The Jackson Travel Blog: St. Augustine: America's "oldest city"

St. Augustine's claim to fame is that it's the oldest city in the U.S. However, we discovered that there are a few conditionals. It's the oldest continuously occupied European-established city in the continental United States. Other colonies were started earlier and then failed, and of course the Native Americans were here first. It's a cool city for sure, but it didn't settle well that the arrival of Europeans completely wiped out the robust Timucan tribe that had been living long, peaceful lives there for thousands of years... but we can't dwell on that.

We drove into St. Augustine and stayed at a hotel right next to the Fountain of Youth, and one of the biggest, oldest Live Oak trees I've ever seen was growing in the middle of the hotel parking lot. Amazing!

We got to St. Augustine in the evening, so we just had dinner and settled in for the night. In the morning, we went for a run on what National Geographic called "the most beautiful and most photographed street in America." Very cool. The trees are amazing, and the pictures don't do it justice. We also ran across a bridge and got some nice views of the Intercoastal Waterway.

Magnolia Avenue

After our run, we showered and walked back over to the Fountain of Youth Park. Tom was less interested than I was, but I felt compelled to get my free sample of its water. It was actually pretty interesting - we learned some history, saw some male peacocks trying to attract their lady counterparts, saw a cannon fired, drank some not-so-tasty spring water from the fountain, and saw an Indian burial ground. Ponce de Leon labeled this spring as the Fountain of Youth because when he arrived here, he saw a tribe of tall, fit, healthy Native Americans who lived on average 20 years longer than the Spanish and had no known diseases. He was in search of this water for his aging Spanish king who was trying to produce an heir before he died, and he decided it must be at this spot. We'll see if my sample actually does anything for my health in the long run!

From there, we headed into town for the main drag: St. George Street. We were serenaded from all sides by acoustic guitars - every restaurant seemed to be offering live music! We walked around a bit (St. George St. is open to foot traffic only), had lunch, and then headed over to the famous Castillo de San Marcos fort. If I remember correctly, this fort has been under Spanish, British, American, and Confederate control, but not once has it ever been overtaken in a battle or attempted siege. The fort has been part of the National Park Service for about 75 years and is now just a place for visitors to tour.

After the fort, we walked back down St. George St., got some amazing frozen yogurt at Luvberry, and walked over to the famous Bridge of Lions. There's a lot more to do in terms of tourist exploitation, but we had a good sense of things and were ready to hit the road.