St. Augustine, Florida – Family Vacation and a History Lesson

I have been so surprised at the number of people who had never heard of St. Augustine.  I guess the history teacher in me thinks everyone should know about it!  I teach about it every semester in my Early American History class, therefore, I was PUMPED to visit it.


St, Augustine, Florida is the oldest city in the United States.  It was established by the Spanish in September 1565.  Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon had first stepped on shore in 1513 while searching for the Fountain of Youth.   There is SO much history in this small city!  I could have stayed for a month and not seen it all.  The Castillo de San Marcos,  a fort, saw years of action on the shores of the city.  The North city gates that were built after years of attacks are still there.  It is an incredible place to visit!


Our little family had the best time site seeing, playing, eating and just relaxing!  Like I said many times, we haven’t gotten to take many true vacations in the past few years, so we were so excited about this one!!! 


We did so many things while on this trip, but I am going to cover our favorites.  

1. Fort Castillo de San Marco: SUCH an amazing thing to visit!  This fort was built over a period of 13 years -from 1672-1695.  It is constructed of coquina, which is a very durable form of concrete composed of sand and seashells.  The walls are filled with seashells, and it is a beautiful thing!  This fort saw tons of action, from defending the city from pirates, European attacks, during the American Revolution and more!  And it is STILL standing!!! 

2.  St. Augustine Beach: Of course, the boys could not WAIT to get to the beach.  We stopped by briefly after eating at Salt Life the first night we were there, but we went back for a real excursion after the fort.  The weather was perfect!  Sun was shining.  The breeze was cool.  And the tide was low.  There was plenty of shallow water for the boys to play in, swim, and venture out far enough to jump the small waves.  Not so, on our second trip.  The red flags were up on Saturday, and the waves were HUGE!!!  I am always struck with how amazing God’s creation is, but there is just something about the sand and the sea that always blow my mind!!! I’m so thankful for God’s imagination.

3.  Sailing: So, this was high on my list, because you can talk me into getting on a sailboat ANY day of the week!!! It is one of my favorite things, and obviously something I don’t get to do often.  Matt gets slightly sea-sick easily, and I wasn’t sure if the boys would as well.  But it turned out to be extremely fun!! Again the weather was perfect!  It was almost cool out on the sea.  Captain John and his crew were so kind to the boys and allowed them to hoist the sails and steer the boat.  It was a 1 1/2 hour sail, which was perfect for small children.  The company was called Schooner Freedom Charters, and I would highly recommend them.  

Captain Henry and Captain Milo

4. St. Augstine Lighthouse:  This was another favorite of mine.  Again, because it was so well done and learning about all of the lighthouse keepers was so interesting.  The lighthouse was beautiful, and the original lighthouse keeper’s house was well preserved and full of fun facts.  Unfortunately, Milo was not tall enough to climb the lighthouse…which resulted in many tears, but we recovered quickly and explored the house and museum.  

exploring while Henry and Daddy climbed

5. St. George’s Street: St. Augustine does the tourist thing very well.  It is classy, clean, and still offers anything you might want.  Including shopping!  St. George’s Street is a main shopping street through the city.  We purchased a trolley ticket that was good for three days, and we hopped on and off as much as we want.  There were tons of shops and restaurants along this street.  This is where Matt bought another Tilley hat…and we ate countless times.  Soft serve ice cream was also a frequent stop!

more ice cream…and see the new hat?

6. Alligator Farm:
This was our last “adventure” as Milo called everything.  This farm was incredible!!! It was so much fun for kids, but it was also very informational.  I think it said it was the only alligator farm in the world to have all 23 species.  There were turtles, beautiful exotic birds, and a play area for kids. We even saw an albino alligator!!  And you could zip-line across the entire farm if you wanted to…so cool! The big swamp at the back of the farm probably had close to 200 alligators in it!  Amazing!

scary alligators!

Fun play area!

Matt kept me safe 🙂

Of course, there is always FOOD!  I swear, I travel just to eat!  And St. Augustine had some of the most amazing places to eat.  The little hole in the wall places were the best, but some of the more famous locations were excellent as well.  One of my favorites was O.C. Whites.  We ate outside on the balcony overlooking the sea, and the food was amazing!!! I had mahi mahi covered in blue crab with rice and garlic sauteed veggies.  Yum!  

And of course, I cannot visit the ocean without eating oysters.  These were delicious!  We ate these at Meehan’s Oyster Bar.  

Oysters Meehan and Caesar salad

So, as you can see, we had an incredible time visiting this old city!  And most of all, it was so nice just to be able to spend time together as a family without the day to day distractions.  No work, no meetings, not ballgames, no laundry…well a little bit.  But we just got to focus on one another and do something things that we all enjoyed!!! I am so grateful for this time together!!

xoxo,
Rachel Mitchell