The Trip to St. Augustine, Part 3

There were two park benches at our hotel, one green, one red. Since I had bought tickets for the red train (which is really a type of bus, SaurKid pointed out loftily) we waited on the red bench. These trains cycle through the route every 15 minutes, so we hitched a ride almost immediately. Instead of going out the front entrance we had arrived through, however, we went through the back entrance and turned onto this street:

Here is what it looks like as you get closer to the end of the road in the opposite direction of The Fountain of Youth:

This sort of view is not uncommon; we have a couple similar streets in the Tampa Bay Area, too.

When we found out we were staying so closely to The Fountain of Youth, we joked about how elderly guests would be able to climb the walls at night and gorge themselves on the water. (The picture to your right is the sign you see if you're approaching The Fountain of Youth from the main road).

We arrived, paid our entrance fees, and were told that we were lucky enough to be on time for our tour. We were hustled into a large barn-like building, and the tour guide began to tell us the history of The Fountain of Youth (America's first historical site):

"The Fountain of Youth National Archaeological Park in St. Augustine is the site where Spanish conquistadors first came ashore in what is now the continental United States. On April 3, 1513, in the season of "Pascua Florida" - as Easter Season is known in Spanish (meaning Feast of Flowers) - Ponce de Leon expedition sighted land in the present locality of St. Augustine and named it La Florida.

Aside from the stone cross and salt cellar (both from 1513) which are housed in the spring house, five other areas of importance are listed:

1) Ponce de Leon recording landmark and accompanying artifacts
2) First Christian Indian burials in North America with Mission Period interments
3) Timucua Indian hut foundations and relics
4) Artifacts indicating Timucua habitation for more than 1,000 years prior to Ponce de Leon's arrival
5) Evidence that Pedro Menendez's colony occupied the site during the 16th century."

The whole legend of The Fountain of Youth sprang from the belief that the Indians (who were twice as tall and lived twice as long) were on to something. "Must be in the water!" said Ponce, who brought back kegs of it to Spain.

On another note, it's kind of sad, really, to see the cross and the spring from 1513 now sheltered in a barnlike structure when it was part of a lovely park-like setting many years ago (as you can see in the picture from the old postcard). Of course I understand they wanted to preserve it, but I would have left the outdoor setting in place and encased it in a plexiglass case, instead.

After we left The Fountain of Youth, we were taken to a small museum of no consequence, where we ended up waiting in a panic to see if we'd catch the last train or not after we discovered they stop running at 4 PM (we caught the last one, thankfully). We went back to the hotel, got the car, and headed into the city to take a bunch of sightseeing photos. I'll share those with you tomorrow, along with my artistic find and The Ghost Tour that evening.

I hope this isn't getting boring; I notice the comments are dropping off during this little tour of ancient Florida.