HOLIDAY
Bright White Night-Lights
ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA
With its regal palm trees and Spanish architecture, St. Augustine by day already feels grand. But from the weekend before Thanksgiving through January, for Nights of Lights, glowing soft-white bulbs line every building, tree, and lamppost, illuminating and transforming the oldest city in America. “When we started twenty-six years ago, it was just in the small epicenter of town, and now we install three million lights every year,” says Chris Fitts of Angels in the Architecture, a local lighting company that the city contracts to orchestrate the annual display. Based on the ancient Spanish holiday tradition of placing a candle in an open window, the historic district’s light show encourages restaurants, shops, trolley rides, and ghost tours to stretch on into the night. Perceptive onlookers will notice a discrepancy, though: Fitts screws in one red light each week, with clues to its location hidden in nautical coordinates, star patterns, and historical trivia on his Facebook page. But to see the bigger picture, you’ll have to step back. The best views, residents will tell you, are from the top of the lighthouse on Anastasia Island, on the bayfront near Castillo de San Marcos, or from the Bridge of Lions, which Fitts crosses each evening on his commute to check the lights. “It really is magical, but I can’t take all the credit,” he says. “I have the most beautiful canvas in the world.” floridashistoriccoast.com
CONSERVATION
Alabama
SURVIVAL OF THE SLIMIEST
The Black Warrior waterdog isn’t your average amphibian
