Days 18, 19 - April 11,12 - Oldest City in U.S., St. Augustin, FL

On the way out from the Keys we spent one last night at Annette's. We also had to pick up all the luggage we had left behind so that Doug and his stuff could fit in. Doug, with his amazing talent for packing, managed to get everything in with just inches to spare.
Had to take a picture of this -- Juju sprawled on the bed and Maya sleeping with her feet on the floor and head under the blanket. Poor baby!
We headed up to St. Augustine to be total tourists and see the nation's oldest city. But first, set up camp in St. Augustine beach. Really great campground with lots of trees and birds, and we even had a butterfly flutter onto a branch over our tent to stay for a while.
St. Augustine Beach is really pretty. More wild than the southern FL beaches. Only negative is that cars can drive on the beach, but we saw only one set of tire tracks. We ran around the beach at sunset - no bugs! Yay!

Drove into town to check it out a bit...
Breakfast
and then time for some hiking. Doug found this fishing device (?) next to a little fishing pond. Looks like you use it like a treadmill or something so that you can reel 'em in.
We walked out on a dock to check out the pond and I asked J and M to be quiet so that we could see some wildlife. Too late, Maya had stomped around, but it turned out to be a good thing because about 40 turtles started cruising toward us to get something to eat.
We all loved the Spanish moss. Juju and Maya took some handfuls to have in the car - it's so soft and cushy. There was a big industry around spanish moss a while back when it was used for stuffing mattresses, pillows, etc. Uber-eco!

Maya's photo of some of the wild azalea - she loved those.
Right near the state park's entrance was a short trail leading to an old coquina quarry. Pretty interesting stuff! It was used for a lot of the building around St. Augustine and was great for the fortress there because cannon balls would actually just mush into the walls and not cause any damage.
J and Doug in the old quarry. There is still a huge amount of intact and crushed shells mixed in the dirt there. Maya found a few good ones she liked.

Time to do the touristy thing and see all the sights in St. Augustine. First was the Castillo de San Marcos, the fortress built by the Spaniards to protect St. Augustine, and probably the closest things the U.S. has to a castle in terms of size and age. The Spaniards went above and beyond the architecture of castles to create a fortress that was never taken over by force. Juju and Maya were impressed by how the soldiers lived, and how the cannons and cannonballs worked.


Standing inside an area where the walls were 17 feet thick - ammunition was stored here.

Once again, the history we read about was filled with stories about how badly the Native Americans were treated; in this case, the Seminole people. Though very fond of the 20$ bill, Maya wasn't so sure how she felt about Andrew Jackson anymore.
Standing in front of the oldest house in the U.S.

Looked around Lincolnville, a section of St. Augustine that had all kinds of interesting and beautiful houses, as well as the oldest carriage house in the U.S., horses and barns included. Lincolnville was the second settlement in the US of emancipated slaves.

The Ponce de Leon Fountain of Youth archaeological site was a bit of a tourist trap, so we talked a bit about how he came to the St. Augustine area in 1513 while looking for a source of water rumored to be magical and how he named the region Pascua de florida - feast of the flowers.
One of those coquina walls I like
and a pretty tree-with-spanish-moss lined street.
Tomorrow Doug flies home...