St. Augustine

Even before we officially moved to Jacksonville, we were told by many people that we should take some time to explore St. Augustine once we got settled into Floridian life, so we decided to do just that over the weekend. After spending some time researching different things to do there, we were excited to see how much history is packed into the city! In grade school I remembered learning about all the great Spanish explorers to the New World like Ponce de Leon and Christopher Columbus; however, I had forgotten that during one of his many quests, Ponce de Leon found himself in St. Augustine searching for the Fountain of Youth. That, of course, was the first of many stops along our day trip to St. Augustine! There they had a 16 acres of grounds to explore as well as a few buildings with exhibits about Ponce de Leon and of course the famed "Fountain of Youth." The spring from which the Native Americans told him to drink from to gain eternal life is still there today, but it is now filtered. Unfortunately, shortly after his voyage to St. Augustine, he died of injuries on an island in the Carribean.

Our next stop after the Fountain of Youth was the Castillo de San Marcos. This was an old Spanish fort near the Fountain of Youth that was eventually captured by the British. Today you can walk around the fort to see various exhibits and watch reinactors dressed up in British military uniforms and fire their replica guns. This was also a neat site to visit, but the rising temperatures of the day seemed to make us zip through it a bit faster than we probably normally would have in order to seek shelter in the A.C. at the Ripley's Believe it Or Not Museum. Before we headed over there, though, we checked out some cute shops that were built to resemble an old historic downtown area. I was quite amused when we found a store there called "Junk." :) Anyway, after we did that and then went to the Ripley's Museum, we grabbed some yummy seafood at Barnacle Bill's and then headed back to Jacksonville. St. Augustine proved to be a city full of little treasures to visit! We'll definitely be heading back there some time to explore some more fun activities!


To see more of our pictures from the weekend, click here.