Our tour started at the Old St. Johns County Jail (there was free parking there for folks on the tours). We didn't get an opportunity to tour it as they were doing charter tours for schools today.
These are some of the rebuilt redoubts, which were part of the city's defensive wall --
The old city gates were rescued from developers by history buffs --
Another part of the surviving wall over by the fort --
The town is full of gorgeous old buildings like this Methodist church --
Or the local Catholic church --
Many that were built as hotels are now part of a college --
We got off of the trolley to check out the fort, Castillo de San Marcos --
The fort is run by the National Park Service, so we got to use our Senior pass, a nice $14 savings!
There is one entrance to the fort, across the dry moat and through the sally port --
The walls are made of coquina, a type of local limestone made up of many tiny shells. Because of its conglomerate mixture, the coquina contains millions of microscopic air pockets making it compressible. A cannon ball fired at a more solid material such as granite or brick would shatter the wall into flying shards and rubble. Cannon balls fired at the coquina burrowed their way into the rock and stuck there!
The other feature we noted that was different from other forts we've seen was the presence of bronze cannons. They are green instead of black...
This is another wall still standing built by the Spanish called wattle and dab. It's actually man-made of seashells and mortar --
We found a wonderful restaurant out on St. Augustine Beach. It's in an old fish camp out in the marsh near the Inland Waterway. Called the Salt Water Cowboys, it sure served some good shrimp!
This Great Blue Heron was standing in the marsh outside of the restaurant while we ate --
Great pictures! We are really wanting to get over there for a camping trip and take our kids to St. Augustine-I think they would really enjoy it :)
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