Every year,  I fly down and stay with my grandparents. This time I also rented a car so I could do more sight-seeing. We had some stuff planned for my stay but it was also nice to get out and take a solo road trip. I didn’t want to do the über-tourist stuff so I decided on St. Augustine. I dig historical sites and haven’t been to the ocean for a few years so this seemed fitting.

I started my day with a visit to the Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum. It wasn’t quite what I’d expected or hoped so I don’t have too many great things to say about it. It was entertaining, but I don’t think the admission was fair. I didn’t take too many photos:

Ferris wheel and stained glass roof

After I left the museum, I went out to explore the town. I parked in the Visitors Information Center garage, which cost about $7. The garage was fairly central to all the attractions in St. Augustine, so I thought this was a decent deal. (Before that, I did a little cruising through this area… parking was not abundant and some of the “roads” were quite narrow, so the garage was a good deal.)

I’d read of this old drug store that created herbal remedies and had a variety of herbal teas, so I set out for this place first. I didn’t end up buying anything but appreciated the concept of their holistic products. They also had a large display of old medicine bottles, jars, devices, etc.:

I then set out to Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, which is the oldest fort in the U.S. I can’t say I was too impressed with this either, but it was cool to explore something historic and gave me a chance to snap some photos, which I always appreciate:

This biker’s shirt cracked me up.

I then set off to explore St. George Street, which is pretty much across the street from the fort. There were a lot of tourist-type shops that I didn’t check out, but I really liked the architecture and lay-out of this area. The” street” was more like an alley and there were also smaller alleys branching off that you could venture into.

It wasn’t too congested (probably since I went on a weekday) but I wanted to get away from the main area so I decided to head down some other streets.  There were lots of  bed and breakfasts/inns that I imagine would be lovely for a romantic getaway. I loved getting shots of the architecture of the area:

Cuna St., St Augustine, FL

Grace United Methodist Church, St. Augustine, FL

Stay tuned for Part II of my St. Augustine road trip…