This live oak tree is purported to be over 600 years old. 600 hundred years old!!! That means it was happily growing in this very spot (the parking lot of a Howard Johnson's Inn) in 1513 when Juan Ponce de Leon was tromping around amongst the palmettos and gators looking for the Fountain of Youth. I like to think old Ponce spent a few nights at this very same HoJo's, sitting in these comfy chairs, checking his messages and planning the rest of his trip.
And of course the tree has a name - meet The Old Senator. Apparently, it is quite common to name old trees (who knew?).
Among others, there is the Dueling Oak in New Orleans, 300 years old; the Angel Oak on John's Island, South Carolina, 1500 years old; the Seven Sisters Oak in Louisana, 1000 years old, and Treaty Oak in Jacksonville, 250 years old.
Of course we poked around Castillo de San Marcos. I do love old forts and this one had lots of nooks and crannies and so much masonry work.
And big boomie guns.
You will notice the low-ish height of the upper gundeck's outer walls - not an area you'd want kids running around - there is I'd guess a 40-foot drop down into the center courtyard. In fact, there are signs all over the place about "closely supervising young children." So can you imagine trying to supervise this crew, circa 1937.
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Aaacckkkkk!!! Of course, my Dad is sitting on the wall. I imagine he's already been leaning over the side - Uncle Chuck too, I'm sure. Grandmom (Miriam Clark DeHart) is closely supervising Aunti Lib, who is closely supervising her baby doll.
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[Doug, Grandpop (Charles T. DeHart), Chuck]
Chuck says they traveled to Florida around Christmas-time two years in a row, 1937-38 and 1938-39, in a 1936 Plymouth sedan - no interstates and no travel troubles either except to dodge open-range cows and pigs in the road throughout Georgia and Florida.
I'm so glad we have these photos.
So here I am, about 76 years later (!). No stairway to the lookout in 2013, however.
Ha! Jim stepped all the way inside, but all you can see are his lovely white socks.
We also strolled through the National Cemetery. We gawked at all the cool turn-of-the-century architecture. I had a slight fit when we entered the area of "shoppes" - Claudia Ann does not do shopping, especially amidst extra-large tourists who are loud, rude, unhappy and wear perfume and aftershave. We made a quick escape and found a quiet dockside restaurant for dinner on the Matanzas River.
So this was our anniversary road trip -- as in 40 freaking years of married life anniversary, thank you very much. It's a big deal, n'est-ce pas? We only stayed away one night because we are big home babies. We made the good decision to drive up the coast road (A1A) from Daytona. Such a nice drive up and back - no traffic and great ocean viewing.
I really will try to keep this updated. Really. Pinky-swear. --cds
