After lunch we went on over to take a look at
Fort Matanzas. This meant a short boat ride across Matanzas River.
One man drove the boat, another tied the boat and the third, this guy, accompanied us to the Fort and made the appropriately lame but wholesome jokes one expects of a Park Ranger (how many of you have seen these canons go off? (no one raises their hand) how many of you would like to see these canons go off? (a smattering of hands are raised) well, come back next month at night and you'll get to see it, ha. ha. ha.) I was actually impressed by the youth of this here ranger, I also wondered what his salary was, whether he had health benefits, and what other responsibilities he might have other than making a 10 minute presentation on a lesser-known fort every hour on the hour from 9 til 3 (none at noon, actually). I did not ask him about any of this.
The fort had two floors and a roof. The first floor was for the enlisted men (five of them) while the second floor was for the two officers....or flip that, I can't quite recall. The purpose of the Fort was sort of an initial alarm system for St. Augustine. No canons were ever fired, or if they were they were done so for fun. Or something. Man, can you tell I am not an overly good history buff? Give me a novel and I'll get into it, give me a Park Ranger and I'll be wondering where he lives.
After our time at the fort, we took the 'nature walk' in the park. I hoped to see a gopher turtle, in fact I feel like I was promised a gopher turtle (there was a flier that said that they were all over the place...but it lied) but all I saw was a lizard or two...which was almost good enough.
I think this is a chameleon lizard.
Some animals didn't seem to get the whole 'no foot traffic' sign.
Warmth equals purple flower!
This I will call 'wood lizard' because it was in a hollowed out part of a tree and its skin kind of looked like bark...I think that's what they call camouflage.
But the cemetery was locked. We saw the big fort from a distance but not any closer than that.
Then we started heading in the direction of the restaurant at which we would eat dinner. I found myself unbearably disgusted by the many, many teenagers holding hands in the narrow streets choking with unneeded goods that had nothing to do with the oldest city in America (there is a proper name for this pedestrian only stretch of streets, but I can't find it online...I will name it 'the oldest street in America that sucks your hope for a better life out of you in record time'). Why does one need to come to St. Augustine in order to buy a cookie jar shaped like Elvis' head, I ask you? Or to buy a pair of Dansko shoes! Don't get me wrong, I love Dansko shoes but, come on. So I was very grumpy, all these teenagers holding hands, all this shit made in China being goggled at like it was special. I have a few more thoughts on this matter, but I'll keep the vitriol inside.
