Hellooooo, Readers!

You might’ve seen the Beach Party here in the past. However, since the city of St. Augustine has become a strong “character” in my work, I decide to (ahem) revamp the page along with the awesome redesign of the website.

I’ll still tell you about the many festivals and other events Cesca and my short story character Colleen love to visit, but I’ll be including more tidbits of history and give you glimpses of St. Augustine sites. (Don’t know Colleen yet? Check out “Medium Rare” in the paranormal e-anthology Entangled. All proceeds go to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation!)

Since the city celebrated its 446th birthday on the 8th of September, let’s start at the beginning.

Ponce de Leon first set foot here just north of the current Historic Old Town area in 1513 in the location that is now the Fountain of Youth complex. He even laid out a cross of stones visitors can see today. Now good old Ponce supposedly searched the world for the fountain of youth, so why he didn’t stick around to drink a boat load of spring water, I don’t know. Then again, I don’t cheerfully chug sulfur water every day either. But, nope. He claimed the land for Spain and skedaddled.

The actual founding of the Ancient City took place when Pedro Menendez de Aviles dropped anchor off the coast on August 28, 1565, the Feast Day of St. Augustine. In early September, Menendez and 600 soldiers and settlers came ashore with banners waving and trumpets sounding.

Now imagine for a moment that you’re a Timucuan Indian living peacefully in the village of Seloy. Here come the Spanish tromping through your town making a racket thinking they’re all that and more. There goes the neighborhood, right? But with this pageantry, St. Augustine was born.

By the by, I don’t know why Menendez waited so long to row on in from the ships. Could be he was preparing for the grand entrance. I’ve also heard he waited out a storm, and September is the height of hurricane season. Duh! I do know that, even today, the St. Augustine Inlet (aka Matanzas Inlet) is narrow and dangerous due to shifting shoals. In the olden days, a harbor pilot had to guide ships through the inlet. Now, wise sailors get advance reports from locals before sailing into Matanzas Bay.

Okey-dokey, Dear Readers, in the spirit of sailing to St. Augustine, fair winds and following seas until we meet again!