Saturday, May 21, we walked to downtown St. Augustine from Rivers Edge Marina. Our last visit to St. Augustine was 18 years ago to celebrate my 50th birthday. There is so much to see and do in this town. As the dockmaster Paul commented “it’s the oldest U.S. city so you will see the oldest of everything – oldest church, house, school, jail . . .” We appreciated how easy it is to walk around the cobblestone and brick streets, take in the sites, and enjoy the architecture.

We walked past San Sebastian Winery and Whetstone Chocolate Factory – both offer tours but we settled for chocolate pretzels and fudge. (We just had the best pizza across the street at Carmello’s.) We continued down King Street to the Flagler Memorial Presbyterian Church, Casa Monica Hotel (where we celebrated my 50th birthday weekend) and the Lightner Museum.

We took in some more sites – the two biggest highlights being the fort and the Catholic Basilica. Castillo de San Marcos is the oldest masonry fort in the United States. 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.

The Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1970. Its congregation, established in 1565, is the oldest Christian congregation in the contiguous United States. The Cathedral will be featured in a separate blog. We want to recognize and pay tribute to all the Catholic churches we visit along the Loop.

As aforementioned, St. Augustine is the oldest city in the U.S. and the 2nd oldest continuously inhabited city of European origin in the U.S. after San Juan, Puerto Rico (founded in 1521.) Pedro Menendez de Aviles founded the city September 8, 1565 and became Florida’s first governor.

The city was named “San Agustin” as Pedro’s ships first sighted land in Florida 11 days earlier on August 28, the feast day of St. Augustine.

Sister cities of St. Augustine are: Aviles, Spain; Cartagena, Colombia; Menorca, Spain; and Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic.

A bit of trivia: Tom Petty owned a house on Crescent Beach and was a frequent diner at Sonny’s Barbecue. He would sign dollar bills which were placed around the cash register. His house had a sign out front “Buy American.” Rumor has it he lost the house to his wife in his divorce. (Petty was originally from Gainesville, Florida.)

There is so much to do in St. Augustine! The Fountain of Youth; haunted pub crawls; distilleries and breweries; shipwreck and pirate museums; eco tours and more.

Here are more photos from our afternoon visit: