The Beauty of St. Augustine

I'd say that today ranked pretty close to perfect.

The morning greeted us with a bright blue sky and Marty and I couldn't resist heading out for a quick walk prior to breakfast to capture some of the beauty.

After a scrumptious breakfast of Eggs Benedict served in a puff pastry, we headed out to explore the town with our friends, Howard and Jennifer.

Our first stop was the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, a fort constructed by the Spanish between 1672 and 1695.

The walls of this fort were built from coquina, which is a type of shell stone quarried from the island of St. Anastasia located across the bay.  Walking around town, we soon noticed that many of the buildings are built from this unique stone, which I had never heard of until today.

This history of the fort was quite interesting, and the occupation changed so many times that it was difficult to keep track.  Spain, England, Spain, the United States, the Confederate States of America, and finally the United States again.  But never once was the Castillo taken by force.  The change in occupation only came through military agreements.

We walked through room after room filled with explanations of the history of this unique place.  I'll just feature a couple of the highlights. 

Here you can see a typical casement where the soldiers would have slept.

There were various type of canons in the fort, and we learned that these canons were capable of shooting a distance of 3 1/2 miles.

We spent several hours exploring the fort and admiring the beautiful views.

Here you can see Jennifer, Marty and Howard checking out one of the cannons.

And, just look at how the water sparkles: picture perfect!

We then decided to walk a bit out of the Old town to the Mission Nombre De Dias and the Shrine of La Leche.

St. Augustine is America's oldest city being named such on Sept. 8, 1565 by Pedro Menendez de Aviles.   The Mission Nombre De Dias stands on the site where the Spaniard landed and proclaimed this site for Spain and the Catholic church.

This statue represents Father Francisco Lopez, the chaplain traveling with Menendez.

Walking through the grounds of the shrine we saw many interesting icons.

There was the rustic altar where it is said that Father Lopez immediately said Mass upon landing here.

There were beautiful carved motifs.

A shrine to Our Lady of Perpetual Help

Another to Our Lady of Guadalupe

 but what I found most interesting, was the Shrine to Our Lady of La Leche, the first ever to be dedicated to Our Blessed Mother in the United States.

It was founded in 1620 by Spaniards and the statue in the chapel features the Blessed Mother tenderly nursing the baby, Jesus.

Such simplistic beauty to be admired.

By this time, it was well into the afternoon, so we stopped for a quick bite to eat, then headed to the bay to venture out onto the El Galeon.

El Galeon is a replica similar to the ship that Don Pedro Menendez de Avilies sailed when he landed on this area and founded St. Augustine in 1565. 

Historians researched the specifics of the original ship sailed by Menendez, and they went about recreating one that is a close duplicate.

We were able to board the ship and walk through it.

Here you can see Howard and Marty checking out one of the anchors.

 which was pretty large, as you can see.

Everywhere we looked, there were ropes with some sort of purpose.

Peeking through some offered a gorgeous view:

Here you can see where the boat was steered.

And, while were were on the boat, we got a close up view of the drawbridge being raised for a sailboat to pass through.  Now, that was pretty cool!

By now it was early evening, and time to head back into St. Augustine. 

We had a lovely dinner with our friends, and some delightful conversation at our B&B before heading up to bed.

Speaking of which, I can't help but wonder just why we need all of that netting over our bed?

I'm just hoping it isn't there to keep something from falling on our heads as we sleep!

Escape from Winter

Now, if you had your choice, which would you pick?

Believe me, the latter was well worth the effort, even if it did mean leaving the house at 3:45 a.m. in order to catch an early flight.

We are in St. Augustine, which I found to be surprisingly busy with all kinds of people buzzing about.

But we couldn't ask for a more perfect day to greet us here.

As if all of this beauty isn't enough to please, we have met up with two old friends who moved south several years ago.  When they learned of our plans, they were eager to join us and act as our tour guides.  We had a blast catching up on things last evening, and I'm eager to get out and enjoy what appears to be yet another fabulous day!

Now…..if only I can figure out what the heck I did with the socks that I packed!

I'll catch up with you later.

Seeing Is Believing

A few months back, I spotted the recipe for these adorable "easy-to-make"snowman cookies.

They sure do look cute, don't they?

So, why not give it a try?  

And, who better to try them with, than an eager four year old, who loves to help out in the kitchen.?

But he wasn't the only one having fun. 

And we all know that making the cookies is not nearly as much fun as tasting the cookies.

And it appears that the taste-testers aren't the least bit fazed by the final appearance of their creations.

So…..  what makes them look so different?

It must have been the sprinkles…….right?

Yep!  That has to be the answer.

Christmas Countdown Adventures

Every year we've made it the tradition to wait for our youngest daughter to come home for the holidays so that we can "bond" by trekking  out in the fields in search of the perfect Christmas tree for our home.

And it was with much anticipation that we waited for her to return this year, elated that she had saved her vacation days in order to be able to spend this special week with us.

After spending the morning decorating our Church, we came home for a quick lunch, then hopped in the car to fulfill our quest:  finding the perfect Christmas tree.

And you have to admit, there was no lack of enthusiasm on Marty's part.

We found the late date to be to our advantage, as it afforded us the opportunity to explore the trees at our leisure, and without any crowds.

We headed out to the field of Canaan Trees, but were careful to follow the signs along the way.

When the perfect tree was chosen, a hug was in order

Marty was called over

And, then Marty's real fun began.

We managed to get it home,  in the house and decorated before evening set in.

Beautiful, don't you think?

All this, and gingerbread face cookies, baked and decorated as well.

It does seem like there's always one grumpy face in the bunch doesn't it?

But that wasn't the end of the day's fun.  We all decided to take advantage of the warm weather and stroll around the neighborhood to enjoy the Christmas lights.

How about this for entertainment?

That is Abominable.  And, when we got to this particular house, he was laying on his face, on the ground. 

That seemed such a shame, don't you think?

 So, I headed up to the house and knocked on the door to ask the owners if they minded if I stood this guy back up.  

The house was dark, two little dogs began barking, and after several minutes with no answer, it appeared that no one was home. 

What to do?  It seemed such a shame for the creature to be all lit up with his head face down in the snow.  What would you do?

It was a mixed jury.  Marty and Amy thought that we should just keep on walking.  Stacey kept encouraging me to stand the poor fella upright. 

I was already on the front porch, just a few feet away, when I decided to side with Stacey. 

 I was just setting him upright when, much to my surprise, (and Stacey's as well),  the front door opened and a young man's perplexed face was looking at me.

I realized just how bad this must have looked.....some stranger in the front yard, with her arms around Abominable.  What would you think?

I quickly explained that we had seen the Abominable laying face down in the snow and I hoped that he didn't mind that I had adjusted Abominable for everyone's enjoyment.  Then, I wished him a Merry Christmas and told him that we all really liked their decorations.

He said, "Thank you, Ma'm, I'll tell that to my mother."  

So, if you were worried that I ended up getting arrested, you can calm your fears.  All is well here in Bumble land.

Merry Christmas!