What's Fred Up To Now?: November 22 - Last Day In St. Augustine

November 22 - Tuesday; St. Augustine, Fl
Today is my last day in St. Augustine. After a restful night we had pirate pancakes for breakfast again at the Pirate Haus Inn (see photos below - cute). There are two families with young children staying at the Pirate Haus and the cook made them each a pancake with their name in it. They were delighted of course. I couldn't check in to the Anastasia Inn until after 12:00 pm so I hung around with Gary, Dan, Adrian and Ray during the morning. We walked around the old town some more and through Flagler College's Ponce de Leon Hall which used to be a the Hotel Ponce de Leon. This building is magnificent and must have been a stunningly beautiful hotel when it opened in 1888. After lunch I said goodbye to Ray who left early this afternoon. I then headed across the Bridge of Lions to my motel. After checking in I walked back across the bridge and signed up for a harbor cruise that started at 2:45 pm. The cruise was nice though it clouded up during the last 1/2 hour. We saw a number of dolphins near the inlet from the ocean. After the cruise I caught up with Dan, Gary and Adrian at the Pirate Haus. Another touring cyclist was staying in their room; John Gayford, a native Australian who has lived in Toronto Canada for the last 30 years working as an engineer for Ford Motor Company. John and his wife recently bought touring bicycles and John is out on a 3-day tour to learn the ropes. John and four others spent 117 days at sea sailing a 46' sailboat from Canada to Australia and New Zealand via the Atlantic and southern oceans raising $22,217 to fight cancer. We went for a beer before heading to dinner at the Italian restaurant where we dined the first night in St. Augustine. There was lot of good conversation over dinner then I said my farewells to Adrian, Dan and Gary. They were terrific riding partners and I really enjoyed their company during the tour. Special thanks to John for picking up the tab - you really shouldn't have done that. It started raining while we were dining so I had to walk back across the bridge in a light rain. I'd taken my rain jacket for the harbor cruise so I was prepared.

The airport shuttle picks me up at 8:45 am tomorrow morning for the ride to Jacksonville Airport. My flight leaves at 1:40 pm and is scheduled to arrive in Des Moines (via Minneapolis) at 6:25 pm. It will be great to be back home.

I'll likely spend some time adding photos to earlier blog posts and rearranging the blog entries sometime after getting home. I'll also make one more post with reflections/thank yous etc..

A few photos from St. Augustine today: