Saint Augustine: The Oldest, Continuously-Inhabited Settlement in the US

Last weekend a group of friends and I traveled to Saint Augustine, Florida for our friends' wedding.  Most of us hadn't been to Saint Augustine before and were astounded by the city's history, sites, cuisines and drinking establishments.

Downtown historic St Augustine at sunset

Fresh squeezed lemonade & smoothies across the street from the Fountain of Youth.  Perhaps these also have restorative properties?

Entrance to the Fountain of Youth historical site

White peafowl on the Fountain of Youth grounds

Poured concrete & oyster shell gate surrounding the Fountain of Youth site

The Saint Augustine Lighthouse, built in 1871

The winding staircase to the top of the lighthouse - 219 steps in all

The grounds at the Saint Augustine Lighthouse

Self-portrait of me & the lighthouse

View from the Conch House restaurant

The pub crawl that never was at Scarlett O'Hara's

In front of the old city gates

More San Fran photos!

view across the vineyard, Napa

 To refresh your memory, I was lucky enough to take a trip to San Francisco with my friend Heather this past Memorial Day weekend.  Here are more photos from our awesome adventure...

Heather sampling some vino at Bell Cellars

vats and bottles at Bell Cellars - their wine was unbelievable! I highly recommend reserving a tasting time here.

Giant redwood at Muir Woods

funny loaves of sourdough bread at Boudin Bakery

highly fragrant sea lions at Pier 39 (really?)

 We had no clue it was the 75th birthday weekend of the Golden Gate bridge when we booked our trip.  What great luck - stuff like this never happens to me!  The Sunday of the long weekend was the big day of celebrations.  Heather and I didn't venture too far into the festivities (neither of us are fans of crowds) but we got together with some friends of hers who were in town - another odd coincidence! It was a fun night hanging by the bridge, drinking wine and waiting for the fireworks, even though it seemed unseasonably cold (coming from 75 degrees and sunny in Boston, to 50 and dank in San Fran, which I learned wasn't unseasonable. ) Here are some bridge photos.  I was too entranced by the fireworks to snap any photos of them!  Oh well... memories...

The Golden Gate Bridge - 75 years old!

JetBlue was having an amazing sale a couple months ago that I couldn't resist: $300 round-trip from Boston to San Fran for Memorial Day weekend.  How could I say no?  See, I couldn't.  My fun friend from Chicago, Heather, and I had been talking about wanting to go there and this was the perfect opportunity.  Unfortunately JetBlue didn't have a deal for her, but she found an even cheaper flight through United.  Yay!

So, last weekend we spent 3.5 days in the lovely Bay Area.  I have to say, I can't wait to go back!  Here are some photos of the fab places we visited.  Don't worry, I'll share more...

Golden Gate Bridge... the building at the base is featured in Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, in the scene where Kim Novak throws herself into the water, hoping to drown.  Fun!  We also saw the building that served as Jimmy Stewart's apartment, on Lombard St.  Pretty neat-o.

We treated ourselves to a day in Napa & Sonoma, complete with our own driver.  This vineyard was our first stop.  We highly recommend the wines from here.  Delish!

Scenic wine country

Amazingly giant redwoods in Muir Woods.  We couldn't get over how fresh and clean the air smelled here.  The scent should definitely be bottled.

Standing in the base of a redwood.  So huge!

Fisherman's Wharf

On a cable car, not to be confused with a trolley car

Golden Gate at sunset - waiting for the birthday fireworks to start