St. Augustine – Pirate Day

The parrot was real

After a morning of planning the rest of our trip to Stuart, we headed in to see the pirates! They had a pirate battle planned at noon which finally occurred an hour later (on pirate time we were told). Both sides had cannon and muskets which they fired profusely. Lots of loud bangs and smoke in the air. The pirates charged and even fought with swords. Some were “wounded” and fell to the ground. After a few minutes, one got thirsty so he drank out of his flask before resuming being dead.

Jack Sparrow?

It was all great fun but the best part were the costumes. They were judged on the authenticity of the outfits with prizes to be awarded. We liked the one that looked like Jack Sparrow and another one with a live parrot on his shoulder.

Lighthouse

We took the shuttle to see the lighthouse built in the late 1800’s and one of us took the hike up to the top. Strangely, it’s not directly on the ocean but set back behind another river. It’s visible for 27 miles and 176 ft tall. Some idiot put a rifle shell through the lens in 1986 so now it has bulletproof glass all around.

Intermittently dead pirate

We walked all around St. Augustine in the afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed the town, it’s a great place to visit – they know how to appreciate visitors.