Monday, December 21, 2009 St Augustine, Fl and Winter Solstice!

St. Augustine Harbor, Fl

Happy Winter Solstice! It’s the first day of winter – longest night of the year here as the sun starts it’s trek to longer days in the northern hemisphere again! The gulls are excited about it too - longer days means more feeding time.

I polished off Tess Gerritsen’s book – good twists & turns – Thanks again for the recommendation Sandy! We then went and paid our fee to use the dinghy dock, showers, and laundry here for the next 5 days. We decided we’ll stay in St. Augustine for Christmas. It’s a nice little town even if it does have cold temperatures. It got to 30/32 last night. We decided that nothing would be open anywhere else so this is where we’ll stay, then head south again the day after Christmas. The weather is calling for rain Christmas Eve and Christmas.

After showers we wandered into town. I found a post office to mail off my Christmas card to Aunt Joyce. I can’t believe my address book is missing & my mom’s house is the only address I know by heart (besides my own). Sorry all for the lack of Christmas cards this year. We stood in line for 45 minutes to get a stamp – the place was crazy and we were told that their stamp machine hasn’t worked for a week.

After that we went down George Street to Pizza Alley and got some pizza and beer/ice tea for dinner. The old architecture in the buildings is wonderful. Stonework of coquina (shells) cemented together with a sandstone cement matrix and massive black iron chain fence with spiked black iron balls to give variation to the chain.
We wandered into the old town market plaza. A young man was sitting on the cement steps playing bongos. This is the old market shelter where venders set up their tables on a open pavilion, cement shelter. They have the Christmas tree and plaza all lit up with Christmas lights. The street lamps are draped in ribbon and greenery like a dickens scene. The gazebo styled bandstand was all decorated for the holidays in red bows and flocked ribbon making the columns look like giant peppermint sticks. It was surrounded and decked in holly, mistletoe, poinsettias and bells.

It looked like something was going on at the bandstand and we discovered that a wedding was about to occur. Yes, we attended a public wedding. It was quite romantic. The bride and her bride’s maids all pulled up in a horse drawn carriage a little before 6pm.

They planned this well, right down to the second because as the couple was saying their vows and “I Do’s” the church bells started chiming for 6pm. The whole thing was very elegant and romantic. They had a white satin runner leading from the street where the horses pulled up to the Gazebo. The preacher gave a wonderful ceremony and I was given a little bag of birdseed to throw at the happy couple as they fled back to the carriage. They must have been freezing though because it was in the 40s.

I tried but couldn’t get to the line in time to throw my birdseed at the lovely couple. So some lucky birds elsewhere will have it.

We dinghied back to the boat and on the way, the dink “conched” out on us. We had problems earlier with it too. Might be old gas. It’s a nice clear night out. The stars are bright and all the Christmas lights look wonderful.