Exploring St. Augustine and the beach

On Monday we celebrated our anniversary by driving over to St. Augustine to see some of the city, some historical sites, and the beach. We had a great day driving around and playing. We were quite thankful for our GPS, which helped us get around flawlessly. I can't imagine what people did before GPS! :) They probably had to stop and ask directions instead of just listen to the nice British lady spout off when and where to turn.

A statue of a Spanish conquistador (Pedro Mendez de Aviles founded St. Augustine in 1565). He might look placid in this photo but you should have seen him a few seconds later when he tried to skewer me with his sword! No wonder the Spanish government asked him to go explore the New World; he caused so much Godzilla-like damage to downtown Madrid in the 1500s that the king said, "If you're going to destroy a city, go found your own!" So he did.

At Flagler College. We couldn't believe how big those frogs were! We also couldn't believe that the college trained them to sit there and shoot water out of their mouths all day; now that's impressive!

We always end up with some really nice photos of Anwyn in trees.

We saw a few wild dolphins while waiting for the ferry at Fort Matanzas! This is the only picture I managed to take of one.

Fort Matanzas, an old Spanish fort that is now a national monument. It is free to visit and we even got a short ferry ride over to it.

Fighting off the English hordes.

Our pet heron that we've trained to catch fish for us. Some say that learning how to fish is the best way to never go hungry again but I say that having a heron do it for you leaves you more time to lounge about eating bonbons (especially if you train another heron to make and feed you bonbons). :)

Lily likes stairs.

Where I hid with the girls while Kristi fought off the English army.

At Crescent Beach. I love this photo. The girls' reflections are just about perfect.

Lily wasn't very fond of the waves rushing up at her. Of course, what is a small wave to us probably looks like Poseidon's charging chariot to her!

I manage to keep sharks at bay by blinding them with the glare from my pearly skin.

The small sand castles we built didn't last long with the rising tide. Next time we're bringing mortar and bricks!

Disclaimer: Some of what I wrote really isn't true, just in case you are wondering. Neither the previous sentence nor the present sentence are true on Spanish holidays or when Achilles beats the tortoise. ;)