St. Augustine Lighthouse and Maritime Museum Visit - Part 2, Tuesday, November 3, 2020

Continued from Part 1, Jacksonville Riverside 10k Volksmarch...

After dropping Patricia Thompson off at her timeshare a few miles down the road from our campground, we headed to the St. Augustine Lighthouse and Maritime Museum. We had a couple of daylight hours left and figured we could see the sights in that time. There is an entrance fee, but it's for a good cause: the upkeep of the lighthouse and myriad museum buildings.

Ready to enter the lighthouse grounds.

There's more than just a lighthouse here!

After we paid our admission and had a wristband, we explored the little museum off the gift shop. There are a few model ships that represent different eras in naval architecture. Each one served a different purpose. The function of the ship influenced the design.

The M/S Sally Maersk below, for example, is representative of an international freighter that had increased capacity following World War II. It had plenty of space above and below deck for cargo and the equipment needed to maneuver that cargo on and off the ship.

M/S Maersk

Below is Captain Tom representative of St. Augustine's wooden shrimp boats. 

Captain Tom wooden shrimp boat.

On we go to bigger and prettier things. Once out the door and through a small grove of trees, it was easy to see the main attraction. St. Augustine Lighthouse is a beauty and well maintained. 

After our 10k walk, can you believe we had the energy to climb 219 steps (165') up to the top? We did. It felt like such an accomplishment!

History markers and stories were our entertainment on the landings of the climb up. Reading them was informative and entertaining (and allowed us to catch our breath or let people go by). Whoever put up the reading material was a genius.

The first rest platform had information on the lighthouse keepers' task of carrying a bucket of oil up the stairs a couple of times a night back in the late 1800 to early 1900s.

Bob checking out
how heavy the oil is.

Great spiral staircase.

Info on harvesting birds.

 128 steps to go.

The views are stunning

The view down the spiral staircases.

All lighthouses are painted differently from one another. 

We made it to the top where it was very windy. The 360-degree view was of the first order. Oh, and speaking of the first order, this lighthouse still has its first-order Fresnel lens!

This lighthouse has a black and white
spiral tower with a red top. 

A view of old St. Augustine
from the lighthouse.

Looking down at the Keeper's House.

Bob talking to a guide.

If you're thinking this is a fine-looking lighthouse, you're right. The architect, Paul J. Pelz, is famous for his design of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The lighthouse is constructed of brick and iron. The tower's interior is lighted by nine windows and features eight flights of cast-iron stairs. It took three years to build and opened in 1874. Think of all the stories this lighthouse could tell!

Speaking of that, you can read many stories about the lighthouse in the keeper's house, and other museums on the property. The gift shop has storybooks for sale, as well. I bought my mom a nice book about pets owned by different lighthouse keepers. 

We explored the rest of the structures included in our admission. The Heritage Boatworks was not open. It is an outdoor exhibit (under cover) where old-fashioned boatmaking skills are demonstrated. 

Next, we went to the World War II Coast Guard Barracks. Oh, my! We learned so much. When the Germans attacked the U.S. at the beginning of the United States' involvement in the war (four days after Pearl Harbor), Hitler launched Operation Drumbeat. See history below.

Operation Drumbeat.

Bob and I were both nonplussed that we had not learned this East Coast history in our West Coast schools. We had no idea German U-boats had destroyed so many ships in U.S. waters around Florida. 

On the West Coast, we learned about Japanese submarines that fired on Fort Stevens, Oregon, but didn't do any damage. There were other attacks on Oregon as well. In researching for the blog, I also learned about a number of Japanese submarines that attacked freighters in California. It's fun to write a blog and learn stuff they didn't teach us in school.

The last building we went in was the Maritime Center, "Legends of the Light." Again, more stories about people and ships. There was a lot to read. Here are a couple of examples:

Lighthouse legends.

This building also housed more ship models; most of these models are of ships you would recognize: Cutty Sark, Golden Hind, and the Flying Cloud. I enjoyed looking at the detailed work on a couple of models.

The Wappen Von Hamburg
(circa 1669).

Wappen Von Hamburg
figurehead.

The Golden Hind (Sir Francis
Drake's ship), 1577 to 1586.

When we finished at the museum, we were very hungry. Bob wanted to take me out to eat at a nice restaurant in St. Augustine Beach. We had seen a likely candidate, Panama Hattie's Bar & Grill, on our drive back from dropping off Pat Thompson earlier in the day. That's where we decided to go. It was wonderful. We sat outside on a rooftop deck overlooking the ocean (a block away). The temperature dropped, but we had coats and the open-air deck had nice heaters. The wind was still a bit chilly, though. Both of us enjoyed our drinks and dinners.

Bob enjoying his fish sandwich
and hard cider.

Me at Panama Hattie's.

My salad was very good,
and so was the drink!

The beautiful atmosphere on
the outside deck at night.

We finally called it a day and what a day it was. There was a great walk, a good friend, beautiful scenery, and a wonderful dinner with Bob. Did you ever wonder why we love traveling so much? It's many days like these that give us the warm fuzzies.

TravelBug out.