The narrow avenues of St. Augustine invite you to step back in time, to the days of Spanish colonialism, of Victorian sensibilities, and turn-of-the-century wealth. In 1565, Pedro Menendez de Aviles reached the shore of Mantanzas Inlet and claimed this land for the King of Spain. A permanent settlement soon followed. St. Augustine became the center of operations for Spain’s exploration of the New World.

Built of wood, the first few incarnations of the city fell to the marauding British Navy. Eventually, the Spaniards rebuilt in stone. The oldest standing structure in the United States is the Castillo de San Marco, a massive fortress set just outside the city gates. Finished in 1695, it included several lines of battlements and a fort constructed of 8-foot thick blocks of coquina stone quarried on nearby Anastasia Island. Now a national park, you can walk on the fort’s ramparts, explore the soldier’s quarters, and watch the cannons fired daily.

Walk through the gates into Old Town and follow St. George Street through the historic district. Here, sea breezes mingle with the tangy aroma of Spanish cooking. A delightful jumble of museums, restaurants, shops, and art galleries flank the narrow avenue. Visit the Oldest Wooden School House, or walk through the Spanish Quarter Museum, where costumed volunteers play out daily life in the mid-1700s. Spend a moment in contemplation at the St. Photios Chapel, within the National Greek Orthodox Shrine. Peek through garden gates to discover hidden fountains, sculpture, and an abundance of flora. Stop at one of the many pubs to grab a pint and savor a tune.

St. Augustine is a city made for walking -- there are dozens of historical attractions you can visit along the avenues of Old Town. At the intersection of St. George Street and Cathedral Street, you’ll find the Cathedral of St. Augustine. It dates back to 1797, with walls built from stones from the ruins of the first Spanish mission in the New World. Visitors are welcome to tour the spacious cathedral with its decorated timber trusses and elaborate altar. Twelve stained glass windows from Germany celebrate the life of Saint Augustine, and a series of murals depicts the settlement of the city.

To understand why St. Augustine was a popular tourist destination at the turn of the century, wander through Flagler College, up at the end of Cathedral Street. This college was once the Ponce De Leon Hotel, a visual delight of modern Spanish architecture. A block away is railroad magnate Henry Flagler’s other hotel, the Alcazar. Inside, the Lightner Museum houses three floors of memorabilia from the Gilded Age. The lower level of the hotel, once an elegant casino and swimming pool, contains an array of antique shops. Across from the museum on Granada Street is Zorayda Castle. In 1883, millionaire Franklin Smith commissioned this reproduction of the Alhambra, Spain’s classic Moorish castle, as his summer home.

Other historic sites include the Oldest Store, the Oldest House, the Old Jail, the Old Drug Store, and the Fountain of Youth -- the one Ponce De Leon sought, perhaps? The Mission of Nombre de Dios is along Matanazas Inlet; a 208 foot cross marks the spot where Christianity first touched the New World. Several shrines beckon the faithful. Other museums in St. Augustine include the Museum of Weapons and Early American History, the Museum of Florida’s Army, Potter’s Wax Museum, the Museum of Yesterday’s Toys, and the Peck House. A creepy mansion houses the original Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Museum. Admission fees range from $3 to $7, depending on the museum.

And then there are the marshes. With the exception of the sea wall along a portion of Mantanzas Inlet, marshes surround the city. Walk to the edge of one, and you’re bound to catch a glimpse of a great blue heron snatching up a fish. But the region’s best birding is on the barrier island protecting St. Augustine from the sea -- Anastasia Island.  Here, two distinct breeding grounds will keep you busy enjoying Florida’s water birds.



BRIMMING WITH BIRDS:
The St. Augustine Alligator Farm
Since 1923, the St. Augustine Alligator Farm has entertained visitors who want to see vast masses of Florida’s most fearsome predator -- over 1,500 alligators inhabit the park. In my childhood, I was awed by the fearless alligator wrestlers who flipped over the massive squirming reptiles, showing their bravado by sticking a head or an arm in the alligator’s mouth. Another show sent immature alligators down an enormous slide. I enjoyed riding on the back of a Galapagos tortoise. Those days are now done; an overriding concern for the animals transformed the Alligator Farm into a zoological park, focused on the preservation of alligators and crocodiles.

