Monday,
January 29, 2018
World
Golf Village
St.
Augustine, Florida
60 F
Judy
is a great organizer – we headed to A1A for lunch at Reef restaurant on Vilano Beach for fresh shrimp, the very best
French fries, and a wonderful view of the Atlantic Ocean. The tide was out, and the waves were rushing the shore.
She had
also purchased tickets for a tour of Dressing Downton, Changing Fashion for
Changing Times, a fantastic inside look at 36 exquisite costumes and their
accessories from the PBS series, Downton Abbey. Since the Lightner museum had
so many period pieces, their exhibit included settings for the time which
totally augmented the exhibit.
British World War I Uniform
After
that tour, we had a personal behind the scenes tour of the Lightner Museum,
formerly the Alcazar Hotel, built in 1888 by Henry Flagler. The Alcazar was
originally for very wealthy guests with new money and Flagler’s Casa Monica,
just across the street, was for guests with old money. Casa Monica is now the
home of Flagler College. Our guide gave us detailed information about Henry
Flagler, oil magnate, who had a vision for Florida as a vacation destination
for wealthy people and built a railroad with that in mind [that is the short
version]. Louis Comfort Tiffany was the interior designer. I was especially
intrigued by the indoor pool, 12 ½ feet deep, that is now a restaurant. I took
a picture from the balcony overlooking the pool/now restaurant. Our guide told
us that in days past guests would be dressed for formal balls that took place
on the 3rd floor, then afterwards walk down to the 2nd
floor and dive into the pool with gowns and tuxes on! That is my idea of fun.
Pool area, now a dining room, photo taken looking down from the 2nd floor balcony
The
Alcazar had a Russian bath (hot showers) and a Turkish bath area (dry heat), 4th
floor rooms for the employees [they stayed from about the end of November through
March—the season], electricity, bowling alley, ladies’ lounge, and more to
attract the wealthy guests from the north seeking warm weather during winter time.
Alcazar, St. Augustine, Florida today--now the Lightner Museum
The museum had more collections and TK and I focused on the glass, Tiffany, Fenton, and more.
Mostly Tiffany
A fabulous epergne
Judy did
a fantastic job of selecting restaurants and tonight we went to Salt Life Food Shack right off St. Augustine
beach, and a fantastic view of the Atlantic Ocean and the intercoastal seaway.
Salt Life Food Shack
Tonight we watched Notting Hill, a comedy that Judy
especially liked. It was definitely lighter than the movie we watched Sunday
night, Downfall, a German movie with English subtitles about the last
ten days of Adolf Hitler’s life. Downfall, which came out in 2004 and
was nominated for an Oscar, is partly based on the story of Traudl Junge, Hitler’s final secretary.
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