A year with my sister, a lesson in survival, sanity and/or stupidity: Florida bound

Made our way to the south of Charleston and stopped off at Johns Island and the Angel Oak. The Angel Oak is a massive oak tree with best estimate on age between 400 and 1400 years. I guess cutting the tree down to count the rings would nail it but then, there goes your tourist attraction. This tree just begs to be climbed (we are so in touch with our inner 10 year olds) but there are signs all over requesting you don’t. Darn! (Yeah, right … like our 50 year old bodies really want to climb trees).

Have you ever seen an oak tree this big?

Sue & Jean resisting the urge to climb

Big travel day the next day to get to Florida. Love the way the temperature is increasing incrementally as we’re moving down south incrementally. We followed the Georgia coast all the way down to Florida. Saw this huge globe as we were passing through Savannah. Did like the way New Zealand was at the front. I’m suspecting a Kiwi may have had something to do with the painting.

Little ol' New Zealand front and left of centre

This is what really got me thinking a Kiwi was involved

Went out to the check out the Atlantic Ocean (again) at Fernandina Beach and spotted this house along the way. It’s for rent or sale if you are keen. Of course it would need some decent lighthouse colours painted on it.

Proper paint job (you know, the stripy one) and you'd never realize
it wasn't the real thing ... apart from the lack of height

Then it was on to St Augustine, the earliest settlement by Europeans in USA. It was founded by the Spanish in 1565. It’s a very pretty town with lots to see and do so we did. First up we took one of the tourist trolley tours to get a feel for the place then worked out a couple of places we wanted to spend more time at. Of course we went to the distillery first. It hasn’t been operating very long – their batch numbers are still in single figures and sadly their bourbon is still in barrels and there was no sign of any rum which left us with vodka and gin. Can safely say I still don’t like gin. The vodka was pretty good though.

These hand crafted liquors get bottled 6 at a time

The proof is in the tasting

Next stop was the chocolate shop. Surprisingly we didn’t take the tour but were tempted by the frozen hot chocolate and toffee coffee on offer so sat in the sun supping on our concoctions. Worked off the calories (yeah, right) with a walk down town past the Flagler College, Lightner Museum, St George Pedestrian Mall then back again to the Potter Wax Museum. Met several celebrities, some still among the living but mostly historical figures.

Flagler College - used to be a grand hotel, one of many in this town

The Lightner Museum, another of the former grand hotels

St George Street Pedestrian mall is full of gorgeous old buildings like these

Jean gets to meet Michael Jordan ...

... while Sue just gets freaked out by this guy hiding round a corner

Can't see any family resemblance to these members of the Stuart dynasty

Walked around some of the narrower streets to check out the Nights of Lights Christmas decorations around town before getting on yet another trolley to visit the best of them. So enchanting. Both of us just big kids when it comes to things like this. Jean making plans to deck out her new house in New Zealand, Sue happy to enjoy the pretty lights. They were really well done.

One of the many buildings decked out for the annual Nights of Lights

Lights of the Plaza de la Constitucion

Check out this look from the funky glasses they gave us
- all the lights get turned into stars

That left us one more day in St Augustine and what better way to spend the day but by zip-lining over alligator pits. Say what? I hear you sputter. Yep, we went zip-lining and yep, some of it was over alligator pits. The Crocodile Crossing also included an aerial obstacle course – wire ropes, wobbly wooden stepping stones and the like. All good fun. And the alligators – didn’t blink an eye as we zipped over them. Spent the rest of the day at the park – all very interesting.