St. Augustine, FL

(written by J)

We started Day 2 by driving into the town of St. Augustine, the oldest town in the United States. It is a very pretty town with many old buildings inspired by Spanish architecture. The first building we visited was the Oldest One Room Schoolhouse in the United States. We had to buy tickets in the gift shop where the kids spotted Webkinz, those adorable stuffed animals that have virtual lives on the Internet, with their eagle eyes. Z and B already have 4 Webkinz but they wanted more. We told them that if they were good seeing the schoolhouse, they could each buy one. Z was very good and enjoyed the school (probably because he could relate it by just finishing Kindergarten). B did not enjoy it as much and kept whining “Springer Spaniel” for the Webkinz dog she wanted. Highlights of the school included the animatronic boy who was wearing a dunce cap and the special dungeon area for kids who misbehaved. Z even rung the schoolhouse bell before we left. After the schoolhouse, Z got a Webkinz turtle and B got the springer spaniel that she so desired. We then took a very brief look inside the Oldest Drug Store which just seemed to want to sell you new things. The next stop on our visit was the Fountain of Youth. J thought that we would just walk up to the fountain, take a picture, and depart. Instead it was a 45 minute presentation which started inside a tiny planetarium to see how the stars looked the night before Ponce de Leon arrived ashore at St. Augustine (Z was mesmerized by the show… B didn’t like the dark) and ended with our tour guide, a bald man with a large tattoo on his arm, advising us that we could buy beer at the concession stand. We all got to drink water from the fountain which was cool. The fountain itself was very plain, it was just a well. But hey, the fountain is from the 1500s so you wouldn’t expect it to be ornate. Next stop – Disney World!