St Augustine Alligator Farm

St Augustine is the oldest city in the United States. It’s filled with all sorts of history and cool stuff such as the oldest house, the oldest fort and a big old lighthouse. After spending a couple days here, we realized that no one is really from St. Augustine, but a lot people come to live and work in the city.

After driving all day we settled into another Days Inn and went out to dinner. Based on what we’d read, the Conch House seemed to be the place to go. It’s right on the Intercoastal Waterway and we waited the extra time to sit outside in a “hut”. The food here was excellent. Michael had a pasta craving and had pasta with lots of seafood including shrimp and clams. I was boring and had tuna since it wasn’t something I saw on many menus. After dinner, we stopped in downtown St. Augustine and walked around a bit, then went back to the room to rest up for the Alligator Farm.

St Augustine Alligator Farm

Nothing but alligators, crocodiles, turtles, birds and more alligators. There were even 2 albino alligators! At the back end of the park is the Rookery. Its pretty much swamp land with hundreds, maybe even thousands of birds. Its more of a sanctuary as the birds are free to come and go as they please. There are, of course, also alligators. We spent some time back there photographing the various types of herons and egrets. We found a mother feeding her 3 chicks. Unfortunately there was an alligator at the base of the tree, hanging out, waiting for a chick to fall!

After the Alligator Farm, we visited the lighthouse, the oldest house and the fort. That evening, as it was the 4^th of July, we found a good spot to throw back a couple of drinks, eat some conch fritters and enjoy the fireworks.

Day 15

Our travel day home to New Jersey. In North Carolina, we detoured off 95 to go the more scenic route 13. This takes you over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. It probably added 2 hours to our trip but at 2am, we finally made it home.