beautiful st. augustine

One Saturday in March we headed to St. Augustine to spend the whole day exploring the city. For part of my birthday present, Clay bought us a sunset river cruise so we decided to fill the day with sightseeing. It's about 2 hours or less from our house so we figured we could fit in plenty for a full day and drive back.   

Our first stop was a cute little breakfast place called The Gallery Cafe.  It was family owned and operated and yummy!  Great start to our day! Now, I did not take the photo below...it was jam packed and we were lucky to get a seat under the Joker.  

Next stop, Castillo de San Marcos. Just a little history: It's the oldest masonry fort in the US, originally constructed by the Spanish between 1672 and 1695.  The British, Spanish, and Americans all made changes to the Castillo before it was finally retired in 1900 and now serves as a major tourist destination. 

After Castillo, we headed across the street to ultimately find a sports bar to watch the NC State/Miami game (boo...State lost.)  We walked around downtown for a few hours and went into so many random shops and eventually got ice cream before our sunset cruise!

Ponte Vedra Beach

Our sunset cruise was scheduled for around 5:30 that night.  It was nice to relax and see the view from the water. Here's the Castillo again...

<3

Another little history lesson: We cruised on by the 280 ft. Great Cross, the tallest freestanding cross in the western hemisphere. In 1565, a Spanish admiral named Pedro Menendez de Aviles landed on the shoreline, planted a wooden cross, and celebrated the first actual Thanksgiving on American soil (where it stands today.) It represents the beginnings of Christianity and the founding of America's oldest city - St. Aug's!

The Great Cross

To end our lovely day, we drove to an amazing restaurant called Caps on the Water for dinner.  I had been there once before when my childhood best friend Christina used to live in Jacksonville. This place is incredible and a must-do if you are ever in the area. It has a huge outdoor seating area that overlooks the Intercoastal Waterway and has some seriously yummy food.

We got there around 8:30/9:00 that night so it wasn't the best time to take photos. We had oysters as an appetizer, I had a deliciously seared wasabi-sesame encrusted tuna steak with spinach and Clay had vanilla & horseradish encrusted tilapia with veggies. NOM NOM NOM...plates were definitely cleaned.

Thanks Google images for the following:

                         

What a great day!