So normally 4th graders are treated to an end of the year trip to St Augustine. My daughter's school decided to do Disney instead. So upon seeing that we would have a 3-day weekend, we hopped in the car and did a mini girl's road trip to St Augustine.
First and foremost, I have been to St Augustine as a teacher many times. I have never been as a tourist and without 20-50 students. I quickly realized that it is much busier and hectic when you're not using a guide. Parking is a whole nightmare but we survived.
We started our trip off at Fort Mose. Despite being in St Augustine many times, I have never visited Fort Mose. I always have wanted to go since it is the first FREE legally sanctioned black town. On the day that we came they were having a jazz concert so our time was limited. However our time there was pleasant. It is very serene and they have done a good job of highlighting important information about the fort.. Of course due to it's important nature, the fort itself no longer remains. It was destroyed. However I highly recommend that you take your child to see what remains. While the schools routinely visit St Augustine, they never take the children to Fort Mose which is only down the street from Ponce De Leon's fountain.
Afterwards we went to the Castillo fort. This is when we discovered that parking in St Augustine is not sweet and nice. It's a hot mess. Even with a giant parking garage a few yards away from the Castillo, parking is still not guaranteed. After circling and circling once again we headed to head to the beach for lunch. We settled on Crabby Beachside. The atmosphere was great, the service was good and the food was even better. We started off with the spinach crab dip which did not stand a chance. It was so good that my daughter begged us to go back to the restaurant the next day. If you're ever in St Augustine check them out. Their drinks were pretty stellar as well.
The next day we visited the Alligator farm. It was nothing that I remembered. My daughter and I still had a blast but the shows were not as exciting as they were in the past. Each show probably took around 5 minutes but the gigantic alligators and the expansion of the park made up for it. We spent a good hour here before heading downtown to shop and visit the fort.
Of course it would not have been a trip without including some Black History. A quick search on the history black sites for Florida and I found a black history tribute. I learned about Robert Hayling who was a graduate of my alma mater, Florida A&M University. He was a dentist and civil rights activist. His story is very interesting.
We ended our trip at Island Donuts which had the best key lime donut I have ever tasted.
So would you visit St Augustine?
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