Castillo de San Marcos

Randy has done so good picking restaurants that we let him pick for breakfast. We went to the Village Inn - excellent! Then we got on the sight-seeing trolley. There are over 20 stops on the route; we got on at the Old Jail. We didn't really find the jail because we were busy in the gift shop. When we did board the trolley, our guide was cheerful and well-informed. We learned a bit about Father Francisco Lopez, who accompanied Captain Menendez on his trip to Florida. There is a huge cross located at the spot where Father Lopez landed and prayed. Menendez was something else, though. He had a fondness for killing every non-Catholic that does his reputation no good at all. 

On to other stuff: two of the pillars of the old city gates from 1808 are still standing. At one point the growing city wanted to demolish them but a ladies' group stopped that. Good thing - they are lovely. 
We learned about William Loring, who joined the Florida militia at age 14. And Live Oaks are called "live" because they never lose their leaves. There is a big one named "Old Senator" because it's shady, crooked, and stands around doing nothing. And there are laws against buildings higher than 35 ft, so Hilton hotel built their local hotel buy joining several buildings together, instead of building up. 

We found St George's street and that was pretty much the end of trolley riding. This is a walking street filled with places to shop and places to eat. We did both. 

I'm usually not a great pretzel fan, but Ben's had wonderful pretzels!
We stopped at church - I forgot which one. But they had beautiful stained glass windows that focused on St. Augustine. 
Then it was time to see the fort, aka Castillo de San Marcos. It's often called a fort but it was really a castle, to protect the royal governor. A docent gave a demo/talk about the armour and weapons that soldiers of the period would have used. Among other things, he said that they wore over 70 pounds of armour - yikes! It took musketeers time to reload, so musketeers were issued a swordsman as a bodyguard. And the musketeers had to return the gun. If you died and it was lost, your family had to pay for it.
According to this guy, lots of lacey clothes, long curly hair and perfume were the marks of a good warrior. They had survived enough battles to indulge in such things (and probably take some spoils of war), instead of having the bare minimum. 

Soldiers would drill 2 days a week but soldiering usually wasn't a full-time job, so they had other jobs in town. When fighting, their clothing was often their regular street clothing, so they would wear a red sash on their sleeve to mark them as Spanish, and hopefully avoid friendly fire. 

The fort is made from coquina blocks (like the city gates). This stuff was the main building material for anything that the folks wanted to last a long time. It's basically naturally packed tiny shells, tough enough to be quarried and strong enough to withstand an attack by James Moore in 1702. Cannon balls either bounded off or sunk into it a few inches.
In 1740 General Oglethorpe attacked, with the same results. At night the guys in the fort would sneak out and repair whatever minor damage was done. Apparently this frustrated Governor Oglethorpe so much that he burned down the rest of the town. Fortunately the townspeople were in the fort.
For me, the best part were the beautiful cannons!  They were each named (Facheno, Abajado, El Jazmin, etc) and each one had identifying marks. "At the back you can find the name of the maker, the city where it was made, and the date when the gun was manufactured. Moving towards the muzzle, you will find the royal coat of arms of the Spanish King & Queen who reigned during the making of the weapon. Next are a couple of raised handles called dolphins. Moving closer to the front of the gun, a banner bears the cannon’s name. Two of the Castillo's cannons also have a second, larger banner that reads “Violati Fulmina Regis” (thunderbolts of an offended or angry king). Each trunnion (the pivot bars on the sides of the gun) lists where the metal was acquired, the gun’s maintenance record, and how much the weapon weighs. Other features found on some of the cannons include capture dates stamped by the US Army."
Some cannons were short and squat, but they had identifying names and marks, same as the long ones, and fired powerful 12" motors.
Eventually we left, leaving our brave docent standing guard, ready to defend the castle.
After a full day out, we decided to spent the evening relaxing in, dining on caramel & cheese popcorn, BBQ chips, jellied fruit, beer and soda. Satifying and fun!

The next morning we had to leave all this behind and head home. We got a head-start - someone set off the fire alarm and everyone was herded out of the buildings. Fortunately we were already packed and ready to go. On the way home we stopped at the Magnolia Cafe in Polatka again where we enjoyed the corned beef and good conversation.



