Heading North up the Atlantic coast

After Orlando, we started heading home, but not by the most direct route, of course. First stop was St. Augustine.
 

We camped at Faver-Dykes State Park, which is 15 miles southeast from St. Augustine. It felt like we were deep in the swamp.  We sort of expected alligators to come check us out, but didn't see any.

St. Augustine is the oldest continually occupied European settlement in the U.S.; Ponce De Leon landed here in 1513. It was guarded by a Spanish fortress, Castillo del San Marcos, which was built in 1672. The fortress is shown here with its cannons overlooking the inland waterway.
 

The heart of the old city is St. George St. It was neat to stroll along.  The Spanish Quarter Village had an interesting set of restored and reconstructed buildings dating from about 1740.
 

Next stop was Savannah, Georgia. We took a bus tour of the historic part. This is the childhood home of Juliet Gordon Low, who founded the Girl Scouts. The property is owned currently by the Girl Scouts and they give a very nice tour.
 

After Savannah, we went to Charleston, South Carolina, where we wandered around on foot looking at old mansions. This home had some appeal to us since we lived for 30 years on Rutledge St. This is the home of John Rutledge, who was President of South Carolina when it was a republic, one of the signers of the U.S. Constitution, a governor of the state, and Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.  He built the house in 1763, now it is a rather pricey bed and breakfast. It is not open to public tours, but they let us see a couple of formal rooms on the first and second floors.
 

Now it was time to head more directly towards home. Click here to go to the next page.