What draws me here this time isn’t the alligators, but the focus of a newspaper clipping my mother had saved for me. In all the years we visited this park, I’d never paid attention to the birds. Alligators were the chief attraction; they swarmed en masse in the swamp below the boardwalk, and I spent all my time looking down. This time, I wandered out onto the boardwalk and looked up. The article focused on the sheer number of birds that nested on the islands in the alligator’s swamp. Sure enough, these tiny slices of land are heron heaven! I stopped counting after 100 or so in a single tree. And the nests! Some were almost close enough to touch; most visibly bustled with activity, either with eggs, chicks, or immature birds.

Snowy egrets and little blue herons made up the largest percentage of the inhabitants of these alligator-patrolled islands.  Scanning the massive trees, I note a bonded pair of wood storks occupying the highest point in the park, and a couple of great blue herons high up in the same tree. But the smaller water birds monopolize every low nook and crook suitable for a nest. Along the shoreline, one mother egret kicks a hatchling out of the nest. It falls several feet and hits the mud, then quickly hops back onto a branch, struggling to get away from the water. Smart bird!

Over on one of the central islands, a pair of young snowy egrets attempt to fly. One succeeded; the other took a nose-dive into the murky water below the nest. Quicker than I could swing my camera around, six feet of pure muscle rose from the water. Snap! One more egret makes an alligator’s appetizer. Such are the dangers of nesting above the fearsome creatures. The birds seem to think it’s worth it, as the alligators protect them from raiding raccoons.

It’s a delight to see young birds in so many stages of maturity -- from eggs and chicks to immature herons in the middle of plumage change. Siblings dance and flutter their wings in mock battles. A clattering commotion high up in the trees looks like a fight between several great blue herons, but is in fact the parents feeding their young. You can spend hours on this short stretch of boardwalk, marveling at the interactions amongst the birds. But don’t forget to look down! The Alligator Farm’s behemoths float below, waiting and watching. Giant soft-shell turtles join them in the shallows. Once upon a time, this swamp was thick with alligators -- enough so that they’d crawl over each other’s backs to find a sunny spot. Time and disease have taken their toll, and the population has thinned to the point where you might have to look twice to spot a saurian swimming in the swamp. For sheer volume of reptile flesh, step over to the enclosure in the center of the park, where immature alligators (two to three feet long) swarm over each other in the sun. Nearby, even smaller alligators (under two feet) occupy their own crowded pen.

Other attractions include the Land of Crocodiles, a stunning collection of crocodiles from around the world. It’s amazing to note how many southerly climes attract these scary beasts. Some species of crocodile thrive in salt water, and others can only eat fish -- their snouts are too narrow to capture anything else. At the Alligator Show, you can watch a zookeeper put an immature alligator to sleep by laying it on its back. Other demonstrations showcase Florida’s snakes and the birds of the Amazon rainforest. Pens containing some of the alligator’s fiercer cousins, gavials and caimans, line the main walkway. An indoor exhibit focuses on exotic snakes and alligator hatchlings, fresh out of the shell. The kids will enjoy a small collection of barnyard animals.

But don’t miss the birds! The Alligator Farm has no control over their coming and going, but the wading bird rookery is clearly listed on the park map. Admission is $10.95 for adults, $7.95 for ages 3-10. The park participates in the reciprocal zoo program and offers AAA discounts.


SHARING THE SEA:
Anastasia State Recreation Area
As a former Florida resident, I find myself drawn to the beaches of Anastasia Island time and again. It’s been one of my family’s favorite beaches for many years, due to the lack of commercialism and crowds. The recreation area includes 1,800 acres of beaches, sand dunes, salt marshes and windswept forest, where you may hike, fish, swim, camp, surf, canoe, or try your hand at windsurfing on the tidal lagoon. As part of the Florida State Park system, current park fees are $3.25 per car (8 passengers) or $1 if you enter on foot.

Spanish conquistadors once roamed these shifting sands; Ponce de León landed here in 1513, searching for the apocryphal Fountain of Youth. The subsequent Spanish settlement of St. Augustine in 1564 led many a boat to the shore of this barrier island. During the fortification of their city, the Spaniards exploited one of Anastasia Island’s most precious resources -- coquina stone. This unique natural conglomerate consists of ground shells held together by a calcium glue; it’s unique enough that the law frowns upon you taking any home. You can follow a trail near the park’s entrance to visit the old coquina quarries, tucked away under the windswept oaks.

