Ancient City History

My family had the opportunity to visit the nation’s oldest continuously inhabited European established city this past weekend. It wasn’t the trip we had planned to go on. We were supposed to visit my wife’s family in Indiana this summer and it would have been the kid’s first plane ride in order to get there. With everything that is going on in the world right now, just being able to leave town for any kind of vacation is truly a blessing.

The wife and I had initially visited Florida’s First Coast about 12 years ago and it was a brief drive through kind of day. We had always wanted to go back to St. Augustine someday because we missed doing a lot of stuff while we were there. We took our time this go around and tried to get the kids to enjoy some of the history while we were at it. Being 11 and 8, they can appreciate it better than if they were younger.

They really enjoyed Potter’s Wax Museum, the Pirate and Treasure Museum, and the Oldest Wooden Schoolhouse in the nation. We enjoyed them as well with the significant help of Groupon. The Spanish fort in old St. Augustine, Castillo de San Marcos, is closed to visitors for the time being and the kids were disappointed in not being able to go inside but they did get to walk around the outside and see just how massive it is. Being able to watch the cannon firing at the Fountain of Youth and going to the beach made up for a lot, though.

Everywhere we went, most everyone was conscientious about distancing and masks were commonplace anytime we went indoors. If you’ve never been, I recommend it as a must see. There’s history everywhere and old St. Augustine has plenty to offer all within easy walking distance, something we did a ton of. I forgot how much there is to see there and the kids are already planning a trip back. Definitely a trip on a tankful we will be making again in the future.