Day 1:
September 14, 2011. Thulani arrived at our home in Middleburg, Florida where he met our 3 boys. Mason, age 6, Vincent, age 5, and Jamie, age 3. Middleburg is a suburb of Jacksonville, which is the largest city in the state of Florida. Jacksonville is also the largest city land-wise in the continental United States. Jacksonville is in the First Coast region of northeast Florida and is centered on the banks of the St. John's river. We also have beautiful beaches that are along the adjacent Atlantic coast. Here is a picture of the city at night:
Thulani meets the boys.
Day 4:
Today we took Thulani to visit historic St. Augustine, Florida. St. Augustine is the oldest city in the continental United States and a place we love to visit. It is a tourist city and is rich in history and we love visiting all the old churches, buildings, and the fort. We also enjoy visiting the beach there, St. Augustine beach, along the First Coast. St. Augustine was first discovered in 1513 by Spanish explorer Don Juan Ponce De Leon who named it La Florida which means "land of the flowers." Many of the streets are named after the first Spanish explorers who came to the city and launched six different expeditions in order to settle. St. Augustine was founded 42 years before the English Colony at Jamestown, Virginia and 55 years before the pilgrims landed on Plymouth rock, making it the oldest permanent European settlement on the North American continent. For detailed information on the city you can visit this website here: http://www.oldcity.com/history-information.cfm. Below are the pictures we took with Thulani on our visit to the oldest city.
Vince and Thulani outside the oldest wooden school house in the United States.
Below are picture of Thulani and Vince in the Plaza De La Constitucion
Vince and Thulani at the Trinity Episcopal Parish. The oldest Epsicopal church in the United States.
Vince and Thulani at the Castillos De San Marcos. The old Fort.
Thulani sitting inside one of the cannons.
Thulani and a view of the Intercoastal Waterway. It was about to storm.
Thulani and Vince outside the old cemetery that was the public burying ground during the yellow fever outbreak.
We took Thulani to visit St. Augustine Beach after we left the historic part of the city.
Thulani driving over the bridge of Lions back in to the city of St. Augustine.
We took Thulani out to lunch at Mcdonald’s LOL.
Day 5: Thulani visited school with Mason and Vince at Wilkinson elementary where Mason attends 1st grade and Vince attends Kindergarten.
