Biloxi - St. Augustine Trip Recap - Part 2 (St. Augustine)

The day after the race, we packed up and hit the road, heading east. We spent the night in St. Mary’s, Georgia, so the boys could get paws on the ground in Georgia (a new state for them). The next morning, before heading to St. Augustine, we went to the Cumberland Island National Seashore to collect the stamp in our passsport. We couldn’t actually visit Cumberland Island because the only way to get there is a no-dogs-allowed ferry. But we did a walk around the water near the visitor center. The town was so quiet and peaceful with some cute shops and a nice park with lots of Christmas trees decorated by local businesses and organizations.

After visiting the seashore, we hooked up the trailer and headed to St. Augustine. After getting settled into our campsite at the North Beach Camp Resort, David texted the guy who made the Airstream bed platforms and he was able to come out and install them that day. It was super nice to get that out of the way. During the install, I took Milo for a run around the campground. My legs were definitely not ready to run again, so we plodded along for two miles and then just walked. Don’t worry, Gus got a bully stick during the install. He prefers that to running.

The next day, we headed up to the Timucuan Ecological and Historical Preserve in Jacksonville. Also there is Fort Caroline, the site of a French fort from 1564 that was then destroyed by the Spanish in 1565. We walked the nature trail and the boys explored the fort. They noted that the rebuilt walls had lots of gaps between the ground and the bottom, so any good husky could escape the fort quite easily.

After we left Jacksonville, we went back to St. Augustine to the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument. It is the oldest masonry fort in the continental US, built by the Spanish beginning in 1672. David and I explored the inside of the fort and then all four of us explored the outside.

We were going to walk around the town for a bit, but it was starting to rain, so we left. I think that was a good decision because by the time we got to our campsite, it was raining pretty hard and was quite windy.

The next day we went to Fort Matanzas National Monument and Canaveral National Seashore. After this trip, we’ve collected all the NPS passport stamps in Florida except for one in Tampa. Canaveral National Seashore was not dog friendly. They were allowed on a very short boardwalk trail, but not on the beach. David said he’s going to run for president and his only campaign issue is going to be making more NPS sites dog friendly. I told him he has my vote as long as the fines are really high (like thousands of dollars) for people who use flexi-leashes.

On our way back to St. Augustine, we stopped in Daytona Beach and had lunch with my cousin, Melissa. Again, we were going to walk around St. Augustine, but it was very windy and raining when we got back to town. We got a glimpse of all the Christmas lights in town from the road at least. Gus, Milo, and I were glad to not have to get out after we stopped at a gas station to fill up and David got back into the pickup soaking wet!

On Friday, it was time to head home, but before we hit the road, we went for a nice, long walk along the beach so Gus and Milo would be ready to nap during the drive. It was a nice morning and we mostly had the beach to ourselves. Gus tried to pick up some sticks, but every stick he picked up, Milo took from him. Gus is a pushover and Milo thinks everything is his. I guess we need to work on that!

After spending the night in Gulfport, Mississippi on the way, we made it home Saturday night. It was not the end of our adventures though because when we got home, the garage doors wouldn’t open and we didn’t have a key to our house. I was getting prepared to sleep in the Airstream for another night but then David called his friend, Bobby, and got some tips on how to break into our own house. Whew!

We had a great trip. Two new states for the boys: Georgia and Florida. Seven stamps in our NPS passport. One more half marathon state. Success!