There is a floor-to-ceiling-one-of-a-kind treasure shop near the home of my in-laws and its called The Sea Hagg.
I love going there whenever I can. I usually come back home with something for the house, but the last time I was there, I came home with an idea for the house.
At The Sea Hagg there are two massive pillars or posts marking the entrance to the grounds of the shop. These posts are unique and whimsical. They are covered by coral, shells, fossils, sea glass, all kinds of interesting little things. Every time I look at them it seems like I see something I hadn't seen before.
Well, The Colonel and I built another retaining wall and this wall has a post in the corner. The posts at The Sea Hagg were our inspiration when deciding to decorate the post.
We hit The Home Depot to see what kinds of tile they had that would most closely resemble coral. I found some tile I liked, but of course it was special order, so special, that it was no longer available. Great.
We ended up buying some Travertine tiles. We chose to expose the underside of the tile and not the smooth, finished side when tiling the post, this created the more rough, coral-like look we wanted.
We have collected sea glass, fossils, shells, old bricks and shark's teeth for a few years now and this post was the perfect place to use some of our findings. My in-laws and DSIL bought us a beautiful glass sand dollar and glass sea shell that we incorporated in the post. My mother-in-law also gave us some Geodes from Indiana to use for the post (an homage to all of our Indiana roots).
It took about two weeks to complete the post decoration. We had to work between rainstorms.
We are pleased with the end result. Take a look for yourselves.
There was an albino peacock that I thought looked like a huge snowflake.
We entered the building where the fountain was. It looked exactly the same.
There are life-sized dioramas depicting Ponce de Leon meeting the indigenous people, the Timucuans.
Ponce de Leon believed this fountain was the famed Fountain of Youth because the chief of the Timucuans was over seven feet tall and there were Indians that were older than anyone he had ever seen. The average height for a Spaniard was five foot and most did not live to beyond 45 or 50 years old. I don't blame him, in his shoes, I would have probably thought the same thing.
Ponce de Leon would never know if his drinking of this water would give him eternal youth because eight years later in 1521, on another expedition to Florida, he landed in southwest Florida, very near where I live and was wounded by a poison Calusa Indian arrow and died in Cuba at the age of 47. 
One new addition since we had been there last was a mini fort where a man dressed in a Spanish uniform would shoot off a cannon. 
As he was preparing the cannon for firing he was telling us all about how the Spanish defended St. Augustine; what kind of cannon and shot they used, how much powder, etc. 
He then lit the end of a piece of rope with a magnifying glass, to create an ember to touch off and fire the cannon with.
After a loud boom and the smoke cleared, the soldier walked back up to the fort wall and looked beyond it, turned to the crowd and said with his hands two feet apart, "Missed 'em by this much." 
This building was originally built for a stable but was turned into a hospital during St. Augustine's Second Spanish Colonial Period, 1784-1821.
The Surgeon's Office was the next room we toured. On the table were many surgical instruments. Our tour guide told us how each instrument would have been used by the Spanish surgeon. There were amputation tools and a good surgeon could remove a limb in about three minutes. There were tools for tooth extraction, bullet removal and relieving pressure on the brain after a head injury (basically a drill and the same procedure is in use today).
The Ward Room was next. Sick and post-op patients used this room. One of the beds in the room was a Cholera bed. There was a strategically placed hole in the mattress with a chamber pot beneath it. On the wall was a huge, wooden crucifix from Portugal, dated from the 1600s.
The patients at this hospital had a decent survival rate. The Spanish surgeons and doctors were very hygienic. Our guide told us that is was due to the Moorish influence on Spain. The Moors would wash frequently (because of religious practices). This hospital had a better survival rate than did American hospitals 100 years later.
The final room on the tour held medical instruments and information from throughout the years.
We arrived at Embry-Riddle, watched as all 200 cadets were called, one at a time, to receive a certificate of graduation from the S.T.E.M. course they attended that week.
The story is told that the statue was aboard a cargo ship bound for the Port of St. Augustine and during the voyage the ship encountered a fierce hurricane. The Captain and crew feared all would be lost when the statue was brought up from the hold and they all prayed for their deliverance. The storm quieted and the cargo ship limped into port. The statue is hundreds of years old.
As we were at the lighthouse I got a phone call from my little sister. She and her husband would be passing through St. Augustine on their way to Savannah from Miami. They would be in town around lunchtime and would love to see us, have lunch and do a little sightseeing. We would love it too.
The Columbia Restaurant serves excellent Spanish and Cuban cuisine. J & J loved their lunch. The Colonel and I as well as Yam and Spud always enjoy eating at the Columbia Restaurant, especially at the original one in Ybor City in Tampa.
After the Castillo visit The Colonel parted ways, he had more research to conduct, so I took J & J on to the grounds of the Ripley Museum to see the statue of David and a four room house, carved from a huge redwood tree laid on its side. From there I took them to the Mission De Nombre De Dios to see the huge cross, the Our Lady chapel and the gift shop.
It was finally time for J & J to hit the road and continue their trip up to Savannah. We said our goodbyes and then I joined The Colonel at the research library.
