Disney and St. Augustine “Let Them Eat Cake” Vacation Part 7

Day 8 – Fort Matanzas and St. Augustine Beach

We slept in a little today because we were really tired and our beds were really comfy. 

Sleeping teen

View from our window.  The beach is out yonder.

Our Hotel - The St. Augustine Island Inn

We finally did wake and decided we would visit Fort Matanzas.  This is a smaller fort on the Matanzas River.  It was built by the Spanish in 1742 to guard the Matanzas inlet, the southern part of the river and the rear entrance to St. Augustine. 

The fort is run by the parks services and is only accessible via a ferry.  It is free to visit the fort but you have to get a ferry pass and they go quickly.  There is a visitor’s center with a short movie, models and maps.  There is also a nature trail.  The area is beautiful.  We got our boarding passes and explored the visitor’s center and the grounds. 

Visitors center

Ready to watch the movie

The Movie

Map of area

Neat tree

Spanish moss in tree

Boarding Passes

Eventually we went down to the dock and boarded the ferry.  We could see the fort from the dock and it was kind of exciting to know we were going to take a boat ride over.  The ride over was nice and as the fort got bigger we got more excited.  There is a dock on the other island with a path over to the fort.  We had a ranger who led our group and told about the history, the fort itself and the landscape.  We were allowed to explore the fort for about and hour and he was available to ask question.  It turns out he was from Cleveland Ohio.  We chatted with him for a while and he asked about some of the parks here in Ohio that he had not visited in a while.  It was a neat exchange.

Signage

careful on the river beach

River beach - the river connect to the Atlantic so it is salt water

Fort sign n foreground and the fort in the distance

Docks - Daughter wanting to know what I am doing

On the ferry on the way to the fort, which you can see just left of center

Fort from island docks

The fort was impressive despite its small size.  It held 6 men, a captain and five soldiers.  They rotated out from the larger fort in St. Augustine once a month.  It is made of coquina which is a natural limestone composed of broken shells that solidified when mixed with sand and calcite from the shells.  It is very durable even though it is about 90% air.  The Spanish found that cannon balls would bounce off of it making it a great building material for the forts.  There was a big battle between the Spanish and the French here in 1565, which is when St. Augustine was established.   The French were slaughtered and that is what Matanzas mean, slaughtered.  However this fort was not built until sometime later.  The cannons at the fort were real and had been used at one point.  The park ranger told us that these could fire cannon as far as the bridge that now crosses the inlet.  It was all really interesting and the scenery was beautiful.  We all really enjoy history and this was a really informative excursion. I recommend a visit if you are ever in St. Augustine.

Our ranger telling us about the fort.  You can also see the beauty of the coquina.

Ready to explore

View from fort window

Cannon aimed at the bridge in the distance

Inner workings of the fort

Items the soldiers used to pass the time

Quarter artifacts

Stunning view of the river, looking south, the Atlantic ocean is just to the left of that strip of land on the left

Supplies

Barracks

View from fort looking south

                                             

                                                Cannon packing tools

This thing

Spanish flag on top of the fort

We went back and purchased a few items at the gift shop then headed back to our hotel.  We decided to get dinner and stopped at a subway on the way back.  We chatted with the lady working there. She was very nice and had lots of insight on the history of the area. 

We went back to our room and changed into beach clothes then headed over to St. Augustine Beach.  We walked via the Ocean Hammock Park Walkway.  It is a trail for pedestrians and bikes much like the trails we ride at home.  We passed several people walking and bike riding and everyone was very friendly.  Part of the is trail is located on highway A1A,  so they have these pedestrian flags to use while crossing the street.  You take the flag from the side you are on and leave it on the other side for you or whoever crosses the other direction.  It was neat.

Our hotel was on the same side of the street as the walkway to the ocean so we didn't have to cross, I was just impressed that it was there.  It was a beautiful walkway but much different surroundings than what I thought we would see.  I thought a line of palm trees and then sand, sand and more sand.  Instead, the area was marshy grassland that eventually opened up to the Atlantic Ocean beach.  It was a really pretty walk.

Walkway trail head sign

Entering the walkway

This area is a protected wetland.  I thought the green was beautiful.

Long walk to the beach.  It took us a while and we rested a few times.

More grassland to the right of the walkway.  Left of the walkway was a high end residential area but once we also passed the beautiful homes the landscape was open like this on both sides.

marshy grassland

there were embankments on each side just before we see the beach and ocean

The multi million dollar homes on the south side of the trail

Walking down a sandy ramp to the beach

Panorama of where the walkway and the beach meet.

A bench on the ocean side of the walkway

Signs you only see at an ocean beach

Another sign only seen at the ocean

It was low tide and the beach seemed to go on forever.  So beautiful!

We collected shells, built a sand castle and eventually our daughter put on her mermaid tail and I took some photos of her.  She splashed her fin around in the water but none of us really got in the water.  The water and beach were beautiful and we enjoyed it. 

Collected shells

Building a sand castle - love her hair!

People on the beach.  There was a lady on a modified skateboard using the kite to pull her down the beach.  She is just left of center with the kite stretched out to the right and pulling her along.

Husband and wife selfie

My mermaid girl

Mermaid daughter

I love this photo, a mermaid looking toward the sea

The Atlantic Ocean

The sun was setting so we wanted to get back to our hotel before dark.  We hung out in our room and ate leftover cake (yes we still had cake) and talked out our plan the next day to see the big fort.

We took so many photos!  Check them out in our day 8 Flickr album