Kibitka Escape: St. Augustine, FL and Anastasia State Park, Part 2

6 March, 2013

Since we didn’t need to vacate our campsite until 1 p.m., we decided to give St. Augustine a second chance today, wanting to be sure we hadn’t misjudged it. This gave us a chance to see the Oldest House, some 250 years old, and several other historic houses in the same neighborhood. This area appealed to us so much more than the historic downtown.

St. Augustine has many tourist attractions with history themes and admission fees, and several of them did earn gem ratings in the AAA book. So, from the AAA book we chose the St. Augustine History Museum as being worth a try. When we arrived, we saw that it was an elaborate commercial enterprise for entertaining tourists, so we left without buying tickets.

We escaped to a shrine which commemorates the first parish Mass in the New World (Sept. 8, 1565), called Nombre de Dios, la Leche Shrine. The site includes a 208-foot stainless steel cross, a small chapel, a museum, and cemetery with graves mostly from the late part of the 19^th century.

Sometime we would love to camp again at Anastasia State Park. The beach, which is on the Atlantic Ocean, is enormous, beautiful, and excellent for collecting shells. We’d also like to rent a kayak and paddle around the salt marshes of the state park, and hike the Ancient Dunes Trail. Today’s weather in the 50s with lots of wind just wasn’t conducive.