St. Augustine - Oldest City in USA
Monday, June 29, 2009
If Daisy could talk, she’d be saying, “Land ho!!” In the photo above, we are following Salty Dawg into our anchorage spot at New Smyrna Beach yesterday. Oddly, Daisy fell into the water getting out of the dinghy last night, so she is also a Salty Dawg.
We arrived in St. Augustine this afternoon and will spend two days here. It is the oldest continuously occupied European established city in the USA. Also, the first Christian worship service held in a permanent settlement in the US was celebrated here. Our marina is right at the edge of “Old St. Augustine” so everything is walking distance. We plan to take a trolley sightseeing tour tomorrow morning and then perhaps do some more walking on our own. Mark and I might take our bikes a little farther into the city unless it’s unbearably hot again.
We did walk down some of the streets tonight after we ate dinner. While there are the usual bars and restaurants one finds near a harbor, there were also many ice cream and candy stores. There is a “ghost tour” and we noticed two or three small groups of people being led down the streets by a guide carrying a lantern.
We also saw a wax museum which was closed for the evening. In their front window was a wax figure of Michael Jackson.
Marinas often have commercial tourist boats docked in them. Near us at the St. Augustine Municipal Marina is a pirate ship. We watched as they left for a tour and could hear the announcer telling all the guests to shout “ARGHHH!” as they left the marina.