What I Did on My Summer Vacation (part 1) - St. Augustine, Florida

I don't want to be one of those annoying people who sit you down and show you hours of boring slides from their vacation. I can remember this being a regular occurrence when I was a child, back before there were digital cameras and computers. Luckily, in this day and age you can look at all, some, or none of them, and I'll never know the difference! Admittedly, I do have trouble leaving things out - editing is not my strong suit.

Drawbridge, St. Augustine

We started our trip in St. Augustine, Florida. The oldest continuously occupied city in the U.S., it was founded by the Spanish in 1565.

St. Augustine is known for its Spanish-colonial architecture and other historical buildings. This is the oldest house in St. Augustine.

Castillo de San Marcos was built from 1671-1675, and is the oldest masonry fort in the country.

Flagler College is just one of many examples of gorgeous architecture in St. Augustine. One of it's buildings is a hotel built in 1888.

We spent some time walking around the beautiful historic neighborhoods...

 

 Of course, we also went to St. Augustine Beach...

... and the beach at Anastasia State Park.

A live starfish.

Great Blue Heron

Where I've Been

If you haven't seen me around blogland lately, it's because I was on vacation in Sarasota, Florida! In keeping with the solemn tradition of vacationers throughout time, I now feel obliged to bore you with my vacation photos.  Lucky for you, since this is a blog, you are free to ignore them if you wish! If you do choose to peruse them, I hope you enjoy!

The water at Siesta Key really did appear to be this strange but lovely shade of green...

... which made the sky seem almost purplish by comparison. When you got in it, though, it was so clear you could easily see to the bottom.

There were lots of unfamiliar seabirds...

... but most wouldn't let me get close enough to photograph them.

You could see their little footprints all over the beautiful white sand beach...

My self-portrait on the beach...




Stay tuned for more vacation photos in the next post - I actually went to some places that are not the beach, such as Selby Botanical Gardens and the Dali Museum!

I hope everyone is having a great summer!

Peace

Okay, I couldn't resist putting some vacation pics on here. The ocean gives me a sense of profound peace; I hope looking at these can evoke a bit of that same feeling for you.