Good-bye St. Augustine

As much as we'd like to spend 3 more days in St. Augustine we have to leave tomorrow. This is an interesting old city with something different to explore every day. The historic district encompasses 144 square blocks and contains 34 buildings on the National Registry of Historic Place. St. Augustine has also been named one of the ten Most Walkable City in America.

Founded in 1565 as a Spanish military outpost, it's the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the US. Traces of the city's Spanish heritage are everywhere. We toured the battlement and dungeons of Castillo de San Marcos National Monument built in 1672 making it one of the oldest standing structures in America. The star-like outline of the Castillo is formed by diamond-shaped projections at each corner of the fort; this design eliminates blind spots for the guards in the sentry boxes at each point.

Vi in one of the sentry boxes

Phil with one of the "big guns"

Then we wandered the narrow old streets of San Agustin Antiquo which depicts Spanish Colonial life. The oldest wooden schoolhouse in America is located here. As well as the oldest street in America, Aviles St., sometimes referred to as the Bourbon Street of St. Augustine. And the oldest surviving home in the city was built circa 1706.

St. George Street is a narrow street lined with many specialty shops and restaurants. This is a “pedestrian only” street packed with tourists everyday.

We saw the Columbia Restaurant but we'd already had lunch so we didn't get to try it.

An added attraction for boaters is one of the best nautical consignment stores on the east coast. You can wander around in it for hours and not begin to see all the “stuff” they have.

As busy as we were and as much as we've seen there is still lots more to do. Maybe next year.