Sunday, September 28, 2008

Jacksonville FL



We have spent Wed - Sun in Jacksonville, Florda. Thursday we drove to St. Augustine, FL, U.S.'s oldest city. This city was settled in the 1500's by the Spanish. Ponce de Leon landed here, looking for the Fountain of Youth, which he found in St. Augustine. Roy and I had a drink from the fountain and are waiting for it to work. (picture of cistern of fountain) The average age of death of a European in Leon's time was 35. He lived until his 70s so I guess it worked??? We also visited an old jail from late 1800's that didn't close until l953 due to a lawsuit saying it didn't provide livable conditions. It had no toilets, no showers and no heating/cooling with open barred windows. The prisoners got one bath a week - one tub full of bath water for 72 prisoners to share (I think I would want to be first every week!). Saturday we went to the Florida State vs. Colorado State game in the Jacksonville Jaguar stadium (Roy got his masters from FSU). FSU won, but it wasn't a pretty game. The FSU mascot is the Seminoles. The opening of the game has a seminole indian ride bareback to the center of the field and place a burning spear in the center FSU emblem. Was pretty cool to watch. This was Bobby Bowden's (coach) 500th game at the same school.

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