St. Augustine Anniversary

Hi all,
 We are enjoying ourselves playing tourist. We spent the weekend exploring St. Augustine known as the oldest city in America. It was established in 1565 when Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles landed with hundreds of colonist. The city is known as having the first hospital, first Catholic Parish church, and the first city government to name a few. Exploring St. Augustine is not only a great history lesson but an experience of early life on the coast.

  Fort Castillo de San Marcos constructed in 1672 still exist as one of the oldest standing structures in North America. Built by the Spanish as a military warehouse and refuge for the townspeople. Walls that measure 14 to 19 feet thick were made of over 400,000 blocks of coquina stone cut and set by hand. Coquina is a limestone blended with different coral and seashell.

 Touring other areas of St. Augustine included old narrow streets of brick lined with neat shops and restaurants. We did this on Sunday celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary. We stopped and listened to some local musicians while enjoying a celebratory beverage (or two). Good thing the trolley was handling the driving today.

 The Trolley was a good way to explore also as they narrate a 23 stop tour of the city. As parking is extremely difficult in the area it is the way to go.
 To backtrack a bit we had learned earlier that while here a seafood festival was going to take place. Well without a doubt something we were sure going to take part in. It was a nice festival and though the weather was a bit on the cool side it turned out to be a nice day. We enjoyed some music especially one band Lonesome Bert and the Skinny Lizards that played their own music a folksy blend of local tales.

 This week has been just more relaxing at the beach. We found a lightly used beach north of the city that offered some nice unobstructed beach views. We talked to a local fisherman a bit and he showed us what to look for to find sharks teeth. We spent the next day doing the shark tooth stoop and were rewarded with over 50 finds.