Me and my mom got away!

I hadn’t had a more than an afternoon away from the kids EVER. So we decided it was time to escape, i was badly needing a break. I love my kids more than anything, but  needed a getaway!

So me and my mom headed off EARLY Friday morning and spent the weekend in St Augustine. LOVED IT! THANKS MOM!!!!

BEWARE LOTS OF PICTURES!

Day one, we arrive and catch our train.  :)

Head to the old Fort

The whole fort was made out of Cocina. It’s very cool. It can only be found in St Augustine. It’s made from shells and sand and whatever else lol. It’s all nature made, when it’s wet it’s just like cement and when it dries it dries just as hard as cement. The only difference is that it’s mostly shells not rocks, and also it would absorb the impact from the cannon balls instead of Shattering. Very cool stuff.

Where the soldiers slept.

 

from the top looking down into the courtyard of the fort.

These cannons dated back to the 1600’s and 1700’s

Spanish military hospital. This is supposed to be haunted and even TAPS visited and confirmed it. Cool. This was the mourning room. When a patient was just about to pass they brought him/her here to be blessed by a priest, last confessions, last goodbyes to the family. While the person was still alive in this room the carpenter would be called for to measure for the coffin. They had to have to coffins built before they die because due to the heat the body would start to smell within a couple hours and also do other gross stuff I don’t need to go into. But for the people it was a relief to know that the coffin was ready so they could be remembered for the things they did when they died and not for what their body did after they passed.

surgery tools. Amputation was common practice. The docs average time on amputation was under 2 minutes. That was done without any kind of pain relief. Having a finger removed was an outpatient procedure.

some of the beds. The bed in the middle has had pictures taken of it with a man laying in it (when there wasn’t anyone actually laying in it)

I thought I got more pictures of inside the schoolhouse. Not sure what happened to them. My mom did get some though so check her blog too for more pictures from our trip.

inside the school kitchen, they built the kitchens away from the main house in order to protect the house in case there was a fire in the kitchen.

the common bathroom

 

The veiw from our hotel balcony.

 

our first night we went on a ghost tour. My camera’s battery died 1/2 through it but here are a few I have. We started at the Ripley’s believe it or not mansion/museum. Which is VERY haunted. We’ll end up there later!

here we are in the spanish military hospital again for our ghost tour. this picture of my mom was when she told me to take her picture, after taking it i asked her why she nagged me to take it and she said she had been nudged by something just before I took this picture. As you can see no one is next to her, i was the closest and that was cause there was a table between us. No reason she should have been nudged on the arm, but she was. Cool!

Out in the spanish military hospital garden where a lady apparition has been spoted. I got my first orb!! you can double click the picture to see closer, it’s the one up in the air by the big bush above the fence, big blue orb. Too cool! I took MANY potos on this and go no other orbs like that, no lights there it’s free floating.

pretty sunrise

the old jail

mom and the sheriff got a bit close :)

she got in trouble for harassing the sheriff.

then she got into even more trouble.

Then we were taken into the main jail where we got booked, this was are accommodations, don’t those beds look so comfy?! They would cram as many people needed into these cells. Not all had mattresses like ours.

this is the death row cell. Wait till you see the next picture, what a view!!

this is what those on the death row would get to see out their only window. if you can’t tell, it’s the gallows.

here is a common cell for the men, they would cram 20+ men in this tiny cell.

The jail also had the Sheriff’s house attached, this was the Sheriff and his wife’s room

here was there kids room. behind me is the doorway out, it lead straight to the mens cell block. talk about a bit nerve wracking knowing your kids are playing just a wall away from these prisoners.

another view of the gallows.

The Fountain of Youth

these stones were found and dug up, there are 15 stones down and 13 stones across. they were placed here by Ponce De Leon in 1513 when he landed here and found the fountain of youth.

here is mom with her cup of water right from the fountain of youth. the fountain is like a trickle of water, it’s behind the little railing on the right.

A statue of Ponce De Leon. He stood a whopping 4’ 11’’ with his hat and boots, and a whole 4’9’’ without. He was the tallest on his ship. He made land here and discovered the indian tribe, the chief was 6’11’’ and the women averaged at about 6’2’’. No wonder Ponce De Leon called this the land of the giants!

getting ready to shoot off a cannon, dressed in times clothing

lighting the cannon with nothing but a magnifying glass which was the main way of doing it as long as it was sunny!

the monument showing where Ponce De Leon first step foot in florida

We went to the Dow Museum of historic houses. This one was too funny. It wasn’t originally this lopsided but after a big flood the foundation was washed out from under it and this was what was left. It was too funny seeing doors leaning one way and windows leaning the other way.This house was made by a carpenter with spare wood parts from his shop.

inside the crooked house.

the Ripley's believe it or not museum

this picture was drawn using only one line, the artist never picked the pencil up from the paper. One solid line. Too cool.

A cool ship that was carved

I LOVED THIS! I love dragons and this to me was amazing, It was carved from camel bones, BEAUTIFUL!

Here is the whole thing. It was HUGE too. this picture makes it look small but I was standing as far back as I could to get this.

This picture started as a fun one and turned cool. You’ll have to keep an eye out for my mom’s other half of this. We were standing across the atrium from each other taking pictures of each other taking pictures at the same time. I got just my mom, my mom on the other hand got one of me and an orb! Did I mention the Ripley’s Believe it or Not museum is also VERY haunted. Our tour guide on out ghost tour said “no one wander off, if you get separated from us or lost I will not come find you, this place is a very scary place.”

This room is one of the most haunted rooms there. It used to be an old hotel room and this was where one woman was found murdered. There are often orbs, apparitions and energy that is seen or photographed here, so me and my mom focused on this room and got lucky!

Notice on the chair in the middle row, the blue light, yeah that’s an orb, if you look closer at this picture you can see the dust particles, but they are very different. we were told that orbs appear in a number of colors (including orange, green and blue)

here is one with two small orbs, one on the wall to the right of the first row, and another by the movie screen.

Here is my prized one! My all time favorite. You can see alot of dust particles in this one but one stands out. The big blue one above the chair. If you look close you can even see the fave in it. She’s floating sideways but she’s there. There i also a second small one in this picture but it’s harder to see, when we zoomed in on it though it’s one we caught many times, Same exact one! Like a little bullseye, even my mom got it.

Another orb just below the screen

Here is a spot that was significant to me. I was standing where that bench on the other side of the tunnel was, waiting for my mom, when it got REALLY cold but only from about my mid calf on my left leg. I thought it was a draft at first, but after putting my hand down there teasing my mom that it was a ghost we realized it was a concentrated spot, my other leg, and surrounding it was warm. This spot felt like i had put my leg in a fridge. So I walked across the tunnel, turned around and took this picture. notice what is about knee height above the little bench. COOL!!! Remember me talking about the bulls eye orb I caught in the room above?

A beautiful Sunday morning on the beach.

Sand? What sand?!? This was mostly it, tons and tons of shells

This flower makes a rose look tame!!

inside the oldest house in St Augustine, dates back from the Spanish time. Made completely out of coquina. This this house was later purchased by the British and was added onto, that’s above and built from wood.

the upper floor of the oldest house.

this was their water filter, the top was a lava rock, that they poured water into and as the rock got wet the water would drip out the bottom into a pot and was sparkling clean, it didn’t matter how dirty it was to begin with Very cool.

The oldest house from the outside, notice the bottom is all the old cocina.

The old lighthouse. This has also been on the TAPS show and is haunted. I got an orb on the stair case.