St. Augustine & Savannah

From Tampa area, we crossed the state and visited St. Augustine. As in many of the cities we have visited, we took a trolley tour, then returned to places we wanted to see in more depth.

The Castillo De San Marcos is an early Spanish fort that has been reconstructed by the National Park Service. It has over the years, housed Spanish, French, US, and Confederate soldiers.

We witnessed a changing of the guard and cannon firing.

The Fountain of Youth park was our next stop. Archaeologists have found and dated early Spanish relics and remains in this area, and the park staff did a good job of retelling the history. However, this may or may not be the original "Fountain of Youth" sought by Ponce De Leon.

In addition to some reconstructed buildings and a museum, the park is home to some beautiful birds, including these peacocks.

We were sorry to have only allowed one day for St. Augustine. There's much to see and do, and I hope we'll have a chance to spend more time here.

In Savannah, our campground was on a very pretty small lake, populated with at least two dozen swans, along with migrating ducks and geese. Very nice ambiance.

Again, we took a trolley tour, then walked some of the city. It is beautifully laid out, with park like squares beautifully landscaped and statuary dedicated to early settlers and founders.

The next day we boarded a river boat for a tour from the water. Savannnah is a busy shipping port. They have done a nice job of restoring and maintaining their riverfront area.

These are some of the old homes in the city, showing the diversity of architechture over the colonial and later periods.







We would return here as well, given the chance.

Florida 1

We're back, after spending the last month with family at our time share in Florida. Here's what we saw and did on the way. We spent several days in the panhandle, first just north of Panama Beach, then in Tallahassee. These shots are of Panama Beach, but we explored Ft. Walton Beach as well. These are just spectacular Gulf beaches.

Just south of Tallahassee is a

State park called Wakulla Springs.
We took a boat ride on the river there.

We were just enough later into spring here that the wildlife was stirring, including many water birds, turtles, and even alligators.

Crystal River is south along the Gulf shore, about 50 miles north of Tampa. This is a picture of our RV campsite there, one of the prettiest places we have stayed.

We rented a kayak on the river and paddled for a couple of hours
ending up in an area where there was a large school of manatees.
We didn't know what to look for at first, then saw many. They sure are a strange looking animal - and they blend into the water so well that taking pictures from above the surface is impossible.

These are shots taken near our timeshare at Madeira Beach, in the Tampa area. We've been coming here for years, and this year we happily spent time with many members of our family, three generations.

New Orleans

Our RV park in New Orleans backed up on an inlet of Lake Ponchartrain, very nice visually and close to everything we wanted to see. Becki and Walker joined us for several days here.

We would highly recommend the Mardi Gras museum to all, adults and kids.

It's at a warehouse/factory that manufactures and rehabs floats for the major Mardi Gras parades, that begin several weeks before Fat Tuesday

The tour director mixes in Mardi Gras and New Orleans history and myth, along with the process involved in building the floats. We were there at a perfect time, as the floats were being finished for this year's events.

We followed up that visit by going to one of the early parades, called "The Little Rascals", and aimed at young people.

Before it was over, Walker managed to collect over 70 strings of beads that were being thrown from the floats.

We went on a swamp tour. Beautiful weather and saw lots of

wildlife, including turtles and all kinds of waterfowl.
Unfortunately, the guide told us the water was still too cold to
bring out the alligators, so the plastic one in front of the lodge was the only one we saw.

No visit here is complete without a trip downtown. The French Market sells everything from mouth watering "benets" to all kinds of apparel.

Several cannons from the colonial days line the Mississippi River waterfront.

We boarded a horse drawn carriage for a tour of the French Quarter and some history, then ended up watching the mimes and musicians at Jackson Square and enjoyed some of the courtyards with statuary and murals.

There are several old plantation buildings lining the Misissippi southwest of the city. We picked this one to see. The land was settled by a French aristocrat in the early 1700's, and the oak trees that canopy the entrance paths date back to then. The present mansion dates back to the early 1800's, when the plantation largely grew sugar cane.

If you look closely at the last picture, you can see Peg standing at the bottom of this enormous oak.