September 2013 Super Vacation Part 1: St Augustine, Florida

Finally!

The super terrific amazing vacation we've been planning and looking forward to for six months finally arrived!

We got in the car around 8:00 AM and approximately six minutes later Will asked, "Um, so what're we having for lunch?"

Our first stop was St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest continuously occupied city in contiguous North America (say that five times fast)!

What a neat city.  The uptown historic district is a lot like Charleston, SC, with waaaaay narrower streets and what feels like 10 times more restaurants, bars and B&Bs per block.

Scott and I promised each other that we'd go back again someday - without the kids - so we can wander properly and enjoy all the sites.

There were two big highlights in St. Augustine:

1. We arranged to meet some friends from home for dinner as they were staying in SA on their way to Orlando the same time we were.  We had a lovely dinner at a new little restaurant and enjoyed hanging out with familiar faces in a new place.

Dinner with the Striplin family!

2.  The Castillo De San Marcos. If you have the opportunity, I highly suggest visiting this National Park.   They were able to fire the cannon on the day we visited and that was really fun to watch and hear!

 

Right off the bat the kids worked on their park booklets so they could earn their Jr. Park Ranger badges by the time we left.

 The water front views from the top of the Castillo were amazing.

 The dry moat around the castle.

 The city skyline views weren't half bad either!

 Preparing to begin the cannon firing ceremony.

 Ka-boom!

They did the work and earned their badges!

After a lovely 20 hour stop in St. Aug, we drove down to Cocoa Beach and had a lovely walk on the beach.

 And ended the day with a beautiful Florida sunset.