St. Augustine, Florida - May 5th to 8th, 2023

St. Augustine has a nice variety of things to see and do. Anastasia State Park is nearby, with beaches, trails, and wildlife. The town itself has beautiful architecture, a lot of history, a university campus, a lighthouse, and an old fort. Exploring the area was a lot of fun.

Friday was a travel day, from Fort Wilderness at Disney World to Anastasia State Park in St. Augustine. Before we left Fort Wilderness, we defrosted our refrigerator. Our fridge and freezer were the emptiest they were going to be for quite some time, so we felt it was a good time. Most of the items we put in the sink, topped it off with our two ice cube trays full of ice, and draped a wash cloth over it. That should help keep things cool while we are defrosting. RV freezers typically are not frost-free. The frost was building up on the back of the refrigerator compartment. We had lost a binder clip that got embedded in the ice. The actual freezer compartment did not have much ice, so we actually just defrosted the fridge compartment.

Using a hair dryer is probably the best way to remove the ice, but we don’t travel with one. Ann turned off the fridge before heading to the showers that morning. After coming back, she used a combination of pouring hot water over the ice and a small plastic putty knife. The sticker on the fridge warns you not to use mechanical means to defrost the unit, as there is a danger of rupturing the refrigerant tubing. We just tried to be careful. It took a while, but we got it done. Ann found it useful to remove some of the shelving and trying to slide the plastic knife up under the ice from the bottom, where it was the thinnest. Eventually, the ice started breaking off in large chunks.

As we were leaving Fort Wilderness, we stopped at the concierge desk at the Reception Outpost to pick up an Amazon package. We had checked with them ahead of time to make sure they would accept packages. No problem. They gave us the address to use and told us to include our full names and camp site number with the order. Picking up the package was easy, we just needed to show them an ID. When we got the box, there was a label on it indicating that Disney was charging us a $6 handling fee for accepting the package. No one said there would be a charge. However, we haven’t seen the fee come through on our credit card yet, even a day after checking out.

On our way to St. Augustine, we stopped for groceries in Flagler Beach. From there, we got off the interstate and got onto the historic A1A highway. We found a parking spot right along the highway, with a view of the beach and ocean, where we enjoyed a picnic lunch inside Red Tail. It’s hard to beat that view. However, the sound of the ocean waves would have been better without the sound of the highway traffic.

We arrived at Anastasia State Park in the late afternoon. It is a beautiful park. Adjacent to the park is the St. Augustine Amphitheater. There was a concert that evening. We could hear it faintly from our camp site, but not annoyingly so. The staff at the park entrance got us excited about mentioning that there is a farmer’s market at the amphitheater on Saturday mornings. However, when we looked it up on the website, we learned that there is a market every Saturday, except for May 6h, the Saturday we were there. The website did not give a reason why. Bummer!

We had enough time before dinner to take a stroll around the park. From the campground, we headed over to the canoe and kayak rental on a little protective bay. We were entertained by the little crabs scurrying around on the sand. Then we walked over to the beach area where the store and grill were, along with a couple of boardwalks over the sand dunes. Keith had his trail runners on, so he didn’t want to wander out onto the sand of the beach, so we headed back to our camp site.

The camp sites are spaced far apart, among the palmettos and trees, dripping with Spanish moss. The sites are hard-packed sand, so we got out our sand-free mat for the first time. Sitting outside in our camp chairs, on top of the mat, under our awning, felt rather homey.

In the evening, Keith installed the items we received in our Amazon package. First up was the new water pump controller. We ordered one from a different company because it was much cheaper. Hopefully, the quality isn’t cheaper. It was a pretty easy install, just swapping it out and connecting up the the wires, being sure to put move the wires over to the appropriate well-labeled connections, as they were in a different order than on the original controller. Once again, we had the ability to turn our water pump on and off.

Next Keith installed a cup holder on the wall next to his bed. We like to sit with our backs against the front wall, facing the back of the rig. The boxes between the beds are a little far to reach to put our drinks on. However, the drink holder seemed a little flimsy, so he promptly ordered a different one, made of stainless steel (paid link).

Other items in our Amazon package included a couple of fast charging USB adapters that go in the cigarette lighter sockets and another small USB fan. We had a couple of USB adapters that did not fit tight and kept coming loose. The new ones fit much tighter and have the added bonus of more current and faster charging. The original fan that we picked up on the road from Home Depot was rather large and awkward. We ordered a smaller one (paid link) earlier in our trip that we like much better. It fits nicely clipped onto the bedroom shelf next to the Everything Keeper. The one in this package is our second one, for the other side of the Everything Keeper (paid link). We like these fans so much we placed an order for a third one, to go in the dinette so we can get rid of the fan we don’t like.

Saturday we spent the whole afternoon exploring the park. We waited until the afternoon because the weather forecast called for rain in the morning. Surprise, surprise, the forecast was wrong. It didn’t rain all morning and waited until we were part way on our walk. Fortunately, it was only a light rain, but the temperatures were cooler. It was only 70 degrees, so Keith was glad he wore long pants and Ann was glad she brought along a light jacket.

We started off walking over to the amphitheater. The ranger gave us the code to the locked gate when we checked in the day before. We were hoping the amphitheater would be something special to see, but the gates surrounding it were locked and we couldn’t really get a good look at it through the trees.

Next we walked the Ancient Dunes Trail. Well, we started down the path and the mosquitoes found Ann’s bare legs. There were about a dozen of them on her at once. So we promptly turned around and went back to Red Tail to grab our bug spray. We’re not quite sure why we didn’t have it with us in the first place. We don’t like coating ourselves in chemicals every day, so we usually wait until we feel we need it. After spraying ourselves down, we returned to the trail. This time the pesty bugs left us alone. The trail wanders through the woods, crossing up and over an old dune. The environment was one that was familiar to us now, palmettos, sable palms, live oak trees with resurrection ferns and Spanish moss, and magnolia trees. Still a peaceful stroll, at least when the insects were kept at bay.

