St Augustine, FL

St Augustine is the oldest city in the United States, established in 1565. We spent the month of November camping on the beach just south of St Augustine. We felt a little strange wearing shorts in November after living in Wisconsin for the previous 28 years, but we got over it. It was fantastic to walk out of our camper and down to the water in a couple of minutes. Butler Beach, where we stayed, is a beautiful, wide, white sand beach, perfect for walking.

Our beach was also a great place to watch the sun rise.

The sunrises were so good I’ll put two of them in.

Snowy egrets did some serious fishing and also would fight over the catch.

Snowy egret coming in for a landing on a bad hair day.

Ospreys also got in on the fishing action. I learned it is really difficult to follow an osprey with my camera as it dives into the water to catch a fish! This one just caught a fish and is pulling it out of the water.

Brown Pelicans were a common sight cruising along the water’s edge looking for a meal. Their populations have dramatically recovered since the pesticide DDT was banned, and in 2009 Brown Pelicans were removed from the Endangered Species List.

Construction of Castillo de San Marcos began in 1672 and was completed in 1695. It was in service and repeatedly updated, first for Spain, then England, and finally the United States, until 1933. It was built of coquina stone quarried from islands offshore of St Augustine. Coquina is a sedimentary rock composed of fragments of small seashells and invertebrates. It worked great for a fort of this era because coquina is capable of absorbing the force of canon balls without breaking.

Sleeping quarters were pretty rough. Two soldiers shared each bed, which was a straw mattress complete with fleas and various other critters, to ensure a lousy night’s sleep.

Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve is located along the coast between St Augustine and Jacksonville. It is all forest and estuaries. We went for a hike looking for birds. We saw some pelicans and Ospreys, but not along our hike.

Along our hike we did find a Peninsula Ribbon Snake rather than the birds we were after.

One of the prominent local landmarks is the Bridge of Lions over the Matanzas River, named for the two lions at each end of the bridge.

Florida Christmas Tree?

Nights of Lights is an annual event in St Augustine where the Historical District is decorated with white lights from Thanksgiving week through the end of January. It adds a festive air to the area.

One of the restaurants near the waterfront during Nights of Lights.

St Augustine was a lot of fun. We visited with my cousin Susan Stiles, her family, and her mom, my Aunt Audrey. We also had dinner with Joe and Sandy Burghardt (friends from our West Virginia days) and caught up on several decades of life. I haven’t written much about visiting friends and relatives and am going to do more of that. We enjoy visiting with folks with whom we have shared parts of our lives and look forward to doing more of it.

As we were driving from Charleston, SC to St Augustine, we found out Jane’s mom was having a medical emergency and Jane was needed in Spartanburg. We were able to stop in Brunswick, GA and rent a car for Jane. She returned to Spartanburg where she stayed a week before joining me and the critters in St Augustine. Jane’s mom is now doing well.

St Augustine was our favorite food town. The grilled seafood at the Sunset Grill on A1A Beach Boulevard was outstanding! Redfrog & McToad’s Grub-n-Pub on A1A South has a lobster & shrimp mac & cheese dish that’s to die for! There are plenty of other great places to eat in the area, too.

While in St Augustine we also completed the process of becoming Florida residents. Florida title, registration, and insurance for our camper and truck, Florida driver licenses, health insurance, and voter registration. This took a number of days, but is now done, with only a minimum of blood, sweat, and tears. We also had to complete a few repairs on our camper. When you move your house a lot and constantly bounce down the road things break and you have to fix them. We had a fun and productive month in St Augustine.