Sonya's Blog - Day 190 - Exploring St. Augustine, The Beach and Nana's Birthday

Sonya’s Blog - Day 190 - December 29th - Exploring St. Augustine, the Beach and Nana’s Birthday

Blake and I got up pretty early and we decided to take Kizmet for a walk on St. Augustine Beach because the kids were not up yet. It is only a couple of blocks to the beach from our campground, so it didn’t take long to get there. Kizmet was so excited to be on a beach again. This beach is much busier than the last one we walked her on (Myrtle Beach) and she had to stay on leash the whole time. Another difference is that they allow cars to drive and park on the beach, in designated areas. Blake went and tested out the water and it is very warm. They are having a Polar Bear plunge on New Years Day, but it will be more like a dip in warm waters. It’s funny that they call it a Polar Bear Plunge though. I guess Floridians would find the water cold. We walked for quite awhile before turning around and heading back to the RV. We were gone for about an hour and 1/2, so it was a good walk.

Isaac was up when we got back, but it didn’t occur to him to eat breakfast - silly boy. Natasha was still hidden in her bed and making no sounds. I wanted to go into St. Augustine and I wanted to leave by 10:30, so the kids had to be ready or were being left behind. Isaac had no problems getting himself ready and in the car. Natasha, however, almost missed the opportunity. She made it into the truck with some things for breakfast in her hand right before we left.

It is about a 15 minute drive to St. Augustine and we were only interested in exploring the Historic District. Wow, was it ever busy. I guess because it is winter break for all the kids, but here are a lot of tourists around. We only wanted to stay about an hour, just to check it out and see what it is all about. They have all day parking for $12, but we didn’t want to pay that. We managed to find street partking for an hour and got out to explore. We headed over to the Visitor’s Centre, which was much more than just pamphlets. There was lots of history and information about the town of St. Augustine as well. We read a few things and then decided to just walk around for a bit.

St. Augustine was established on September 8th, 1565 and is the oldest, continuously running city in the United States. We saw some of the original defences that the Spanish had erected to protect against the British. Florida did not belong to the United States until 1821. We then saw the City Gate that everyone had to pass through to enter the city. Across the street was the fort and we wandered around the outside of that until it was time to head back to the truck. We got a feel for the area and decided that we wanted to take the trolley tour here and hopefully learn some more about the history.

City Gates of St. Augustine:

Blake and Isaac in front of the Fort:

Natasha and Kizmet chillin on the wall between the fort and the river:

The Establishment of St. Augustine:

We made it back to the truck in the hour that we had and then drove around St. Augustine to see what else there was to see. I thought the town would be more historic and have evident Spanish influences, but it is really touristy instead and there is a lot of crap mixed in with the historic. It is not overtly Spanish, or what I think of when I think of Spanish influences.

We saw a sign for a Coastal Drive and decided to take that. It took us over to an Island, that is just above Anastasia Island (where we are camping). We were starting at the southern part of this Coastal Drive. If we followed it the whole way it would take us North to Neptune Beach, but we didn’t want to go that far. We drove it for a little bit and then turned around and heading back to camp. Unfortunately there is no bridge that connects this Island to Anastasia Island, so we had to drive back through St. Augustine to head back to our RV.

We had some lunch when we got back and grabbled some drinks. It was 29 outside by this time, so we wanted to head to the beach for the rest of the afternoon. We decided to put the chairs in the truck and head over, since you could drive and park on the beach. We didn’t really know where the road access points to drive onto the beach were and after some driving around found one. Well it turns out that you need to have a paid pass (that you get from a County office) to drive and park on the beach. Darn it!! We drove on the beach anyhow and Blake dropped us off. He then drove back to the campground, which was only 5 minutes away, and then came back to the beach. We hung out on the beach for a couple of hours before we decided it was time to head back and have some supper. Blake and Isaac even got some boogie boarding in while we were there. Blake and I walked back to the campground, grabbed the truck and went and picked up the kids. We had all the chairs there and it would have been a lot to carry back, so we took our chances bringing the truck back on the beach. Nobody stopped us and we probably would have been fine parking there, but you never know how strict they are going to be.

Everyone needed to get cleaned up before we had supper, there was a lot of sand on everyone, including the dog. Blake first went to the pool to have a dip. The kids didn't want to, so they stayed back and cleaned up.

Blake rockin it at the pool:

So that picture doesn't tell the whole story. The water was too cold for Blake (colder than the ocean) and after this picture he went and jumped in the hot tub. Baby! He was all excited because there was a lady from Quebec there, with her children, and he got to practice his french. They had their whole conversation in french.

Isaac being a goof back at the RV:

After everyone was cleaned up, we had some supper. After supper we played a round of Euchre. We couldn’t remember the rules, so we called up Suz and Adam to get the rundown. Suzanne had taught us the game when we were in Virginia Beach, but we had forgotten a couple of rules. We ended up getting Adam on the phone, which will do I guess. I mean he knew the rules of the games and explained them very well, but he is a bit of a pain:) All in good fun though.

With the rules understood, we started to play the game. It was Isaac and Blake against Natasha and I. Natasha and I were not getting the greatest cards and ended up with only 3 points to Blake’s and Isaac’s 5 points. We had to end the game there because Isaac was too tired to play anymore, we know this because he was losing focus and forgetting what he was doing. We decided to watch a quick episode of Corner Gas and then the kids headed to get ready for bed.

It is my Mum’s birthday today, but we had called her last night to wish her a happy birthday and sing her the song. She was going to be out all day today, so we had to call last night. We did send off an email with some pics of the kids to wish her a happy day.

Blake and I still had cleaning up to do, Kizzy to walk and I had some blogging to do, so we stayed up a bit later. We are planning on spending most of the day at the beach tomorrow. It is going to be another warm day, so it would be a shame not to spend it at the beach. It is going to cool down a bit after that, so we will do our touring around then.

Sonya