St Augustine to see the lights

Larry and Linda invited us to go to St Augustine to see the Christmas lights, so of course we said yes! We left on Wednesday around 10 am, which we figured would give us a chance to get lunch on the road. We stop in the little town of Polatka at the Magnolia Cafe. And what a good choice that was! I got a Cuban and Randy had a salad, and we all agreed we should come back here for more. 
Next door is the Urban Farmhouse, for a little post-lunch shopping. Then back on the road to St. Augustine. We got their in good time to check into the condo,  settle our stuff, and buy tickets for the Christmas Light trolley ride before  Larry drove us over to the trolley station. We were a little early so we walked around a bit, seeing things like this huge marker for the Old Spanish Trail.
Then it was time to board the trolley. They hand out paper 3-D glasses which, when you put them on, make all the lights look like big, bright snowflakes! This was awesome! I couldn't get a good pic of them through the glasses, but I did try. 
The trolley ran through the tourist section of town, where lots of buildings were decorated. We oohed and aahed over them all! The downtown Hilton was probably the most decorated. The 3-D glasses made all of these look like stars, too, but they were beautiful even with out that.  
Our trolley driver played lively Christmas music for us, and sang along with most of them. When he wasnt' singing, he told us bits and pieces about the place. For example, he pointed out that all the lights were white. According to him, that's a tradition that goes back to the Spanish days when people decorated by putting candles in windows. After the ride we got a sugar cookie from Peppermint the Elf, to go along with the warm cider. 
 
Cookies and cider are all very well, but we needed something more substantial. We walked through much of the town before deciding to go into the Colombian. Another excellent choice! There would have been a long wait for a table so we found places at the bar and ordered from there. They start by serving a half-loaf of Cuban bread to everyone which is really good. Apparently they get this bread delivered daily from Tampa, and have for over 90 years (we found out later there is another Colombian restaurant in Tampa). Randy asked the folks next to him what they ordered and they recommended the 1905 salad. Looked good, so that's what we did. It was big enough to share and really good. I had thought we might need more to eat so I ordered the artichoke dip. We didn't need more, but we ate that, too, anyway. Stuffed, happy, and tired, we walked back to the car and returned to the condo for the night.

Christmas at Disney Hollywood Studios

We went to Hollywood Studios a little later in the day, planning to stay to see the Christmas lights; fortunately we were still in time to get on the Millennium Falcon Ride. The virtual ride was fun, although I was hoping for something more like Avatar. 
Back outside Kylo Ren made an appearance. He's a very popular character right now, but a he can be a little intimidating. This little guy decided the best course of action was to not look him in the eyes. 
I'm kinda in love with the way this place looks. One of the things I liked best about the original Star Wars was how realistically grubby it looked. This place has the same look.
 Got some cool characters, too. 
At the Star Wars show, the villains were center stage: Captain Phasma, Darth Mall, Storm Troopers - even Darth Vader showed up. The original is still the best!
Shortly thereafter it was time for the lights. Here at Hollywood the Tower of Terror building is used like a drive-in movie screen for the light show. The street is also part of the show, with lights beamed above everyone's heads.  
Hollywood's Christmas tree is not as breathtaking as Epcot's, but it's still pretty wonderful. But our favorites are the old fashioned Santa street lights!

Trans-Siberian Orchestra at the Amway Center in Orlando

This month we went to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra in Orlando. We considered how long to pay for parking - 1 hour? 1 and 1/2 hours? when we discovered that TSO shows usually run 2 1/2 hours! Fortunately we found good parking for $10 for the night, within easy walking distance of not only the show but also the street where, during our last visit to the Amway Center, we discovered several restaurants. We stopped at Hamburger Mary's, thinking that it might be the quickest. It wasn't, but it was good enough that we will defiantly be back when we have more time! This time we scarfed our burgers and fries, then walked the couple of blocks to the show. We could have taken our time - started 15 minutes late (that seems to be the norm here). There was no opening act, which was a good thing, considering the length of the show. 

The show opened with a bang of loud, enthusiastic, rock guitar music. There was a "narrator" (Phillip Brandon) who started the show by telling a sort of of Christmas story, situated in an Old City Bar, about God sending his youngest angel to earth to bring back "the one thing that best represents everything good that has been done in the name of this day.”  The angels' journey and observations take up most of the show, with short narrations to continue the story interspersed between amazing musical numbers. TSO has some of the best quitarists ever, and powerful singers. And their light show is stunning!
Sometimes it's almost hard to watch the stage, when they throw on the big white lights!
Near the end of the show there was an incredible number called "Old City Bar" (by Robin Borneman), which wrapped up the narrative. It wasn't a grand, showy number like many of the others; it was just one man standing on the stage, without any of the blinding lights and electric guitars that illuminated most of the other songs. But it was easily the best song, based on it's lyrics and his soulful delivery. 

After the main show completed, the musicians came back out for more musical numbers that were not directly related to the narrative. The first one was a really hard-rock number that I could have done without, but the rest of them were wonderful. This is such a talented group of people!



Mt Dora Christmas walk with friends

Mt Dora has some pretty Christmas lights - great excuse to meet with friends at the Fiesta Grande Mexican grill! We joined Gary & Erin, Larry & Linda, and a nice couple they know for some walking, eating, and drinking, but not in that order. As usual the restaurant was so busy that we had a long wait for a table. So we crowded in around the bar and had taco chips and double margaritas. 
That made the waiting much easier! And eventually a table opened up, so we could settle down and enjoy some really good Mexican food. 
Afterwards we walked around to see the lights. After the double margaritas walking was a bit of a challenge, as was getting six people into one last selfie!