St. Augustine

The oldest city in all of North America: St. Augustine, Florida, is a really pretty place. We spent two days here learning a bit about the area, and could have easily spent several more.

First stop, the Lighthouse.

Climbing the 219 steps of the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum, Morgan comments “I’m afraid of heights!”

 (eye roll, no he’s not, or he’d never go on all those crazy amusement park rides!)  He likes to throw stuff like this out there, and then do his best to make it true.  Kinda like when he says he’s allergic to eggs and then makes enormous gagging noises if anyone in the house is having them. Yes, he won’t eat an egg, but he has them in all sorts of things (including French toast – hello! Egg dipped bread, anyone!), and has never had a problem.  Plus, he has actually been tested for an egg allergy – nothing.

Anyway, I’m off track… Back to the lighthouse.
It is big, pretty, has interesting displays & information in the rooms at the base, has an awesome 360 degree view from the top, and is actually not in its original location. The original one was closer to the ocean – too close in fact, and the lighthouse had to be rebuilt a bit further inland when the old one was claimed by the sea.  The sand bars around here move, and so the coastline moves too.

It would have been nice to really appreciate the view from the top of the lighthouse longer, but both kids did two quick laps and insisted they wanted Down (the top is definitely not a place for squirrely children to hang out). Bob took them, and I followed shortly after.

Oh, great.  Bob just told me that on the way down Morgan found the open stairwell of the lighthouse a fascinating place… to spit off of.  Evidently he was spitting down into the center.  Seriously, kid!  I swear, some days I can’t take him anywhere!!!

I’m happy to say that the hooligan children were much better behaved the following day when we went into St. Augustine to see the Old City and its restored fort. 

The historic city beside the Atlantic Ocean is old. It began as a Spanish colony in 1565, several years after Ponce de Leon claimed the land for Spain after sailing north from Puerto Rico (even though it was already claimed by the local natives).

In the late 1600’s when the Colonial Wars raged in the New World, the Castillo de San Marcos was built to protect the Spanish city from the British. The Castillo is the oldest masonry fort in the US, built by the Spanish over several years, and occupied under four different flags during its lifetime. As such, it is a precious National Monument.

You can see the lighthouse in the distance

The Castillo is built of coquina, a local shellstone which is very strong & capable of absorbing impacts which would break other stone (good if you’re using it to build a defensive structure!). The old walls though are quite fragile, and so we had to be careful not to touch any of them.

Both the kids decided to do the Junior Ranger booklets, and they stopped frequently while walking through the fort to work on parts.

We were lucky to be there during one of the live demonstrations, and got to see men in period costume fire one of the cannons. Boom! Morgan was impressed when we were told that the cannon is accurate enough to hit the lighthouse, several kilometers away. “That’s impossible!” were his exact words.  (I’ll admit, I was pretty impressed too.)

City Hall

After our tour of the fort, we walked across the modern day street, into the Old City and took a stroll from the old city gates down St. George Street. The narrow street has been transformed into a tourist area, but its Spanish origins were very evident, and I felt a bit like I’d been transported to the small town in Mexico where my in-laws spend their winters. The glimpses of lush courtyards behind the walls of the street added to that old world feel. There is so much history here, and many of the buildings in the Old city have plaques on them providing the date the building was built and any important history of it. As we stepped out of the walled street, we walked past a treed square and into an area of grand architecture. Flagler College (the former Ponce de Leon hotel), the Casa Monica, and the Lightner Museum (City Hall) and the garden in front, all face each other across the street (with the open square occupying the fourth corner), giving an impression of grandeur to the place.

This may have been my favorite spot in the city, with its beautiful architecture.

We walked around a bit more, until, with our parking meter expiring, and our feet tired from walking, we headed back to the truck & back to the campground to prepare for our departure the following day.  I do wish we would have spent more time there now that we've gone from the area. (Now how many times have I said that!) Someday I’ll learn!  And perhaps, someday I’ll be back to explore the rest of the old city and the area.  

Pirate ship off the starboard bow!