Trip to St Augustine. Great day Sunny and bright High 86 Lo 64

We spent the day in St. Augustine and had a wonderful time.  We need to go back and see more, but time is pushing us on.  It was a beautiful day.  We had lunch at a place on a very narrow street that is  blocked off to  traffic with very old buildings up and down it.  We had fried shrums for lunch.  They were so good.  Rog even at a lot and he does not like mushrooms anyway you serve them.

This is the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, St. Augustine. Florida.  The construction of the Castillo de San Marcos started in 1672 making it one of the oldest standing structures in North America.  Built by the Spain Castillo, means castle.

This in the entrance to the fortress called the Sally Port.  This is the only way in or out of the Castillo.  The walls are between 14 and 19 feet thick at the base and they taper to 9 feet wide at the top.  There are over 400,000 blocks of coquina, all cut and set by hand.  Coquina is a type of rock found on the coast of Florida. 

This is a rather rare form of limestone called coquina, Spanish meaning "tiny shell" This limestone forms the base of the barrier island on the Northeast Florida coast and is the only stone available in this area.

The Spanish incorporated a type of fortress construction called the "bastion" system.  The star-like outline of the Castillo is formed by diamond-shaped projection or bastions at each corner of the fort; this design eliminated blind spots for the guards and also increased the fort's firepower by allowing multiple cannons to fire on the same target, creating a crossfire effect.  Before they would build castles we they would live in all the time.   This is not.  They would all come here if the enemy came to harm them, but they, including the soldiers lived off "base" if you will.  You only came here if you were on duty that week or if the enemy came and then all of St. Augustine would live here until they were safe again.

We are on the top "floor" of the fort.  Behind Rog is the Atlantic Ocean

A lovely couple

The court yard was originally sand.   Here the soldiers would assemble and drill.  If the town was attacked they would come to the Castillo for protection.

Oak trees forming a canopy on the street named Magnolia.

The oldest wooden schoolhouse in the USA.

Yum!!  We toured the plant and ate some good stuff.

This 600+ year old oak is called the Senator, old and crooked.  Notice in the crotch of the tree is a palm tree growing.  This baby was here first, years before any of the above happened.