Pirates and Spaniards and tourists, oh my!

I'm starting to see that there might be a downside to living right in the big middle of everything here.  For a bit of background you should know that parking in the historic part of town is horrible, as expected.  There was no allowance for cars back in the 1500's and 1600's when this stuff was built.  The quaint, narrow, cobbled streets are a challenge for me in my diesel pickup.  Since parking is at a premium, you can imagine that our walled in, gate accessed parking is quite a perk.  Problem is we have only one space and we have a princess in the family.  I typically park on the other side of the district in the parking garage because, well, its just easier that way.  This morning after running a few errands I was ready to park it for the day, but the traffic on Highway 1 was terrible.  This did not bode well.  Turns out there is a seafood festival this weekend and it is in the field across the street from the parking garage which, sadly, was full.  As I crept by in traffic, the festival looked a lot like the taste of Chicago festival - funnel cakes, corny dogs, turkey legs and lots of questionable rides operated by what appear to be homeless people.  I suppose there may have been some seafood for sale somewhere in the mix, but I opted not to partake.

Since the princess of the family is in Jacksonville for the day on business, I decided to park at home - temporarily of course.  I walked across to Mojo's for some bbq lunch and on the way back I ran into this in the plaza.

As you can see they are completely blocking my passage back home down St. George.  They are in front of the old Spanish government house.  The video is looking south down St. George, two blocks away from Artillery Lane.  I passed a lady who was dressed in period costume who told me that this would be a re-enactment of a 1668 retaliatory raid by the pirate, Robert Searle.  I moved on down to Aviles and as I approached the corner of Artillery Lane I heard drums and then a very loud boom.  I came to the corner to see the lane engulfed in smoke and pirates right outside my home!

I continued down Aviles and looped the block to come down Artillery Lane from the other direction.  The pirates had moved on down to Aviles.  I ran upstairs and got the muttsky who was very scared from all the loud noises.  We ran out and back up Aviles to the plaza and got to see some strange goings on.

This went on for a while until the Spanish retreated to the north up St. George toward the city gates.  Sable told me that she had enough of the loud noises so she and I retreated back home.

So now you too can get a feeling of what its like to battle your way through the tourists just to get to the other side of the historic district.  I'm thinking I need to shop around for a nice sword since the muttsky is not fond of the guns.