Daytrip to St. Augustine

Last weekend we headed to St. Augustine for the day. I love historic towns. I love walking through the old houses wondering who might have walked across the creaky old floors a hundred years ago. I love the smell and sounds of it all. We took a walk through the halls and gardens of The Lightner Museum and viewed the gorgeous architecture of Flagler College.My favorite thing to do there is to visit St. Photios' Shrine on St. George St. The Byzantine style iconography is breathtaking and the boys love that it is inside of a cave.For those of you who have never visited St. Photios, it is a "national shrine and living memorial to the first Greek settlers on the American continent and to all the Greek Orthodox pioneers whose love of freedom and desire for a better life for themselves and their children brought them to this New World." And of course, they brought their Faith along too.We had lunch at a little pizza joint and then headed to Castillo de San Marcos, where we watched a demonstration shooting of the canons. Ace loved it, but poor Lucky buried his head in my shoulder and held my hands over his ears. It was really cool though. Ace really loves history so he wanted to know everything and he had me read him the informational brochure on the drive home. :)After we walked through the last of the shops, we loaded up and went to St. Augustine Beach. It's so nice and quiet there, not too crowded.It was Lucky's first time at the beach and Ace's first in a long time, so they both had a blast trying to ride the waves and collect sea shells. Our sand castle was pretty pathetic but it was fun nonetheless.I may be heading back to the St. Photios Shrine for a book signing in the near future, so I'll keep you posted.Now we're getting ready for Ace's Kindergarten graduation and then I'm off to Orlando this weekend for the big SCBWI writer's conference. I can't wait!What plans do you have for summer?