just a touch of spring

Pear blossoms in the evening sun. Spring is finally starting to come!

snapshots

Snapshots of our relaxing time in Florida.

Conquistadors and Pirates

Last month while there was an ice storm in our home town we headed south to sunny and warm Florida where we visited my grandparents and had the privilege to go on Landmark Event's tour in St. Augustine. Mr. Turley did a wonderful job planning a tour exploring pirates, the fountain of youth, conquistadors, early settlers, and more. Mr. Bill Potter and Colonel Eidsmoe were our wonderful and informative tour guides.  I've gone on numerous tours with Mr. Potter and he never ceases to amaze me with his wealth of knowledge. 

The legendary Fountain of Youth in St. Augustine. I have a couple things to say about it. 

First, it tastes horrible. 

Second, I was very disappointed to hear the the spring from this well actually provides the drinking water for most of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. Deer Park and Dasani water also bottle water from this spring. So most likely you have drunk water from the fountain of youth and not even known it. Not as special and exclusive as I first thought it was. 

 Mr. Potter at Fort Caroline. 

On our last morning we visited the Pirate Museum, the only one of its kind in the world we were told.  It contained a lot of historical artifacts from pirates. Pictured above is Captain Kidd's family bible. Apparently, he did a lot of reading from it during his last days, though no sources report that he became a Christian.