Winter Vacation

David and I managed to get away to Florida for a few days last week.  First, we all celebrated our nephew Isaiah's 1st birthday!  He was very polite and methodical with his little cake. :)

Grandma and Grandpa were kind enough to take our kiddos back home so we could fly out from Sioux Falls the next day for St. Augustine.  

We took a very similar trip about 4 years ago, only in January and in reverse order.  This one was much better, even with pouring rain on Monday.  (St. Augustine Premium Outlets saved that day!)  

St. Augustine was established in 1565 and holds the title for our country's oldest city.  We only spent an afternoon there four years ago, so this time I knew what I wanted to do with the extra time.  I remembered seeing an old brick wall and I wanted to see what was inside!  So, we toured Castillo de San Marcos (The Castle of St. Mark), a Spanish fort built in 1672.  We didn't expect to find all that was inside those walls.  It was used many times throughout the history of the city to keep the British from taking Florida from Spain,  able to sustain 1500 people for up to two months at a time.  Our tour guide was excellent.  An interesting item is that under Spanish rule, all of the land and wealth were handed down through the women in the family.  The men were soldiers or had a trade and did as they were told. :)

The great feature of St. Augustine is that probably 95% of what you want to do is within walking distance of St. George Street.  We never ate at the same restaurant twice and still left many for next time.  

The sun finally came out on Wednesday when we arrived in Daytona Beach, just in time apparently for Spring Break.  It wasn't bikini weather for me, but it was warm enough for a walk along the beach in the sun.  I was afraid Florida would cheat me out of sun and warmth for the third time in a row (our trip to the Keys 5 years ago was FREEZING as was our previous trip to Daytona), but we were happy to each catch a bit of sunburn on our faces and actually feel warm.  Mission accomplished. :)