Thursday, Nov 11, 2010
Today we finally head into Florida. At the visitor center they give out sample of orange and grape fruit juice.
Today we finally head into Florida. At the visitor center they give out sample of orange and grape fruit juice.
We stayed a couple of days at St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest continually occupied European settlement in North America. Technically is the oldest city in US. Older than James town. This is where in 1565 King Phillip II of Spain sent Pedro Menendez with 700 soldier and colonists to land and found St. Augustine. They were to drive out the French and establish a fort to protect Spanish ships sailing in the Gulf Stream from Peru and Mexico back to Spain loaded with gold and silver. We spent a day on our bicycles exploring.
Construction of Castillo de San Marcos was begun in 1672. The largest fort in the time.
We spent the morning exploring this magnificent structure.
The fort is built of coquina, a locally quarried soft shellrock that we mentioned being used for buildings and streets it Savannah. You can actually see the sea shells 
that are a big part of this rock which gets harder and harder with age. It was easily shaped by artisans, but did not become brittle and crumble under cannon fire.
We also watched a re-enacted cannon drill that was done many times a day by the Spanish soldiers at this fort.
The boom vibrated us to our toes. This village was attacked over and over by other countries, pirates, native Indians. But it was never over taken.
There are 43 miles of white sand beach along St. Augustine and St. Johns Counties and is obviously a popular winter destination for many northerners. There is lots to see, unfortunately Ellen suddenly got very sick half way through the day, 101 temperature and praying to the porcelain God. We saws the first shine to Mary.
Other site that we’d like to go back to are: The Fountain of Youth (discovered by Ponce de Leon),
the old jail, the 1791 Cathedral, the fine old hotels built in the 1800s, the Black Raven Pirate Ship and more.
Construction of Castillo de San Marcos was begun in 1672. The largest fort in the time.
We spent the morning exploring this magnificent structure.
The fort is built of coquina, a locally quarried soft shellrock that we mentioned being used for buildings and streets it Savannah. You can actually see the sea shells that are a big part of this rock which gets harder and harder with age. It was easily shaped by artisans, but did not become brittle and crumble under cannon fire.We also watched a re-enacted cannon drill that was done many times a day by the Spanish soldiers at this fort.
The boom vibrated us to our toes. This village was attacked over and over by other countries, pirates, native Indians. But it was never over taken.There are 43 miles of white sand beach along St. Augustine and St. Johns Counties and is obviously a popular winter destination for many northerners. There is lots to see, unfortunately Ellen suddenly got very sick half way through the day, 101 temperature and praying to the porcelain God. We saws the first shine to Mary.
Other site that we’d like to go back to are: The Fountain of Youth (discovered by Ponce de Leon),
the old jail, the 1791 Cathedral, the fine old hotels built in the 1800s, the Black Raven Pirate Ship and more. 
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