Breakfast in America's First City*

When I told people at the accreditation conference that I drove up from South Florida, some people looked at me like I had told them that I hitched a wagon to a mule and made my way north.  But it didn't take me any longer than my colleague who flew, by the time one gets to the airport early.  I was glad to have the extra space and the ability to stop.

Yesterday I was driving south, and I thought, I could have breakfast in St. Augustine!  I could go from sleeping in the oldest city in Georgia to having breakfast in the oldest city in Florida--and then I scolded myself for only counting cities founded by Europeans.

So, I stopped and parked near the fort.

Here's a close up of the wall and the bridge over the moat:

Is this just high tide?  Sea level rise doubters, take note.  As the sea level rises, we will start to lose parts of cities for longer periods of time, and not just parking lots:

In my ongoing list of favorite signs, add this one about the fort being built for war, not for modern safety standards:

The first Catholic church in North America was open, so I ducked inside (more on the cathedral in this blog post):

I had a lovely breakfast.  I did a bit of sketching while waiting for it:

I also discovered that I'm not good at having a leisurely meal when I have many hours of driving ahead.  So I wrapped up my biscuit and wandered through the historic village, taking pictures on my way back to where I parked the car.

I can't tell if these are the original buildings.

Some of them look like they are:

But some remind me of the artifice of places like Gatlinburg:

I was glad I stopped.  As I got further to the south, I thought about historic cities and sites.  I thought that I should have a late lunch at the Miami Circle, a site created by the Tequesta, a native group here long before Europeans thought about pushing the boundaries by boat.  But I was glad to stop at my own historic site, my little house that was built early in the history of Broward county--it's on the first plat map.


*I am aware of the hazards of using the term America to refer to the U.S. and of the hazards of determining what counts as a city.  I'm using this term on purpose, and hoping that the blog post illuminates some of the hazards.