miles was up the St. John's River once you leave the ICW. We stayed at the Marina at Ortega Landing and it was one of our favorites! Floating docks, well protected, pool, hot tub, free laundry, free ice, updated restrooms and showers, beautiful boaters lounge on the second floor with outside seating. For anyone planning on staying here with their boat, check out their website for how to secure a complimentary night. It was a great place for my sisters to relax and end their vacations at. We also picked this location as my niece and her husband live in Jacksonville and my other sister, Tish and her husband (Florida residents) could visit us. What a great little family reunion we had...although it was a short visit we spent some quality time at the beach, playing Top Golf, eating and just hanging out. It was great "having all my sisters with me".

A couple of fun facts about Jacksonville...it was named after our 7th president Andrew Jackson, it is the largest city by population in Florida and is the seat of Duval County. The port of Jacksonville is Florida's 3rd largest seaport and supports two US navy bases.