St Augustine Florida Dec 3rd

What a difference a day makes. We got to St. Augustine under gray skies, rain following us all day.  We took the dingy in and walked around town deciding to have dinner at Columbia. They feature marvelous Spanish cuisine. We started dinner with Sangria and everything was delicious including our flaming dessert.

 I had Snapper “Alicante”

 It features the King of Gulf fish, Snapper, baked in a casserole with sweet Spanish onions, green peppers, a rich gravy, olive oil, fresh garlic, sauterne wine and topped with sliced roasted almonds. Served with yellow rice garnished with fried eggplant and shrimp supreme.  Tom had Cannelloni de Langosta“7 Portes”

 Tender cannelloni pasta filled with Maine lobster meat, shrimp, pan-seared scallops and sautéed shallots blended with a lobster sherry cream reduction, smothered with a lobster sherry

Mornay cheese sauce and pieces of lobster.

The dessert Spongecake soaked in syrup with Spanish Manzanilla Sherry filled with Spanish cream and strawberries, rolled and topped with meringue. Served table-side with

strawberry sauce and flambéed.

I just had to share - If you see one of their restaurants go in you will not regret the experience.

We also booked a tour on one of the many trolley lines that take tourist around the city. Our day plan we returned to the boat glad to have a day to ourselves. 

 Tuesday was everything that an advertised Florida sun shine day should be. We had the high call of an Osprey greet us as we clambered into the dingy to start our day of exploring. We found out that our Trolley company offered a free shuttle bus to the other side "ocean side" of St. Augustine with a stop at the beach. 

Off we went and after 30 minutes walking in the surf and collecting shells we stopped and had lunch then return to Old Town St Augustine.

view from our mooring ball

The bridge of Lions The Bridge of Lions is a bascule bridge that spans the Intracoastal Waterway in St. Augustine, Florida. A part of State Road A1A, it connects downtown St. Augustine to Anastasia Island. A pair of Medici lions made of marble guard the bridge, begun in 1925 and completed in 1927 across Matanzas Bay. The lions were removed in February 2005 and returned in March 2011.It gets its name from two Carrara marble Medici lions statues that are copies of those found in the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence, Italy. The statues were a gift of Dr. Andrew Anderson (1839–1924), the builder of the Markland House, who spent the last decade of his life putting works of art in public places in the Ancient City. The statues were his last gift, and he did not live long enough to see them installed. He had them made by the Romanelli Studios in Florence, Italy, which a decade earlier had provided him with smaller versions which he displayed on the front steps at Markland. Lions are a symbol of the Spanish royal family, harkening back to St. Augustine's past as a Spanish colony.

The sand on the beach is supper fine and powdery like baking
sugar.