Friday Foto Friends: Let There Be Lights!

Yesterday afternoon and evening we had a real treat! We spent the afternoon with my hubby's brother and wife and their son and our son and his wife in St. Augustine!  Actually, this was our "Christmas get-together" with the "in-laws" since we can't actually be together with them on Christmas.

So I will proceed with the last pictures first and then move on to the first pictures last, because I know you want to see "the Lights" of St. Augustine!

These pictures were taken actually as we were leaving downtown St. Augustine.  We had already walked all around town before dark...it was such a lovely, perfect evening...

But we wanted to get out of town before the real crowds started pouring in for this festival of lights. 

Sorry this is a little blurred as I was taking the pictures as we drove past these places...

"Nights of Lights"...they certainly were beautiful!

We had discussed the possibility of getting on the trolley and taking the tour around town to see all of the lights, but when we found out the cost, somewhere around $80.00 PER PERSON, we decided we could see all we wanted to see from our cars just fine!

This was taken as we went over the bridge...there were many boats in the intracoastal waters there, but we were moving too fast to get any good pictures

We finally made it back to our kids' store parking lot, where they had left their vehicle, and this is what we could see from there...the almost full moon and the St. Augustine Lighthouse lighting the way:

Now, here's a few pictures from our walkabout in downtown St. Augustine before dark:

Blimey! I think I see a Pirate!!!

Pretty trees and decorations everywhere

And these folks even took their monkey out for a stroll...they did give us permission to take these pictures...

It's not every day you see a monkey in a stroller, now is it???

Our son "Ben" thought perhaps he had another new business he didn't know about...and it even had a Rose at the top of the sign...it must be "a sign"....LOL.

While the Steiner women (excluding me) were doing a little shopping, the Steiner men sat down for a rest, and of course I couldn't resist this wonderful photo op:

Aren't they a handsome group of men? We were sorry our son Scott couldn't join us, but he had to work. This is our nephew Nicholaus, my hubby John, our son Benton, and my BIL, BILL!

Then they took a picture of me with my two guys.  I was being squeezed on that bench between two big handsome guys!

Next we walked around to the "Plaza de Constitucion", "The Oldest Public Space in America"! How's that for you history buffs? You do know that St. Augustine is the oldest city in America, don't you???

It was a beautiful park, and a perfect evening to enjoy it.

Here are some sights around the park:

They call this "The Treasury" building...I didn't get close enough to read the plaque telling the history, so I guess we should look it up. Here's the LINK.  I guess we should have had a looksy inside. I must be gorgeous!

And of course there are these lovely horse drawn carriages everywhere, if you'd like to do the tour that way:

And HERE, for your listening pleasure, are the church bells ringing at Trinity Parish, which has been there for nearly 200 years...

I wish Lily Grace had been with us to hear these church bells ringing...Did you read her post about "Christmas Bells Are Ringing Ringing yesterday?  She would have loved this!! 

Here's Nicholaus and Benton, discussing the history of this cannon.  Oh, btw, these two "First Cousins" were born on the exact same day, just 31 years apart!!

Benton and Rose were enjoying this lovely night out on the town, away from work for a while!

And here's my BIL  Billy and his lovely wife Peggy, and Nicholaus again. Their daughter Shannon wasn't able to come, and we certainly missed her.  You might remember that we prayed for Shannon a few months ago after a serious car accident...she is doing very well now...walking again without the aid of a walker and also back to swimming again. She has a scholarship pending for swimming at a college in Georgia, but she still has a ways to go to get back to swimming that well...so please continue to pray for her. Thank you.

And as we were leaving the plaza, here were the towers at Flagler College in the waning sun:

Really beautiful scene...

Oh, here's a little bit of Florida scenery that you really need to see:

And this gorgeous balcony porch with the baskets of flowers hanging all over:

Well, I think I will close with this photo of the Lighthouse and the moon again...

A fitting reminder that at Christmas we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ,

"The Light of the World".

 "Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, 

“I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, 

but have the light of life.”

John 8:12

Merry Christmas!