St. Augustine, Florida

Today we visited St. Augustine, first touring the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, a key defensive fort built by Spain in 1672 to defend the empire's claims in the New World.




The park rangers and volunteers re-enacted the cannon firing drills practiced by the Spanish forces 330 years ago, and this photo shows the smoke from the 2 cannons that were fired. we were told that the 12 pound cannon balls which could be shot up to a mile and a half were not loaded because sail craft in the waters would not appreciate it!



Then we walked the Old Town District, visiting the Ponce de Leon Hotel built by Flagler, which now houses Flagler College. Next we drove north on highway A1A, biked at GTM Reserve (see next post), had a sumptuous seafood dinner, and then enjoyed a glorious sunset as we drove back to our motel in Jacksonville.