December 17 2014 The US Post Office Building (1912) Fernandina Beach Florida

This post office, which is listed on the National Register, is actually scheduled to be closed.  
When I visited, there was only one clerk on duty, and a long line.  I did get a cancellation.  
Originally built in 1912.  

As it looked in 1912

Today 

The United States Post Office, Custom House, and Courthouse is an historic building of the United States government in Fernandina Beach, Florida. It was constructed in the locally popular Renaissance Revival architecture style, and was completed in 1912 under the supervision of James Knox Taylor, Supervising Architect of the United States Treasury Department. The building sits at the intersection of 4th and Centre Streets, across from another historic Court House (c. 1898), and adjacent to the pre-Civil War Victorian Lesesne House (c. 1859). It is three stories, comprising 18,800 square feet (1,750 m²), including a basement and a partial attic. The United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida met here until the creation of the Middle District in 1962, at which time the building entered use by the Middle District of Florida beginning in 1962. The facility was also in use as a post office during that entire period. Other federal offices vacated the building in the 1930s-1940s, with the post office remaining only on the first floor. Some second and third floor space was used commercially into the 1990s, but the condition of the structure and lack of elevators ultimately led to the end those uses.

In 1989, the building was listed in A Guide to Florida's Historic Architecture, published by the University of Florida Press.

Back at Greenwood.

Got safely home back to Greenwood at about 5 pm, so it's about a 7 hour trip, with lunch and potty breaks and one fuel stop. Not bad. The interior changes we made to the Greenwood apartment are excellent beyond our expectations. The new counter in the kitchen is perfect, and the new shelving and headboard in the bedroom are super! We spent some of the rest of the day moving back in, and then we stopped to rest.
Both grands and Tina are battling colds, and not feeling 100%. Cooper lost his basketball game today, but scored several baskets. Brandon starts his daily soccer practices next week, except for Fridays. It never ends!

Off to breakfast in the morning with our pals Bev and Dave. More moving in tomorrow and rearranging books.

When I got back, I discovered that my Amazon Kindle had arrived, yippee! I'll be studying that tonight and report tomorrow on progress.

The new black door-

Chore for the day for today was to get the door painted, which we collaborated on- after some coaching and help from Rich the painter, we managed to get the front door looking pretty well black, from its original sort of coral/pinkish color. Now the door will match the soon to be painted front shutters, which need a new coat of paint to spiff them up. that will be done on our return to Florida- don't want to rush things! Now we have to hope the lock hardware goes back in properly- We've bought a keyless entry system, but it's beyond my limited skills to install, so we'll get that added to Jimmy or Rich's list.

Correction- My bad

A valued reader pointed out a couple of errors in a previous post, Brandon goes to Westview Middle, not Westside, and I have learned that Brandon was one of only two, not three seventh graders to make the team, which makes it even more of an accomplishment! Thanks for the editing!!!

We are leaving early Saturday morning to return to Greenwood for a week or so to supervise house projects, get the taxes done, and pack up stuff to bring to the Coquina house. Then, a return trip to Florida, then a quick trip up to Atlanta at the end of the month for a mini family reunion at my brother Bill's.

Brandon makes the team!!

Got the news that Brandon made the soccer team at his Middle School, the Westside Trojans!! Way to go buddy! Only three seventh graders made it out of the 17 total guys on the team. Now, if we can get that college scholarship....... We'll try to make one of his games while we're in Greenwood. Also got to get to one of Cooper's basketball games..

Joe the dumbass salesman fails, we get a big win with the power folks

We got the shock of our life when our first power bill came Monday- For 13 days, it was $169.00! We called the power folks, who at first insisted we were wrong, and that the average bill for our house was $725.00 for the last two months. Long story short, they came out and re-read the meter at the house, rather than what it said at the office, and decided that we were overcharged for 1000 kw hours. Seems the meter does need recalibration, as we had originally thought. Anyway, big victory for us. Adjusted bill to follow, they say. We hope for about $50.

Against our hindsight, we agreed at one of our stops at Home Depot to be contacted at home by a company that offered to check our water( sell us a $10,000 water softening/purification/air filtration system. We sat through an hour and a half of the lousiest presentation I have ever seen, telling us what we already knew, we have hard water, lots of sediment, and a few other things, this after we had a statement from our water folks saying we had the best water in the nation, just about.... Tina and the boys did mention a high sulfur taste... well, the guy gets to the end of his canned presentation and we say not no, but hell no, and he gets all flustered, tries to continue, and I basically ordered him and his little test kit out of the house. Note to self, next visit to Wal-Mart, get one of those Brita filters we've seen on Biggest Loser. Gets the job done for maybe under a 100, not 10,000.

Bird ID corrected, thanks Gypsy!

Gypsy says this is a wood stork. Good for me, wood stork it is. Wish I had gotten a shot of the visiting vultures, maybe next time.

New concrete is in at Greenwood.. looks good!

Thanks to Tina, who sent this shot of the finished concrete edging that has been done on the pool area at the Greenwood house. Looks like a nice clean job. We also understand that as of today, they are starting the deck replacement also! Also glad to report Tina and the boys got home safely around 11 or so last night. We are planning to leave Florida Saturday for a week or so up at Greenwood to inspect the latest projects and get the taxes done, then return back to Coquina for the rest of March, before we head to Atlanta on the 27th for a family reunion at Bill's.

Latest visitor to the water room observatory

This specimen showed up this afternoon at the water, I'm thinking spoon-billed roseatte, but will have to lean on my friend Gyspy to confirm on her next blog visit. He/she was there at the same time as our ahina's ususal visit, so there was a minor territory dispute. We also had a huge flock of chicken vultures hanging out in the trees across the water today- Not sure what might have passed away over there, but didn't get a photo of that scene- it was pretty creepy.

