A Stay in St. Augustine

After falling in love with Savannah, GA, it's safe to say that I was definitely feeling good about St. Augustine, FL. It probably wouldn't match the awesomeness of Savannah, but I was hopeful that it would at least hold my attention. Upon reflection, I think it's safe to say it did just that. No more and no less. Most of my adventures in St. Augustine took place over the course of four days, so for the sake of cohesiveness, I am going to section this post as such. If you'd like to skip the adventures and just dive into my insight, I'd suggest just reading Day 4.

Day 1: Downtown Strolling

My first day of adventure in St. Augustine was on Tuesday, January 27th. I decided that I wanted to kick off my exploration of the area by walking around downtown. On my stroll, I got to see the inside of the Basilica, St. George Street, La Plaza De Consititucion, the outside of Castillo de San Marcos, and a small chunk of the historic neighborhood. While I was entertained for the entirety of my stroll, I didn't love the downtown area. For starters, the portion of downtown that has cool things to explore is pretty small-I was able to see all of it over the course of about 3 hours. Additionally, parking in downtown St. Augustine is ridiculous. As I have traveled through various places on this trip, I've learned that parking can be next to impossible in big cities. However, what especially bothers me about St. Augustine's parking is how they don't seem to have any shame about the ridiculousness of it all. For example, when school isn't in session, the middle school parking lot turns into a paid parking lot, where a day of parking costs $20. I was only able to find one free parking area somewhat nearby the downtown and when I returned later that weekend, all the spots were taken up. While I did enjoy walking around, it definitely wasn't worth the outrageous prices some of the parking spots were charging.

Appreciating the St. Augustine Basilica

Being a cool guy around all the cannons

Day 2: Matanzas Machinations

After hanging around the somewhat busy downtown area, I decided I needed a little less noise and some history, so on Thursday, I went to Fort Matanzas. Fort Matanzas is only reachable through a ferry service, and luckily for me, the Miami State Park system runs a free ferry service to it. However, the ferry has limited seating and tickets for it go on a first come first serve basis. With that in mind, I woke up early, got there when they opened, and waited to ride the ferry to the Fort. While the Fort is pretty small and only took 7 soldiers to man, it was also pretty vital to defending St. Augustine back in the colonial Spanish period. Despite it's small size, we were given pretty much free reign to explore it as we wanted to, which more than made up for it. Even though it was obviously smaller than the downtown area, I think it's safe to say that I got more enjoyment from the fort. It was just super fun seeing how the soldiers used to live and climbing up the ladder to the top of the fort.

Riding the ferry to Fort Matanzas

Feeling pretty awesome on top of Fort Matanzas

Gotta take a picture with the flag

However, that wasn't the only fort I explored on Thursday. After lunch, I went and walked around Fort Moses State Park. I was honestly just expecting it to be the fort and nothing else, but I actually spent a decent amount of time there and got to learn the story behind the fort. During colonial Spanish rule, King Charles ll declared that any British slaves that could escape to Spanish controlled Florida would be free. As such, Fort Moses was the go-to destination for any African slaves that escaped their slave owners. Although the Fort on sight was just a re-creation, there were some trails at the park that showed where the original fort was and gave it's history. While it certainly wasn't an all day excursion, I would definitely recommend anyone swing by this state park.

Interesting recreation of Fort Moses

Day 3: Low-key Adventures

My third day of adventure was on Saturday and by that point I had already exhausted many of the major points of interest in St. Augustine. Fortunately, I still had a couple of fun adventures left in store. My first adventure of the day was exploring the Mission Nombre De Dios State Park which was a couple acre wide state park and museum dedicated to Pedro Menendex de Aviles, who was the first Spaniard to start colonizing Florida. Aside from the museum that dove into his story, there were also a couple of small walking trails that featured things like the Lady De Leche statues and the first mission that was set up upon Aviles' arrival. It was pretty nice for a little stroll and gave me some backstory on St. Augustine's founding, but it didn't take up the entire day.

Trying to take a unique photo at Mission Nombre De Dios State Park

Chilling under a gazebo after exploring the Mission State Park

Trying to get a more visually interesting photo

After having my fill of the Mission State Park, I was ready for some solo time with nature, so I started searching for a good walking trail nearby. One major downside of St. Augustine is that there is practically no good nature trail within a decent drive, and any trail that you do find is usually super short. While the park I did end up going to had a very short trail, it had multiple, so I could embark on a series of walks that would keep me entertained. However, before I began my walking, I spotted a number puzzle at the playground structure and my puzzle-centric mind couldn't help but solve it. The picture directly below is the solved puzzle, but originally all the numbers were shuffled around. I know it's kind of strange to say, but that puzzle was honestly one of the best parts of my stay in St. Augustine. That's not a strike against St. Augustine, but instead just a little insight inside my mind. I absolutely adore puzzles and just having one set up and ready for me out of no where brought me so much satisfaction.

I can't help but be drawn to a playground puzzle

Appreciating the view on a dock after a nice stroll

Day 4: Downsides (Conclusion)

As with the vast majority of places I've visited on this trip, I am glad I went to St. Augustine, but the past three sections may have made my stay in here sound more peachy than it actually was. My final day of adventure was Sunday, February 1st and when I call it a day of adventure, I do so very hesitantly. By the time Sunday had rolled around, I had already pretty much explored all the unique things in St. Augustine and any places that I had yet to explore were closed that day. Additionally, Sunday morning was by far the coldest the area had gotten in weeks. As such, my day was entirely composed of lazing about in my car and walking on a local trail. While it was certainly fun to have a lazy day-as I haven't had one in a long time-it says a lot about St. Augustine that I was practically forced to.

Despite the fact that I had a pretty good time overall, it's safe to say that if I could go back in time, I would reduce the amount of time I spent there. I will return to St. Augustine one day when I'm not on a budget saving trip, but it certainly isn't on my list of best cities I've visited.