Seeing the Sights - St. Augustine, FL

Cannon at the Fort
June and Steve



Looking down on the Courtyard
The Gun Deck


The Entrance to Castillo de San Marcos National Monument in St. Augustine

Flagler College
Flagler College
St. Augustine Lighthouse
See Lou and Steve at the top
Entrance to the St. Augustine Lighthouse
Statue of the Lion at the entrance of the Bridge of Lions
Sign going into the Fountain of Youth
Lou, Ponce de Leon and June
Merry - Go - Round at entrance of St. Augustine

January 27th Windy - Sunny and Cooler 65 degrees

We had a little shower during the night and lots of wind and hopefully the pollen has moved.

As you can see we have been very busy and I will try to bring you up to date on our travels. We spent a delightful fun packed day in St. Augustine. We wondered about leaving Estee, but she did just great, with a nice walk in the morning and the A/C motor home, just like being at home. Lou left the television on for her and we found her in her bed asleep when we arrived back home.

We started with the Fountain of Youth, thinking we would all drink deeply from that and that would revive all of us and we would be "fit as a fiddle" for the rest of the day and endure whatever came our way. Gosh, we couldn't see any difference. From there we traveled to the open air market to shop for fresh fruits and veggies and all types of flea market items. Lou and I got lots of fresh veggies, in fact last evening for dinner we cooked summer squash that was very tasty.

Then we traveled across the Bridge of Lions which takes us across the St. Augustine Inlet to the Anastasia Island where the St. Augustine Light House is located. It was built in 1874 of brick and iron at a cost of $100,000. The lighthouse is 165 feet high with eight flights of spiral staircase. Its bold black and white stripes serve as a daylight landmark. The Lightkeeper's House is a Maritime Museum. I had been having problems breathing that morning, so didn't dare try to climb up the stairs, but Lou and Steve did and you can see from the pictures where Lou and Steve did reach the top.

After the climb of the lighthouse, the guys thought they had worked up an appetite and we drove back into downtown St. Augustine and had lunch, where else, but a seafood restaurant. Steve and I chose clam chowder and a salad, Lou had fried shrimp and June picked a Caesar salad with some sort of a seafood wrap that she shared with Steve. After a time of refreshment we traveled on to The Fort and that was a wonderful way to end our afternoon.

The "Castle" incorporates over 335 years of America's history and culture. Construction of the Castillo de San Maracos started in 1672 making it one of the oldest standing structures in North America. This fortress has served six different flags, survived hurricanes, and withstood bombardments and sieges. The structure has undergone many changes over the years but appears today much as it would have looked at its final completion in 1756.

It was initially built by the Spanish to protect their empire in America. Engineer Ignacio Daza incorporated a type of fortress construction called the Bastion system. The star-like outline of the Castle is formed by diamond shaped projections at each corned of the fort, this design eliminates blind spots for the guards in the sentry boxes and increased the fort's firepower by allowing multiple cannons to fire on the same target, creating a crossfire effect.

We all found it to be very interesting. Lou and I had toured a fort similar to this in Key West, but found this a little different, that this one had a guard house. Once finished walking through this, we were ready to get back in the car and let Lou drive us back to our camp site for an evening of relaxation agreeing we had all enjoyed our day out.