Day 9 & 10 – Castillo De San Marcos, Old City, Drive Home
We woke up early today and ate at the continental breakfast served at
the hotel. I liked the St. Augustine Inn. I like the location, the price, the room,
staff (it is owned and run by a husband and wife team). However, I have 2 complaints. The shampoo and conditioner were those trial,
single packs and if you asked for more you were charged for it. Obviously that wasn’t going to be enough for
3 people. It was cheaper to stop at the
local drug store and pick up a bottle of each.
My second complaint was the breakfast.
It consisted of coffee, tea, juice, a cereal assortment, English muffins,
butter and jelly. There was not a piece
of fruit or protein in sight. Not even
peanut butter. This did not ruin our trip or anything, it was just kind of a shock after Disney.
We had plans to visit the Castillo De San Marcos this morning and we
were all really excited about it! As we
drove into St. Augustine we could see the light house, followed by signs
announcing the city and that it had been established in 1565. That boggles my mind! Soon A1A turned inland, the view opened up
and we could see Matanzas Bay, The Bridge of Lions and the Castillo! Very impressive site! I remember being a teenager, a little younger
than my own daughter, and driving north up A1A and seeing that site. It has always stuck with me and I always
wanted to go back and visit that fort!
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| The sign says it all! |
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| The St. Augustine Light House |
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| Crossing the Bridge of Lions |
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| Pirate ship in Matanzas Bay |
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| Near the end of the bridge, into old city. That is Flagler College ahead of us. |
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| A lion, on the Bridge of Lions |
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| You can see St. Augustine by Buggy! |
The Castillo is just a bit north of the bridge on A1A with ample
parking. It is also the best deal
around, kids 15 and under are FREE and adults 16 and up are just $7 and the
admission is valid for 3 days! We could
have easily spent three days there too.
Walking up to the Castillo is impressive! There is a heavy wooden door and the large
stone walls. I imagine the British and
French fleets would have been quite intimidated when they first caught site of
it all! We explored the front for a
little bit and then went inside. When you
first enter there is a book store/gift shop to the left and an information desk
to the left. To the right of the
information desk is the officer’s quarters which guests can explore. Going past the shop and information desk is
the court yard. There are “rooms” around
the perimeter of the court yard and all of them have displays and one even has
a short movie to watch. We talked to
costumed “history volunteers”, Park rangers, and watched a musket and cannon
firing. We learned all kind of things
about coquina and how cannon balls would bounce off of it. We learned about history of the town and the
fort, and the relationship between the two.
We learned about cannons and what is was like to be in the firing
end. We learned about their dress, life
in the military and that the history of our nation begins a little different than we were taught. We also learned that St. Augustine is a beautiful place full of amazing
history and we want to go back.
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| Fort Sign |
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| Looking back to the bridge from the fort |
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| First gate entrance |
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| Fort gate from inside looking back |
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| Court yard and steps leading up to the sentry level |
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| Another view of the court yard and rooms of the lower level |
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| Sentry tower |
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| Window in sentry tower looking toward a group of cannons and the bridge in the distance |
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| Cannons and the Spanish flag |
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| The girl and cannon |
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| Officers quarters |
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| Inside looking out |
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| A row of cannons |
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| Military drills |
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| Musket fireing |
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| cannon firing |
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| A mortar cannon |
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| Graffiti carved into one of the walls |
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| We are standing at one of the fort "points". This design made no blind spots on the wall so no one could sneak in. |
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| Court yard and steps from upper level |
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| My daughter and husband |
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| a close up of some coquina |
We spent quite a bit of time talking with two of the history volunteers in particular. One was upstairs and part of the cannon unit. The other was a very nice guy downstairs who was very knowledgeable about life at the fort. Both told us they enjoyed talking with our family but the guy at the cannons made my day. He started to walk away after our chatting, then stopped and turned back around to tell us he really enjoyed talking to us and enjoyed that we asked intelligent questions. It was a proud mom moment.
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| The cannon man |
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| Very knowledgeable history volunteer |
We had planned to only spend the morning at the fort and the afternoon
at the pirate museum, but we never made it out of the fort. The only reason we left the fort was that it
was after 4 pm and we were hungry and there is no food service at the fort.
We went out for tacos and then back to our room. We had planned to change into our swim suits
and enjoy the pool for a short while but daughter and I fell asleep while waiting
for our turn in the bathroom, so hubby let us sleep. I think he was tired too and was happy to
just relax.
We woke up bright and early the next morning, packed our stuff in the car,
ate at the continental breakfast and headed north to home. We have decided we need a week to really
enjoy St. Augustine. We also decided we
need to stay in old city and take our bicycles next time too. We were really impressed with how cycle and
pedestrian friendly the city is and would love to take advantage of that.
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| The Pirate museum, next trip! |
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| Neat bridge we crossed |
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| Mountains and dusk |
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| Sun has set, still driving home |
We still had cake when we got home. We had been keeping it in a fridge and we had a cooler with ice for the drive home. We ate the last few pieces, then my mom made another cake for daughter's birthday. We did indeed eat cake and I can honestly say we were done with cake for a while.
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