St. Augustine, Florida

We ran down to St. Augustine this afternoon, to meet up with Richard Adams and his wife, old friends from Naples, Italy.

Fuente de los Canos de San Francisco

The set of masks that decorate this fountain was a gift to the City of St. Augustine by it's sister city in Spain, the City of Aviles, birthplace of Pedro Menendez, who founded St. Augustine in 1565.

Presented in 2005 to the people of St. Augustine by the Mayor of Aviles, the Hon. Santiago Rodriguez Vega, the masks form part of the historic and cultural monuments that occupy the grounds of the Visitor Information Center.

  

And now a little walk around town...

I have fond memories of coming here with my folks when my Dad was stationed at NAS Jacksonville (a few years back).  This is one of the buildings I remember.

Yup, very touristy!

We stopped off here for a little snack, loved this bear made of crushed beer cans!

The original gate to the city.

On to the Castillo de San Marcos.

The Castillo de San Marcos is the oldest masonry fort in the continental United States.  Located on the shore of Matanzas Bay.  Construction began in 1672, 107 years after the city's founding by Spanish Admiral and conquistador Pedro Menendez de Aviles, when Florida was part of the Spanish Empire. 

Beautiful! 

I told Stu we need one of these for our yard...

In the middle of the picture is the recreation of the wooden wall that would have surrounded the city.

A beautiful day, 72 degrees when we left St. Augustine.  Just an hour up the road, when we got back to the bus, so foggy we couldn't see across the road and 58 degrees!  Come on!!