Delightful Morning at Mission San Luis in Tallahassee

Tuesday morning, we headed into Tallahassee knowing we just had a day to see things so we had to choose. Based on our Internet research, we decided that Mission San Luis would be an interesting choice.

The Indians in this area were the Apalachee, the most powerful and advanced natives in Florida. They had chiefs who inherited their positions and priests. The Spanish came to Florida and San Luis was established about 1633 by two Franciscan friars, Pedro Munoz and Francisco Martinez. Soldiers soon followed. Intermarriage was common and the Apalachee adopted many of the European customs while retaining their own.

When we arrived, we were surprised to see a very modern building.

This wasn't the mission itself but a museum of various artifacts, not all of which were from the Apalachee.

There was information about the discovery and excavation of the area.

The mission was never actually lost so it didn't have to be "found". The buildings disappeared but the local population was very aware of the mission location.

We left the museum/visitor's center portion and went out the back doors.

This is a map of the Apalachee-Spanish Living History Museum.

This is a recreation of the Apalachee Council House. It was huge. The walls were native palmetto grasses.

The economy was good due to trade.

The whole village was built on a very elevated part of the area providing good security.

The homes of the Indians were also round.

This is one of the entrances to the Council House. You can see how large it was. The entrances were designed to be low so that those that entered were in a humble position.

The inside had platforms all around for visitors to relax and rest. This building could hold 2000 to 3000 people.

The docent in the Council House was very knowledgeable. Visitors were very few the day we were there so she had plenty of time.

The top center of the building was open.

Intermarriage was very common. The Apalachee felt it improved the status of their women.

Spanish buildings were rectangular.

While the Apalachee dwellings were all one room, the Spanish houses were generally divided into a couple of different areas.

This beautiful house was in the middle of the whole area leading us to believe the area was probably the home of someone very wealthy who donated the property. It is now used by staff of San Luis for different purposes.

This is stacked bamboo being stored for some future purpose.

 This building is where the archeologists work on pieces found on the site.

Next up was the village forge.

There was another docent there to tell us all about blacksmithing during that time period. He was making nails the old fashioned way.

The big box is the forge. The blacksmith is working the bellows to build up the fire for working with the metal.

Here you can see the flames.

Behind the blacksmith shop was the fort.

It was surrounded by logs.

The inside of the fort had a large building with a dirt floor.

One of the docents was dressed for the time and prepared to tell us all about life of the soldiers.

This was one of the storage rooms.

He opened the armory and showed us weapons of the time.

 

Another soldier showed up and told us all about his life at the fort.

 Next we went on to the priests quarters.

This is their kitchen area with the stove behind Carolyn.

The dining area would have held a number of people easily.

Beds were rather spartan.

A display of local plants used for health purposes.

We never figured out what this was. It was inside the worship area for the priests.

Taken out of the window. It was a beautiful tulip tree in bloom.

The church for everyone else was large.

We found it very interesting that the cemetery was apparently under the church floor.

Baptismal font.

We spent the whole morning at San Luis Mission and really enjoyed it. It was a great choice.

Next we were ready for lunch. Carolyn asked one of the staff in the Visitor's Center for a local recommendation. She told us about several and we picked Kool Beanz Café. It took us several trips around the block before we could find  a place long enough to hold Carolyn's big diesel but we finally got a spot right in front.

We had a choice of sitting in a semi-outside patio or inside. We chose inside so we could see more. You could see the chefs cooking from out table.

 The menu is just a sheet of paper because it changes all the time depending on local produce and the chef's choices. We couldn't decide between one of their salads and a plate so we asked if we could split both.....no problem. The salad we chose was "Baby kale, spinach, grape tomatoes, egg, croutons, and creamy pesto dressing. The waitress brought it out in two separate large bowls....glad we were splitting. Then we had the "Pork tender cutlet, apple butter, bacon and cabbage, and German potato salad. It came with extra plates for each of us. Again it was more than enough and really good.

We really enjoyed our lunch and considered ourselves very lucky to have asked for a recommendation that turned out to be really great.

We had a bit more time in the afternoon and drove around to see the area. We considered several museums but found parking to be a problem as really big trucks don't fit well in garage style parking.

 In the end, we decided to head back to the park and just relax outside and enjoy it. It was also a very good choice.