The sea is a paradox of permanence and transformation. Tides ebb and flow; sand dunes shift into new formations. I love to sit on the shore as a storm passes out over the water, watching the lightning dance over the waves. The simple act of listening to the surf can be mesmerizing; the power of water and wind, life-changing. Thus I never know what to expect when I return to this beach. As a child, I delighted in walking far out into the Atlantic on the sandbars at low tide; those ephemeral formations are long gone. Like most Florida beaches, the sand is shrinking. Unlike the tourist beaches, there are no jetties or sand reclamation projects to stave off Mother Nature’s hand. One year, I came to find that the major highway through the park, A1A, disappeared into the crashing surf. The subsequent rerouting of A1A set the beach even further off the beaten path, improving the aesthetics of the park.

When I visited after Hurricane Andrew, the ocean had wrought its inevitable changes in my absence. As far as the eye could see, mud flats and oyster bars dominated the zone between the soft dunes and the hard-packed sand. No room for sun worshippers here! The area teemed with new life, a perfect opportunity for the amateur naturalist to contemplate the wild shore.

The mud flats and oyster bars created large tidal pools at low tide. Here, tiny fish swam, trapped until the tide came in, making great snack bowls for the sandpipers, plovers, and gulls. I saw a scurrying and a big billow of mud puff out of the bottom of one pool, so I sat down and waited.  And waited.  And waited.  Eventually, the culprit emerged -- a huge blue crab!  Curious, I followed him up and down the tidal pool. Gulls watched from a safe distance. I left the crab to them and poked around for seashells. The oyster bars looked beautiful in the sunlight but the oysters were firmly glued in little clusters, quite alive. Walking further down the mud flats, I came across a few jellyfish that had come in with the tide. Good thing I was watching my feet!  The storms that sculpted the beach must have washed all the great shells away. I wasn’t finding any, but I did startle sandpipers away from their feasts in the surf.

On my most recent trip, I was saddened to see that this intriguing little ecosystem had vanished. The sea gives, and the sea takes away. Right now, it’s possible to walk several miles along the beach, or you may drive on the hard-packed sand.   My husband and I drove north to reach the edge of the bird sanctuary, where the birds nest out of human reach in the salt marshes beneath the shadow of the Matanzas Lighthouse. We couldn’t find a good angle to watch them, but plenty of birds hang out around the fishermen at the mouth of Matanzas Bay. Gulls wheel overhead looking for a fresh catch to snitch. Plovers dance along the park’s only jetty, which protects the salt marsh from erosion. Pelicans line up along the shore; an amusing sight to see so many large birds forming a perfect row.

As a conservationist, I’ve never appreciated Florida’s law allowing driving on the beach. But the rangers close segments when sea turtles are nesting and when conditions (such as the ephemeral tidal pools) mean that vehicles threaten the ecosystem. And this is one rare spot where having the privilege to drive on the beach allows you to creep up on shorebirds and watch them close at hand; while they scatter at the approach of beach walkers, they’re not afraid of the vehicles. As we watched the pelicans from our car, a park ranger came by to let us know that the birds move their line closer to shore with the tide; if we could wait several hours, we’d have the pelicans surrounding us. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the time to spare. Herons, storks, and cranes stopped by, waiting for fishermen to gut their fish. I’ve heard that dolphins often played in the breakers at the mouth of the bay, but we saw no evidence of them this day.

Back on the pavement, we stopped at the boat ramp along the lagoon. This salty body of water separates the dunes from the woods, and shelters thousands of water birds. You can rent a sailboard and play on the water, or use a canoe to paddle into the estuary. The boat ramp is an excellent spot for catching birds up close -- they’re attracted by the gutting table set up near the water. On my last trip here, I caught wood storks, great blue herons, and snowy egrets competing for the table scraps. This time, with no fisherman afoot, only a couple of birds hung out close. A great blue heron guarding the gutting table launched into the air upon my approach. Two snowy egrets sneak through the tall grass, following the footsteps of several crab fishermen. Another great blue heron kept busy fishing out in the middle of the lagoon.

