Before leaving I did have a conversation with Samantha at Lazydays and the roller that was supposed to be delivered yesterday never arrived, but we did get approval from the warranty company that they will pay for the repair but only for 3 1/2 hours of labor. Hopefully the repairs will be completed by Thursday or Friday, but that is not a guarantee! Time will tell.
I also talked to Noela and they were just arriving at their home in LaChute, Canada after a 2 month trip outwest. They had a great time and all went well! Later in the day Ernie called Ken for a brief chat. We will spend the winter with them at Harbor Lakes CG near Port Charlotte, FL.
The 4 of us headed into St. Augustine and spent time at the chapel, walking around the grounds and reading the plagues with lots of interesting history. The huge stainless steel cross is 208 feet, filled half way with concrete and weighs 70 tons - yes, it is massive!!!
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| A beautiful small chapel. |
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| It was to honor Mary, the mother of Jesus! |
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| St. Francis |
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| One of the stations of the cross! |
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| Father Lopez, who celebrated the 1st mass here at St. Augustine in 1565 stands at the base of the cross that was erected in 1965 marking the 400th anniversary of the approximate site of the 1st cross planted in the US! |
From there we went to the hour tour at Flagler College lead by 2 of their senior students. What an unbelievable masterpiece! The architecture and detail are incredible. Flagler built the building in the late 1800's as a hotel for the rich and famous. Back in 1885 it cost about $4,000. to stay there for 3 months.
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| Some interesting info! |
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| Gorgeous entrance |
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| Beautiful courtyard entrance! |
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| 12 spitting frogs for the months of the year and 4 spitting turtles for the 4 seasons! |
The chandeliers and the stained class windows were made by Mr. Tiffany from NY.
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| Many chandeliers through out the building! |
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| Lots of stained glass windows too! |
The entire hotel was completed in 18 months (unbelievable) and designed by 2 young gentleman who had just graduated from college. One of the architects went on to design the Metropolitan Opera House and the New York City Library. The paintings on most of the ceilings are enhanced with 23 carat gold leaf paint that is "mind blowing".
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| This is the rotunda in the lobby! |
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| The ceiling in the rotunda! |
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| Part of the ceiling in the Dining Room! |
Currently the building is a privately owned college and over 30 million dollars has been spent to maintain it. Tuition, room, and board is about $27,000./yearly which didn't seem bad for this day and age! The students eat their meals in the original ballroom sitting on chairs that are replicas of the original ones.
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| This is the student dining room! |
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| One of the original chairs! They used Spanish moss for the inside of the cushions, but people complained about bug bits from the jiggers! |
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| A reproduction! |
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| The woodwork and painting are amazing! |
Just a little more info - this mosaic floor was done by hand by 50 workers that worked everyday during the 18 months of construction just laying the tiles - hard to imagine! They even have 2 little designs on the floor that are intentionally not "perfect" because Mr. Flagler believed that only God was perfect and the building needed some imperfections!
It is a tour that is well worth the money!
From there we went to Publix to get pre-made salads and a rotiessiere chicken for dinner back at the resort. We were able to eat on our screened in balcony!
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| A nice place to have dinner! |
Then we spent the evening playing Hand and Foot (which the men won by a huge margin) and then a game of single deck Pinochle, won by the women. We called it a day around 9:30 and I did work on the blog. It was another great day!
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