It started to rain while we were on the trail, so after we completed the trail, we headed down to the snack bar at the beach to sit under some protection and have a drink. It was still cloudy, cool, and windy by the time we finished our break, but the rain had stopped. Ann donned her jacket and we both put on our beach shoes. Ann had a pair of surf shoes while Keith used his old pair of Teva sandals. Then we walked the beach.

At the end of the boardwalk which crossed over the dunes to the beach, there was a litter patrol station. They encouraged you to take a bucket and a grabber tool to gather garbage from the beach. Trash cans and recycle bins were waiting there for you to empty your catch when you return. Keith grabbed a bucket and a grabber and we headed down the beach. Keith collected the trash while Ann collected pictures with her camera.

The state park beach goes on for miles. We walked about two miles before turning around and we were only about half way to the Saint Augustine Inlet. At our turn around point, the dunes were low enough that we had a good view of the Saint Augustine Lighthouse, which sits on the other side of the Salt Run bay.

Signs were posted to stay off the dunes as the dunes are an important nesting area for coastal birds. There was also a small fenced off area, indicating there was a sea turtle nest there and it was illegal to disturb it.

The sand was hard packed, so it was easy to walk on. It would also be easy to ride a fat tire bike on. We saw quite a few people riding their bikes on the beach, some with fat tires, some with as narrow of tires as mountain bikes or hybrids. It looked like it would be fun, but we would be worried about what the sand and salt would do to the mechanics of the bikes. Perhaps, just hosing them down well afterwards along with lubricating the chain may be good enough.

By the time we ended our four mile stroll along the beach, Keith had a full bucket of garbage. Plastic bottle caps seemed to be the most popular type of trash, but there was a wide variety, including dimensional lumber and a hiking boot.

It was getting close to dinner time, so we walked back to Red Tail to make our meal. In total, we covered 8.8 miles with an elevation gain of 69 feet in a little under four and a half hours. It was hike number 16 of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2023.

Sunday we explored the historic town of St. Augustine. From our camp site, it was only a 20 minute bike ride into town. We had a little trouble finding a bike rack to store our bikes, but we found a small one at the corner of Spanish and Treasury streets. Later, as we were riding back, we noticed a larger bike rack near the Bridge of Lions, on the north west side.

Frank, our captain on our sailing tour of Biscayne National Park (Biscayne National Park, Florida - April 28th, 2023), recommended Lightner Museum, which is located in the former historic Hotel Alcazar. We are not big fans of museums, but he also recommended eating lunch at Café Alcazar, which is a small café in the former indoor swimming pool of the hotel. At one time, the pool was the largest indoor pool in the world. We enjoyed his other recommendation of eating at Yardie Spice in Homestead, so we thought we’d give Café Alcazar a try. Reservations are recommended, so we called the day before and made a reservation for 12:15 pm.

The Hotel Alcazar building is very impressive, one of Flagler’s grand hotels built in 1888. There was a wedding going on in the courtyard when we arrived. The entrance to the café is around to the side, a small, rather unassuming door and sign. The food was good and the atmosphere was perfect, complete with a piano player playing classical jazz pieces. Thanks, Captain Frank!

After lunch, we hopped on the Old Town Trolley for a tour of the city. The complete circuit takes about an hour and 15 minutes, but you can hop off and get back on the next trolly at any of the 22 stops. We chose to ride the complete route all at once. It gave us a good overview of the city and some of its history.

Afterwards, we walked back to the places we wanted to visit. Of course we stopped along the pedestrian mall of St. George Street to have some hand-dipped ice cream. There were a lot of ice cream shops along the way, but we picked out Tedi’s Olde Tyme Ice Cream. It was pretty good.

We arrived at the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument just in time for a cannon firing demonstration. After wandering around the fort for almost two hours, we were ready for dinner. Pizza sounded good, so we headed over to Pizzalley’s Chianti Room on Charlotte Street. The pizza dough was not our favorite type, but the pizza was tasty all the same.

After dinner we strolled through the beautiful Flagler College campus, down Aviles Street, one of the oldest streets in town, and over to the Oldest House. Then we were ready to call it a day.

Monday we drove up to Jacksonville for a dental appointment. Luckily, our dentist back in Colorado went to school in Florida and had a friend with a practice in Jacksonville. Through a referral from our dentist, we were able to set up an appointment to get a couple of minor things taken care of, instead of waiting until we returned to Colorado in October.

Even though we were not changing campgrounds, we treated Monday like a travel day. We emptied our tanks, took out the trash, and went grocery shopping.

On our way back from Jacksonville, we stopped at the St. Augustine Lighthouse. In addition to climbing up to the top of the lighthouse for a nice view, there are also several other buildings to tour with a few different museums. The museum items included life of a light keeper family in the keeper’s house, the history of the shrimp industry, ship building, and under water archeology.

There is a group there who hand craft boats. Sometimes there are demonstrations, but there were none while we were there. If your tolerance for museums is longer than ours (which is pretty short), you could probably spend several hours there taking it all in. In total, we spent about an hour and a half there.

We returned to the campground around dinner time. There was even time to run our last load of laundry through. The bathhouse in our loop had only one washer and dryer, so we managed to do our laundry one load at a time, either in the morning or in the evening, spread out over several days. We didn’t want to hog the washer for an extended period of time to allow others a chance to also get a load in.

St. Augustine had a lovely feel to it. We could have easily spent more time here, both in town and inside Anastasia State Park. Perhaps we will be back someday.

Check out our related video: St. Augustine, Florida

(Ann)