The Trip to St. Augustine: The Final Chapter

After our trip to The Castillo de San Marcos on Sunday morning, we headed over to Old City, the oldest part of St. Augustine. It used to be residential (many homes were built in the early 1700s) and is now primarily converted to shops. Here are some great pictures and information on one of the oldest homes there. There is a lot of dispute as to which one is the oldest home because (though the city was founded in 1565) the present homes were constructed in the 1700s and up and there weren't good records kept of their construction.

We had to get out of the area, since the Easter Parade was due to start around 2 PM and if we got caught we wouldn't be able to get out until 5 PM. Since we wanted to head home before that, we left, and made a detour to the St. Augustine Lighthouse and Museum. The picture to the right wasn't taken by us, but it shows the lighthouse with the little house attached (remember the orb photo in my ghost post?).

Here's a bird's eye view, which shows the lighthouse keeper's home in front of the tower and courtyard. Again, this wasn't taken by us, but it shows the entire layout.

Remember that I have acrophobia; a fear of heights. But I also wanted SaurKid to see the view without showing my terror. And studies show that children "learn" your fears, so if you want them to avoid being plagued by the same fears, you need to conceal those fears. Until now, he never knew of my fear.

There are 219 steps from the bottom of the lighthouse to the top. "Piece of cake!" I kept telling myself, knowing that de-sensitization is one of the best ways to handle a phobia. That worked for the first 100 steps or so.

When both my legs and mind started cramping up, I had to pause on a landing. I also began to grow panicky, worrying that something might happen and SaurKid might plunge to his death. I'd like to claim I was noble enough to care what happened to anyone else, but I wasn't, and I admit it. It's a mother's instinct, I suppose.

So I began nagging everyone, making them stay directly in front of or behind me. And we had frequent stops where I was plastered up against the landing, facing the remaining stairs like a cat faces water. So at this point, it was obvious to SaurKid that Something Was Not Quite Right With Mom. I gave up, and confessed my phobia. I also told him why I'd been concealing it for so long, and I was determined to beat it. We struggled the rest of the way up. (Note: *I* was not brave enough to take any of these shots! My ex-boyfriend took them).



As we circled around the tower, most people easily walked around each other. I moved, crablike, with my back to the center at all times. People laughingly (and sympathetically) got out of my way so that I could continue moving, uninterrupted. This was good, because the only other alternative would have been to throw them plunging to their deaths (and this was within the realm of possibility for me).

Getting back down was the hard part. That's when our legs started cramping and it was almost physically impossible to push them to do their duty. But I was determined to get to the bottom as fast as I could. If there'd been a fireman's pole, I would've taken it all the way down. When we finally made it to the bottom, I joked about kissing the ground (and seriously considered it for a moment).

We made a brave attempt to visit the lightkeeper's house, but our legs were too sore and kept cramping. We finally limped back to the car.

Remember how I mentioned in my first post that I drive stick shift? This involves a lot of leg movement and compressions. Well, I had a deadline to beat. We couldn't take our time to get home, because SaurKid's father was picking him up that night. It took a couple hours for the leg cramps to subside. Needless to say, I dumped the clutch a lot. But no one said anything. They'd already been warned. Don't mess with a woman who's fought acrophobia when everyone's survived the experience so far!

We stopped at The Branch Ranch just before we got home, for some good old fashioned country cooking. Because it was Easter, they did "family style" that night, and brought massive serving dishes of sweet potatoes, pole beans with ham, chicken pot pie, corn on the cob, biscuits, homemade pickles, ham, fried chicken, and coconut cake. It was probably one of the best Easter dinners we've ever had.