“Do I look younger?” or “The Peacock Tour”

Saint Augustine Beach, FL

Today was the day that I was transformed with a drink of the water from the Fountain of Youth. No, not really, but it was a pleasant day nonetheless.

I had read a few reviews about the Fountain of Youth Archeological Park, and the Tram Tour goes through the parking lot since it’s one of the stops on their hop-on, hop-off service. So my impression of the park going in was rather low but you can’t go to St. Augustine without drinking from the Fountain of Youth. And really, you have to see where Ponce de Leon landed supposedly looking for the fountain (there is no historical evidence that his mission was about finding the fountain of youth, but it makes for a good story) and Menendes stepped onto North America to settle the area around St. Augustine. With all the signage for the fountain along the way, I have no idea why PdL had any trouble finding the fountain at all.

The Park has been a tourist attraction since at least 1901, and in recent times has been developed to encourage tourists to come and learn more about the voyages of early explorers to the New World, (and Ponce de Leon and Menendes in particular) and about the way of life during that era. The building where there is a “natural spring” coming up and where you can take a plastic cup and take some water from the spring was first on my agenda. It was pretty hokey and the fluorescent light ruined if for me, but I played along as a good tourist and allowed the guide to take my picture at the fountain. It tasted salty and so far no effects making me look or feel younger. But I’ll update you if anything should happen. In this building and throughout the property they have a lot of static displays about early life in Florida and the Native Americans that the Spaniards encountered when they arrived.

Next I headed for the planetarium where shows were held only once per hour. It was a small theatre in the round with the stars projected on the ceiling. They explained the constellations and how the explorers used them to guide their way. It was informative I guess, but the effects were not Universal or Disney quality, shall we say.

They have a presentation in the “Discovery Globe Theatre” which uses a giant 2 story globe (which is veiled behind drapes and makes a dramatic appearance to the tune of 2001 A Space Odyseey) to show you the routes of the early explorers and the area of land that Ponce de Leon claimed for Spain. Although he called it Florida, the area covered all the way from the Rio Grande to Labrador according to the presentation. Then there is a video tape narrated by the archeologist that has been digging on the site for some years and who is responsible for the archeological dig here, outlining why they have determined that it was in fact a Spanish settlement rather than an Native American site that they first assumed it was.

I skipped the cannon firing demonstration, having just seen that at the Castillo, but instead went to see the musket demonstration. It was pretty low key but again interesting and informative.

Throughout the grounds are pretty gardens with artifacts nicely displayed, statues, Native American burial grounds and displays, and several peacocks strutting their stuff and perching in the trees. There are even 4 rare specimens that have a genetic condition called leucism whereby their feathers have no pigmentation, however, they do have pigmentation in their eyes so they are not albino. I’m beginning to think I should have called this the “Peacock Tour”!

It was time for lunch and I hadn’t been to one of the other beach areas I’d read about and so I headed over the causeway to Vilano Beach. I was surprised to find parking in the free public parking area, right near the walkway on to the beach, but then I discovered that the reason was that they allow you to pull your vehicles right on to the beach (for $8 charge). The beach here is very different and full of shells, both large and small. It explains a lot about how the coquina stone they used in the walls of the forts was created and why they used shells in the concrete in so many of the buildings.

At the other end of the island (large sandbar really) is a public pier and marina and I decided to try out the restaurant, again using location and ambiance for main choice criteria. The food was actually not bad and the margarita went down nicely, sitting in the sun enjoying the view of the beach. Although it started off cool this morning, it warmed up nicely and it’s supposed to be warmer still tomorrow. So it might be a beach day tomorrow. I haven’t been down to the St. Augustine Beach which is just a 3 minute drive from the campsite so I think I’ll head there tomorrow.