St Augustine

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St Augustine is our destination today. It is a three hour drive from Savannah. We had rain off and on during our drive. Thank you Christopher and Brad for driving during this trip. We check into our hotel located in the historic district then head out for a late lunch/early dinner. The Floridian in the historic district is our restaurant of choice. I got a fried green tomato, bacon, lettuce and goat cheese sandwich. It was so good, I love the southern cooking.

After lunch we went to the St Augustine Distillery. We took the free self guided tour which included tastes of an old fashion, a mule and a tiki drink. The distillery sells the liquor and mixes. If I was local I would buy the mixes. We returned our rental car back to our hotel and headed out on foot. Ponce de Leon claimed Florida for Spain in 1513. In 1565 Pedro Menendez landed in Florida with 700 people to found St Augustine Spain built a fort to protect the city from the British and pirates called Castillo de Marcos. It took 23 years to complete. It was renamed Fort Marion when the Spanish gave up the fort. The fort was not open but we walked around it. We spent the rest of the day walking streets and visiting shops in the historic district which is much smaller than Savannah‘s historic district. This was a short visit, just a stop on our way to Fort Lauderdal.

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