If you camp and take the time to canoe and walk the nature trails, you’ll up your chances of coming across a diverse variety of birds. Numerous species of shorebirds cluster along the beaches; bird activity rises as vehicles leave for the night. In spring and fall, the live oak forest plays host to migrating songbirds. Herons, egrets, and storks frequent the tidal marshes. The park is open for day use from 8 AM until sunset; campers can enjoy sunrise on the beach.
 


ST. AUGUSTINE: THE ESSENTIALS
Location: Florida’s northern Atlantic coast.

Topography: Flat, sandy isles surrounded by tidal marshes.

Population: 11,700

Climate: Cool in winter, hot in summer. Salt breezes off the inlet help keep temperatures temperate. Frequent late afternoon thundershowers.

Getting Around: St. Augustine is small enough you can park and walk to most attractions. Parking in the city is very limited; it’s best to park at the Visitor’s Center just outside the city gates. For those who prefer a riding tour, St. Augustine Historical Tours offers trams with “on and off” privileges as they tote you through the historic district. Check at the Visitor’s Center for tickets, $12 adults and $5 for ages 6-12.  The Alligator Farm is one mile south of downtown; if you want to visit the State Recreation Area as well (its entrance is within sight of the Alligator Farm), you’ll want to drive.

Getting There: Jacksonville International Airport is the closest major airport to St. Augustine, about 50 miles north along I-95. The city of Jacksonville lies 39 miles north of St. Augustine; Orlando is 96 miles south. Best access is via I-95; follow FL Rt. 16 into town.

Special Events: In a town this old, there’s always a reason for a party. Commemorations, re-enactments, and celebrations abound. June is Heritage Month, which ushers in a bevy of events from Drake’s Raid (commemorating the 1586 attack on St. Augustine by Sir Francis Drake and his 2,500 men, who sacked and burned the city) to Greek Landing Day.  For a calendar of events, call 1-800-OLD-CITY.

Accommodations: There’s no lack of lodgings around Old Town, from bed & breakfast to standard motel and hotel chains. On tree-lined Cordova Street, enjoy local hospitality at Casa De Suenos (904 / 824-0887), Southern Wind (800 / 781-3338), Carriage Way (904 / 829-2467), or the Old Powderhouse Inn (904 / 824-4149). Several motels are clustered between the Visitor’s Center and the Mission of Nombre de Dios. Additional accommodations line A1A south on Anastasia Island. Beach lodgings are available within 10 miles -- follow A1A south to St. Augustine Beach for a surfside room. For a detailed list of lodgings, contact the St. Johns County Chamber of Commerce. Or check with your favorite chain; they probably have a St. Augustine location.

Camping: In Anastasia Island State Recreation Area, enjoy a salt breeze through your tent at the full service campground. Over 100 campsites nestle under the wind-swept oaks at the southern extreme of the park. Rabbits, raccoons, and field mice populate the forest, so keep your food in the car. For reservations, contact Anastasia State Recreation Area, 1340-A A1A South, St. Augustine, FL 32084. (904) 461-2033 or (904) 461-2000.

Tours: The two tram tours give an excellent overview of the historic city. If you’re looking for a scare, try “A Ghostly Experience,” a 1-1/2 hour nightly walking tour featuring ghost stories and the haunted sites of St. Augustine (800 / 797-3778 for reservations). The same firm offers a tamer tour focusing on architecture and romance, “The Evening Stroll.”

Live Theater: Florida’s official state play, the “Cross and Sword,” depicts the settlement of St. Augustine. Performances are Thurs., Fri., and Sat. at 8:30 PM. (904 / 471-1965 for reservations) at the Amphitheatre on Anastasia Island. Special plays are offered during Lent (The Passion Play) and Christmas (A Christmas Carol).

Hot Stuff! The datil pepper, a St. Augustine specialty, sends your taste buds screaming. Watch for it on restaurant menus -- it spices up everything from seafood to steak sauce. Dat’l Do-ItÓ Hot Sauces hail from St. Augustine and can be found in most shops and some restaurants.

For More Information: Contact the St. Johns County Chamber of Commerce (800 / 653-2489) or check their website at http://www.oldcity.com

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