Just Modern Day Gypsies: Another Beautiful Day

Sunday was such a gorgeous day. We took the bike and travelled south on A1A til we came to Ft. Matanzas which had been built by the Spanish after they massacred the French to take the area over. It is now a National Park and you get a free Ferry ride over to the island it is on as it is at the opening of the Matanzas Inlet. It is so amazing to see things built in the 1500's and still standing!!! They surely knew how to build things to last then, what has happened??? Think of all the hurricanes and attacks and just time that it has seen and is still here. True it is small, but still it remains.

Ft. Matanzas

Stepping back in time

As a wife I would not have been allowed to come to the fort but could send my daughters..they wanted them to find a high ranking officer to marry

Two of the original cannons remain

Beds were small as most of the soldiers were very young boys 12-17 years, why Napoleon was only 17 when he became famous

He kept in character as a Spanish Officer

After that jaunt we headed back north and I of course at least wanted to see the beach here. We had a tour planned so we had to have dinner first so time was too short for us to spend time on the water but at least I can say we saw it. We actually stopped at Butler Beach which I couldn't believe had FREE parking, no where have we found free parking. The beach was beautiful and had white sand and not as crowded as one would think, of course the water is cold here and even though it was in the high 80's only a few people were in the water, most were sunbathing. But IF you are in the market for beach front property ( or want to loan us money to buy it...of course we would let you stay when you came to visit) there was a 3 bedroom house for only $449,500....allot of money yes, but not compared to other prices for house right on the beach, ok ok it did need redone inside but had cute bone structure and would fix up wonderfully. At one time Butler Beach was a Black only beach, but that has changed but there are a few houses that remain right on the beach that I am sure date back to that time period and sit amongst beautiful new homes.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DUSTY

Butler Beach

We continued on from there to Historic St. Augustine and went to have a birthday beer for Dusty. We went to 3 different pubs and at one place met a couple from Noblesville, IN who where searching for a trawler (boat) to buy and live on so we had a lively conversation with them and ended up having no time to eat before the tour, but we had fun comparing notes and differences on living in a RV and on a boat.
The tour we took this time was called Mystery, History, Mayhem and Murder. Even tho interesting and Dion made it fun, it wasn't as interesting or fun as the Ghost Pub Tour. Afterwards, 9:30 pm we found a little restaurant and had the best pizza I have had in years. so for Dusty's 52nd birthday I do believe he had a good time, even tho we didn't make it to the Fountain of Youth!!