Scribble World Travel Blog

St. Augustine, FL Lighthouse and Ghost Train

We toured the historic St. Augustine lighthouse located at 81 Lighthouse Ave, Saint Augustine, FL 32080 where we climbed the 14 stories worth of stairs to get up to the very top.  Admission was $8/adult.

I was sadly amused by the huffing and puffing coming from some of the younger kids as they braced the rail and slowly chugged up the lighthouse steps one laborious step after another, complaining all the while about how tough it was. They’re just kids-much too young to be out of energy this early in life, huffing and puffing like old decrepits.

The view from the top is worth seeing. There is also a museum down below where you can learn more about the early days of the Lighthouse.

We rode The Red Train around historic downtown St. Augustine  for an interesting and informative ride.  We saw many historic buildings and interesting looking museums and planned to cram as many as possible in the next day.  It would probably be ideal to spend at least 3 days to take in the many sites.

That night, we signed up for the Ghost Train Ride, which departed from the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Museum on a trolley, after dark.  We were first taken to the Fountain of Youth where we walked around on a guided tour.

I had a strange experience approaching the spot where I think we were told an old Indian Chief had been buried. I was too preoccupied by what I was seeing- a group of dark shadowy figures moving in around us-to hear all the details. My first thought was that they weren’t real, but part of a setup to scare us…so there I was, waiting for the screams-but to my surprise and consternation, no one ever did.  In fact, no one said a word about it, and our Guide began encouraging us to take pictures.  That was eerie, I couldn’t believe I had been the only one to see them.  They were so real!  Of course, by the time I asked Chris, they were no longer there and he just smiled at me in quizzical amusement. I kept an eye out for them, wanting proof that I hadn’t imagined it, but they didn’t return.  So did I see real ghosts? Or was my imagination just getting the better of me?

We were encouraged to take pictures and be on the lookout for circular spots on our pictures as those were considered “orbs”- a sign of an energy presence. Next we were taken to an old cemetery where hundreds of people had died of yellow fever and were buried in mass unmarked graves beneath our feet, and we listened to interesting stories about some of the n’er do wells of the era.

We returned to Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Museum for an inside after hours tour with more ghost stories.  That was probably the coolest part of the night-just hanging back and listening to the stories and feeling energy.  Of course they were trying to scare us, talking about a fire that took place there in the 1940′s and how two women died, but not necessarily from the fire…and how sometimes you can still see one walking around at night.  The guy giving the tour sounded pretty spooked by it all and talked about the average tour guide lasting less than 6 months before getting too spooked to work there anymore.

It was fun using the little energy detectors-and it did have a unique and unusual feel to it.  For me, it was a harmless feeling of energy, but to others it was something more ominous and scary and they were happy to get out of there.  All in all, a memorable and interesting day.