Road Trip to the Oldest City in America

My very last summer break is coming to a close, and I spent last week enjoying the wonderful city of St. Augustine, FL with two of my friends. We stayed in a beach house owned by one girl's family, and spent 6 days laying on the beach and taking in the sights of the oldest city in the US. St. Augustine was founded by the Spanish over 40 years before the British established Jamestown. 

That's me on the right and Ashely on the left

I was not so lazy that I didn't run at all, though! I went for two morning runs on the beach, one for 3 miles and one for 2 miles. The sand was hard enough that I could run in shoes, and the breeze blowing off the ocean kept me cool (as cool as one can be in Florida in August). 

Morning run on the beach

We woke up early to watch the sunrise one morning
....and then promptly went back to bed.

 Because St. Augustine is such an historic city, there were plenty of interesting things to do, especially in the downtown area. We visited the lighthouse twice - once during the day and then later that night for a ghost tour. We didn't see any ghosts, but we did get a serious workout climbing the stairs twice in one day!

The St. Augustine Lighthouse - 219 stairs to the top
and we climbed it twice in one day!

At the Castillo de San Marcos

One of the best things we did was buy tickets for the Old Town Trolley. The tickets were good for three days and you can hop on and off at any stop. There are 22 different stops, including historic landmarks, museums, St. George Street (a pedestrian-only shopping area), and the San Sebastian Winery (which offers free tours and wine tastings).

Wine tasting at the San Sebastian Winery - they specialize
in making wine from the muscadine grape, which is native to Florida

Because we are pharmacy students, we just had to visit the old drug store. We spent quite a while looking at all the stuff. We were there so long one guy looked at us and said "Y'all must be pharmacy students!" He we also kind enough to take our picture so we could fully document our nerdiness.

(L to R): Michelle, me, and Ashley

On our last day, after visiting the fort and having a wonderful lunch, we were walking along the docks and saw a SEA TURTLE swimming around!! We watching him for quite a while (and took about 100 pictures), and then we spotted something that literally overshadowed every other thing on the trip....

IT WAS A MANATEE!

Needless to say, all three of us completely freaked out. A manatee, a real live endangered manatee, was swimming 2 feet from us. We probably followed him around for 45 minutes, taking pictures, videos, and watching him drink water dripping from that pipe. I could see the scars on his back from where he had been hit by boat propellers. It was truly amazing to see in the wild!

The highlight of the trip - seeing sea turtles and a manatee!

We drove 1790 miles (2 days there, 2 days back) on our trip! Now I am back at home, getting ready for my P3 year to begin next week! Look for a back to school post coming up in the next few days!