St. Augustine, FL is a gem for history buffs, tourists and fun-seekers; this city has it all. We drove across the state on a Wednesday and because it is ‘season,’ it took us almost 5 hours. Mr. Google was sending us down all kinds of state and county roads to avoid traffic. This ended up being part of the charm of the trip, a drive through central Florida and the experience of Old Florida historic towns.

When we arrived at our hotel, the Renaissance, we did not feel like doing much more than having dinner and getting a good nights rest before tackling St. Augustine.

What do you do in St. Augustine first? Take the Trolley tour around the city. It takes one hour and 40 minutes, during which you can jump on and off. This is the easiest way to see everything or consider what you might want to go back and see or do. A trolley stop was right across the street from where we were staying, next to a parking garage whose architecture blended quite well with a square separating it from the Visitor’s Center. Right next to the visitor center was the Zero Milestone marker for the Old Spanish Trail which went from St. Augustine, FL to San Diego, CA. Inside the visitor center were excellent displays and exhibits telling the history. Worth seeing.

As the trolley drove through the streets of St. Augustine, you gain an appreciation of the history and preservation of buildings the community has accomplished. Of course, many of the original buildings, before coquina bricks were used for construction, were burned down and rebuilt as history moved forward. Many colonial era buildings are preserved. It’s truly fascinating, to us for sure, that this place/city exists in Florida when “history” always talks about the Colonial settlements in the cities in the Northeast, such as Boston and Jamestown. The Spanish had a large settlement here before Florida was taken over by the British and then back to the Spanish and finally part of the USA.

Here are some examples of the preservation of various buildings.

Religion was also a major part of St. Augustine’s history. This is where the first permanent Christian settlement in the US and the first parish mass was offered – Mission Nombre de Dios. It is located with the Our Lady of LaLeche National Shrine. The grounds are beautiful, peaceful, and has a winding walking path. Lots of Christian symbolism incorporated into the walk; stations of the cross, rosary bead garden, statues of various saints, and a huge cross commemorating the 400th anniversary (in 1965) of the Mission.

A short walk down the street and you are at the Fountain of Youth, a tourist attraction and not too kitschy (except in the gift shop). There is an archaeological dig section, still ongoing. There is also a Native American (Timucuan) village and a Spanish muster site resurrected in the area. It’s quite a large piece of land as you can see from this map. Live cannon shots daily and many live demonstrations of the life of early settlers and inhabitants of this land.

They have done a nice job at incorporating tourism and history. Lots of school children wandering around on their field trip so we have to wait our turn to take a sip from the Fountain of Youth. No, we did not feel any younger! A weird phenomenon is that there are quite a few peacocks wandering the property with warning signs not to bother them LOL What do peacocks have to do with Florida; we are the land of flamingos and herons!

The entrance by the Fountain of Youth is a famous street known for its canopy of trees – Magnolia Avenue. My pictures and time of year don’t do justice to its natural beauty.

The next blog post will be about Henry Flagler and his influence on St. Augustine, important to what St. Augustine has become. It has two macro eras, before and after Flagler