We stayed in Cocoa Beach on Florida's Atlantic coast for two nights. After arriving on our first night, we contacted our friend Alice Black who lives in Rockledge. She and her husband Bud moved back there from Suquamish about 20 years ago after he retired. We had a wonderful time visiting with her, first at her home and then over dinner at a nearby restaurant. We spent about five hours together and every minute was full of story telling and remembering good times and laughing.
The next day we went to the Kennedy Space Center. It is an amazing complex and we spent 8 hours there, taking it in. We went to the "rocket garden", the Apollo center that held a Saturn rocket as well as a lunar vehicle and moon rocks, a launch pad, a conversation with an astronaut, a great simulator developed by several astronauts that creates real launch sensations, and several movies, including 2 IMAX presentations. It was a very full day but very interesting and rewarding. I have a whole new respect and admiration for the astronauts' courage.
On Sunday we began our drive north and then made a stop in St. Augustine, the oldest continually occupied city in the country. It was first settled by the Spanish and our first stop was the historic fort that guarded the city where we watched a cannon firing exhibition. We also wandered down George Street, a pedestrians-only road, and enjoyed a delicious lunch. In all, we spent several hours enjoying the mix of Spanish, English and American influences before continuing our drive on to Savannah, one of the queen cities of the old South.
Once having arrived in Savannah, we spent our first night enjoying a great dinner at the Chart House restaurant (I had shrimp and grits, one of the staples of southern cooking) which is located in the oldest cotton warehouse in the city. The next day, yesterday, we started with a sightseeing trolley ride. It was a hop on/hop off tour. We saw several old homes and other buildings but the first stop that we hopped off for was Juliette Gordon Low's home. As some of you know, she was the founder of the Girl Scouts in the United States. The Girl Scouts now own the home and conduct tours through it. We took the tour and I learned some facts about her that I didn't know; she was an excellent painter and artist in general although she had very little formal training and she felt very much a failure after she and her husband divorced and she was childless. Happily, she met Lord Baden-Powell in England and he inspired her to start Girl Guiding in the US.
We also stopped at the city market and river front market for some browsing. By this time it was mid afternoon and quite warm - high 80s - so we went back to our hotel for a rest before our dinner cruise on the Savannah river. We were so glad that we had booked it! Dinner was a buffet, but unlike some, the food was plentiful and delicious. The entertainment for the evening was a gospel choir and they were excellent! The cruise was 2 hours and they sang for most of that time. We all enjoyed singing along and clapping to the familiar tunes and listening appreciatively to the ones we didn't know.
This morning we had another wonderful experience. We went to the First African Baptist church (if we remember correctly, the first African/black church in the country) for a tour. This church was begun in the 1700s and the building was built by slaves after their work hours were done. As you can tell, it has an amazing history. One of the most interesting parts is the role it played in the Underground Railroad, the escape route north for slaves prior to the Civil War. There was a tunnel dug from the church to the river and it could hold up to 200 people at once. Holes were drilled in the flooring of the fellowship hall in the basement to allow air to enter the tunnel. It was never discovered during that era and in fact today no one is sure where the entry was at the church or where the exit was by the river.
Before we left Savannah, we also visited an old mansion. It is where Gen. Sherman stayed, at the invitation of the owner, while the Union Army occupied Savannah. This Mr. Green, an Englishman by birth, wanted to curry favor with the Yankee commander so that the city wouldn't be burned. They also became friends and Sherman visited at least once after the war.
Photos: our friend Alice Black and me, Jon and I with the astronaut who we heard speak, the back end of a Saturn rocket, Snoopy and space, firing the cannon at the fort at St. Augustine, Juliette Gordon Low's home in Savannah, and the gospel choir on our dinner cruise.
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