Travel With The Thayers: #83 Anastasia Island

Sunday November 10, 2019

The Bridge of Lions offers one way to visit Anastasia Island from St. Augustine. We went to the island to explore the St. Augustine Lighthouse and Museum. The lion sculptures stand guard at each side of the bridge.

The complex turned out to have more to explore than expected. Of course guests enter and exit through the gift shop.

The trails meanders through a Maritime Hammock of stabilized beach dunes that allow for larger growth trees. The path leads to the lighthouse. Here garden plants are growing in whisky barrels. The flags honored Veteran’s Day which is tomorrow.

The lighthouse presented a majestic view when standing just below it.

The oil used for the lamp had to be hauled up the 219 lighthouse steps. The oil bucket held 5 gallons of fuel and weighed about 30 pounds. An interactive display let you try to lift the weight. Very hard to do!

The light keepers office ad workroom held a variety of things to explore.

The 219 stairs to the top of the lighthouse held an interesting design. The circular metal staircase rose to the top and gave visitors a fascinating pattern from below. Lynn and I chuckled at the sign to help ensure safety.

The inevitable guys at the top of the lighthouse shot.

The stately keeper’s home faced the lighthouse. Part of the house tells the story of Loyal British subjects leaving after the American Revolution and sailing for Britain. A storm hit and sank the people and all their possessions. Archaeologists have found some of their goods.

Here is one explanation of what was found.

Like many lighthouse quarters the house is set up for more than one family. On the other side of the structure is the recreation of this home.

We went upstairs expecting to see bedrooms, but found a large open area with a display about Mike Salvador. He was stranded in Georgia and then went on to develop a better way to catch, preserve and market shrimp.

The path then led beyond the house to the Heritage Boatworks where a Museum Boat Building team works to preserve the wooden boatbuilding that began over 400 years ago.

These little cuties caught our eye, and mom gave us permission to take some photographs.

The Tin Pickle offers food to visitors. The building used to be a Coast Guard maintenance garage.

This structure housed the Coast Guard while the lightkeeper still lived here.

The last building housed a model of the first lighthouse

The repair of this Fresnel lamp was quite a feat.

Model boats ringed the room. The Golden Hind belonged to Sir Francis Drake.

Fascinating to see so many in one place. For you boat lovers, here are more of the ships.

We left the lighthouse and headed for the St. Johns County Pier. The only way to access the pier was through the bait shop and for a price.

Waves rolled into the shore on the north side.

Surfers populated the water on the south side, hoping to catch that special wave.

The pier jutted out quite a ways into the ocean. Lots of people were fishing off its sides.

The boards of the boardwalk made interesting reading. Apparently you can purchase a plank and have your message carved into it.

These covered benches are perfect for sitting and watching the water. However, Derrille was reading the boardwalk and ran right into the corner of the roof. It put a vertical gash in his forehead. We did first aid there. But after we got home, we went to prompt care to have the wound looked at. Prompt care would not touch Derrille because it was a head wound and he is on Zarelto. They sent us to the Hospital ER where they glued the gash together. In ten days he was as good as new!