My Puppy Story: St. Augustine

Yesterday marks 1 year from the day I picked up my little 10 pound Mia from Orange County Animal Services and brought her home. Today she is a 40 pound Monkey and I couldn't be more happy with my decision to adopt her. She has brought so much joy into my life and I can't wait to find out what adventures we'll have together in the future.

To celebrate our "anniversary" I wanted to do something fun and special I took her to St. Augustine for the day. There are so many dog-friendly activities up there we actually only got through about half of our list!

Our first stop was the Castillo de San Marcos. This is the oldest masonry fort in the country and the fort grounds are dog-friendly. We walked around the grounds and in the mote and got lots of cute pictures of Mia.

Outside on the grounds of Castillo de San Marcos

Mia at the fort, watching for enemies ;)

Our next stop was the Fountain of Youth. Honestly, there's not that much to do there, however it is dog-friendly and I get in free through work. The main attraction is of course the spring that is a tribute to the spot where Ponce de Leon is traditionally said to have landed. We did taste the water from the spring and man was it gross! Mia liked it though ;) They also had a Timucuan village set up, so we got some cute pictures there. The funniest part of the whole park was Mia's reaction to the furs they had strung up in the village. Mia got one whiff of them and freaked out and wouldn't go anywhere near them! I was very surprised to see her instincts kick in like that, even with me trying to reassure her.

Mia drinking the disgusting, rotten-egg tasting water

Timucuan Village at the Fountain of Youth Park

Mia did NOT like the fur critters!

Getting her even this close to them took a lot of patience, reassuring and treats

With a Spanish soldier...I was not supposed to be in this picture, but Mia was being a wussy and wouldn't let this "scary" man anywhere near her

After leaving the Fountain of Youth, we walked back to the historic area near the fort. While exploring the old streets, we ran into a man with one of his snakes. He was letting people hold it and take pictures, so I thought it would be cool to see how Mia reacted to it. I was very surprised to see how little she seemed to care. She gave it a few sniffs and that was about it. This made up for her being such a pansy with the furs ;)

Mia and I with our new friend

"Hey Mom, watcha got?!"

Next up, The Oldest Wooden Schoolhouse. I can't describe to you how thrilled I was about all of these places being dog friendly. I'm really loving St. Augustine right now! I haven't been to the schoolhouse since I was little, it's so much smaller than I remember. It's also incredible to think about just how old it is and how things were back in those days.

The schoolhouse...class was held in the first story, the teacher and his wife lived upstairs...the building that's in the right side in this frame is the kitchen.

The wishing well at the schoolhouse. Mia's wish? That I'll stop taking pictures of her...

After the schoolhouse, we walked around until we found a good place to eat and after we were finished we really didn't have much time to do anything else. We decided to make a stop at the beach (also dog-friendly!) for a little sunset stroll before heading back home.