People Watching

Scenes from St. Augustine -- Look! It's Patrick and Cody! Patrick is the horse (he's a retiree from an Amish farm up north) and Cody was our fabulously wry, witty guide for ghostly carriage ride. This was sooooo much fun. I've always wanted to do one of St. Augustine's famous carriage rides, but we were always a) too busy or b) on a shoestring budget when we went.

I'm not sure if it's the writer in me or not, but I love people watching. I look at everything--how they dress, how they move, how they talk, how they interact. (Then, usually, I get caught staring and they give me weird looks. I don't mean to stare, I just get drawn into them.) While we were visiting SA, I was surrounded by people watching opportunities. People come from all over to visit. I do mean all over, because the DH and I picked out the following languages around us: Portugese, Spanish, Russian, Greek, Vietnamese and Japanese. You heard accents from all over the United States (and some British accents). Families, couples, friends.

Some of my favorites:

1) The three teachers on vacation together who were on our Ghost Trolley tour. Oh my God, they were hilarious. One was the DD and two had indulged in a few too many martinis, but they were so much fun. They were having fun and you wanted to be drawn into their good time.

2) The young family atop the Castillo de San Marco. The dad was valiantly trying to get his 2-3 year old daughter to drink water and stay hydrated. They were just sweet.

3) The honeymooners we saw on a different night in front of the Castillo. They were taking photos of the sign, canoodling, celebrating being in love. Very, very cute.

4) Watching the local teenagers hang out on St. George Street on Friday night was interesting. They were really different from our local teens (not in a bad way, just different). Actually, all of the local were interesting, from the 1960's hippie guy who hangs out on St. George to the street performers, to the guys who sit in front of the local hangout bars and hollered to Cody as we passed on the carriage ride. Oh, the stories behind all those locals . . .

I think what I liked the most, and what I sometimes crave when I go on my binges about wanting to live down there, is the sheer level of diversity. There's not a lot of that here, although you get into social and class and color differences that lead to tension.

What about you? Are you a watcher? Or a watchee?