August 06, 2005
Mil Gracias!
I am typing this while sitting on the second floor veranda you see in the house pictured here. The Mrs. and I decided to take a few days off and visit the oldest city in the US, St. Augustine. An anniversary weekend getaway.
It's beautiful here. St. Augustine is wonderful. Quiet, slow paced and friendly. Even the mosquitos say Good Morning! before the ask if they can bite you. And our bed and breakfast is absolutely incredible. I'll tell you all more about it soon.
We came with noparticular agenda or schedule, so today we'll basically just have our breakfast in bed and then head out to enjoy the sites and sounds of the Oldest City.
Maggie and I thank all of you who congratulated us and wished us well yesterday for our anniversary. We were both very moved by your thoughts and your kind sentiments. Gracias, gracias. Mil gracias a todos.
Posted by Val Prieto at August 6, 2005 07:25 AM
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Comments
Great choice! My wife and I also stayed at a bed and breakfast in St. Augustine for our first wedding anniversary. It's a fascinating place with tons of history.
Val and Maggie, enjoy yourselves!
Posted by: Robert at August 6, 2005 08:20 AM
Even if late, Happy Anniversary !!
Posted by: Stefania at August 6, 2005 10:12 AM
St. Augustine with its history is a great choice Val! I remember enjoying a tour of Flagler College and the old fort Castillo de San Marcos!
Posted by: Jose Aguirre at August 6, 2005 11:10 AM
When I was a little girl of five or six, and lived on Merritt Island, I remember vividly the trips we would take to St. Augustine. I loved them.
Now, I marvel at St. Augustine for its oldness. Founded in the 1500s, back when people wore those white ruff things around their necks and men wore those stockings and short stripey bloomers, it's truly amazing to know that such settlements really did appear in the New World in that era. But make that Anglo New World - the Spanish New World is loaded with towns founded in the 1500s - Quito was founded in 1534 and Guayaquil (printed right on your banana tag) was founded in 1535. Caracas was founded in the 1500s too, and so probably a lot of them. Our Lady of Guadalupe was paying visits in Mexico. And here, in the U.S., the evidence of all that Spanish industriousness is right in our country. What a beautiful thing that we have some of it here too. We are all connected.
Posted by: A.M. Mora y Leon at August 6, 2005 12:32 PM
If memory serves me correct, St Augustine was founded sixty (60) years before Plymouth Rock saw it's first wave of humble Puritans escaping from the same sort of dastarly religious persecution that they later proudly and savagely beat into the Native's head.
p.s. Bayamo (1513) beats their ugly rock anyday...
Posted by: Lilo at August 6, 2005 07:08 PM
Cubans are the only living descendents of the original founders of St. Augustine. When Spain sold Florida to the U.S. in 1819, the inhabitants of St. Augustine emigrated en masse to Cuba, including the Menéndez-Márquez family (descended from the founder, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés). The family of Ponce de León, the discoverer of Florida, also resettled in Cuba. The most prominent of these FFFs (First Families of Florida) are chronicled in the Count of Jaruco's monumental 9-volume work, "Historia de Familias Cubanas."
Posted by: M.A.T. at August 7, 2005 12:07 PM