To the top, well not for me.....

This morning, the boys decided that they would like to tour the St Augustine lighthouse, which they claim is the oldest in the United States. Got there, and it has 219 steps to the top of it. I was ruled out as a contender, so poor Miss Bette was elected as the escort. Surprisingly, poor Cooper almost pooped out on the climb, but they all made it, and have a certificate proving it. We then thought we would make our way to an estuary preserve up at Ponte Vedra, but the guys decided they would rather play bocce ball and swim. Afternoon naps for all, then we went up to Cracker Barrel for our Sunday dinner with the Kingstons, then stopped at the outlet malls for a bit so Cooper could get his Addidas bag like his brother got last night- Sadly, at about 5, the van pulled out with Tina and the boys on their way back to Carolina. We'll be seeing them at home by next weekend, though.

Visit to the St Augustine Alligator Farm

Pretty sure the boys will remember their visit to this venue. The Farm itself has been around forever, and while it's very pricey to visit, the boys totally enjoyed themselves. Yes, that's a live gator they are holding, it's mouth was taped shut for protection, but still, the experience is very real.

An example of some of the larger animals in the collection. There was something like 400 or so of the reptiles, including both gators and crocadiles, ranging from very tiny to these big boys. They have a natural "swamp" area built that has a terrific example of how life co-exitsts down here in the swamps.

In addition to all the reptiles, they also had monkeys, and lots and lots of beautiful birds on display. This is some sort of a toucan.

Got a pin for the collection, and the boys got lots of things to talk about- especially Cooper, his classes at school at home are discussing the various wildlife of Africa, so now he will be able to add much to the discussion, hopefully!

Guest Pelicans on the Pier today

Miss Bette captured these shots of some very pretty pelicans as they perched on the pier today- Also in evidence were several sea gulls, and lots of little brown birds and some black ones, who were very adept at stealing bait if you left it laying about. Note to self- get a bait bucket of some sort!

Fishing at the St John's County Pier at St Augustine Beach

From about 1030 to 1215 this morning, we tried out luck out on the pier- It was just a little cold, about 60 degrees, and the wind was up a bit, but it was tolerable, we all had shorts and sweatshirts on. Cooper did get a couple of strong bites, and the guys at the end of the pier did catch a couple of small fish, but mostly, we drowned our frozen shrimp. We learned very quickly that the local birds would come up and snatch your bait shrimp right out of your little pouch they sold you for bait, so we alternated watch on our bait!
After a couple of futile tries, the boys became pretty good at casting thier rigs. We rented some spin outfits, which I'm not overly fond of, preferring a regular rod and reel set up, but we managed. Cost about $15.00 for the three of us. Over 60 gets to fish and use the pier for free, if you have a rig and bait- Pretty darn sure I will be making several trips back down here to try my luck.

A trip to the Coquina Club House for swimming

First thing this morning, we headed over to the Clubhouse to go for a swim. I stayed in the hottub for the duration, the boys swam in the indoor pool as well as the hottub. Did some water arobics in the hottub, I swear!

Cooper's first journalisim effort

Bette took this shot, obviously! Cooper came over and asked if he could post on the blog, to which I said "of course!" He was a little tentative at first, but managed to post his thoughts, in an earlier post. Good job, little Boogie!

Nature study, for free!

To explain, this afternoon, the boys noticed our pet ahinga, or snake bird, or comorouant patrolling the water, looking for dinner. I explained that the bird was out hunting for his dinner, and sure enough, he dived, and came up with a six inch or so specimen, not sure what kind of fish it was, but here are the boys watching in awe, as the bird successfully snagged his catch, then went through the process of eating it on the fly, well actually, on the swim. His throat got all distended, as the fish was larger than his gullet, but the bird perservered, and did an outstanding job of providing a great live nature lesson for the boys. They would rather see a live gator, which they haven't yet, but this was a pretty good show. Think they were fair for impressed.

Here we are, walking along the seawall on our way to Santa Maria, which is in the background, for dinner tonight. That's Brandon being the daredevil, not sure where Coop was, and Bette and Tina too.
We met up with the Kingstons, and had a delightful, if a little pricey dinner. I had pasta and Bette had Chicken Parmisian. The boys are at the wall, feeding the seagulls with day old bread through the trap doors, which is a feature of this restaurant, as I had previously blogged. Cooper is wearing his flashy new Carolina hat, have to get a close up of that beauty.

Big doings at the fort with Cooper and Brandon

We had planned to just do shopping on St George Street today, then go to the beach for Cooper, but we learned that they were having the cannon demonstration at Castillo de San Marcos National Monument today- turns out they do it on Fridays and Saturdays, we had thought just on Saturdays- anyhow, off we went to see the firing, after lunch- They for sure fired it! A blank, but they fired it.

This is cooper and I love the cannon. It was so so loud and i covered my ears.

Brandon full of energy

Shot as we were walking down St. George street today while shopping. The boys got some sunglasses, Coop got a lighted Gamecocks hat, Brandon got a sharks tooth necklace and a ring-

Sittin on the dock on the bay..

Shot this of the boys looking out from the fort today- It wasn't posed, promise! Up early this morning, then to Dunkin Doughnuts for breakfast, then to Wal Mart for a cart full, then to downtown for a full day of shopping and we had lunch at a Mexican restaurant. Then we got back to Coquina, then the boys went to the clubhouse for both indoor and outdoor swimming. We're about ready to head on over to the Kingstons then out to Santa Maria for dinner, and then the gang wants to go to the outlet mall up at exit 318. Full day....