450th
Last weekend marked St. Augustine's 450th birthday! We kicked off the tail end of the weekend with a walk uptown to Magnolia Avenue. Out of all my years visiting St. Augustine, Magnolia Avenue was something I still hadn't been to and it's just as beautiful as the pictures I've seen. After our walk, we met up with a few friends for a drink before heading home to make dinner. Ryan and I whipped up homemade veggie pizzas and climbed up onto the roof to people watch. I was pretty disappointed that I had missed the big firework show earlier in the weekend and Ryan just so happened to have a recorded version of it for us to watch as well. We even celebrated the city's birthday with sparkler candles :)
The next morning we had breakfast at The Hyppo Cafe and more excitingly, had one of their amazing cookies for dessert. All of their cookies are delicious, but their chocolate chip is my absolute favorite. Earlier in the year they removed the cookies from their menu and after several months of a cookie hiatus, they decided to bring them back and I couldn't have been happier. One cookie paired with an ice cortadito was the best way to start the morning, in my opinion.
That afternoon the city was a hosting a cake cutting in the square. It was scheduled to start at noon but was pushed back to later begin at 2pm. We ended up walking home after staying for a while to listen to the band entertain the crowd.
Tuesday, the 8th, was the final day of celebrations for the city. I walked down to The Mission to see the reenactment of Don Pedro Menendez's landing in St. Augustine. "He" came in by boat and shortly after, all of the actors paraded through the crowd and made their way downtown to the Cathedral Basilica for a ceremonial mass. I followed the parade along downtown and watched as several dozen priests and city leaders led their way into the church. The mass was by invitation only so I made my way back to Ryan's after the parade. I couldn't go back without picking up a Hyppo pop; the 90 degree weather called for 5 Hyppo pops, but I refrained and just picked one. Spumoni with a white chocolate cap was the specialty flavor for the weekend. It was just as delicious as it looks and I picked up several more to bring home with me :)
