St. Augustine

Last week Andrew had a day off from school so we decided to drive up to St. Augustine, Florida. St Augustine is the oldest city in the continental United States, settled in 1565 by the Spanish. It is about a 2 hour drive from Orlando but oh so worth it. St. Augustine is beautiful and has so many things amazing things to see. We went to the Castillo de San Marcos, it is an old fort that was built right on the ocean. You could walk around and tour the old rooms and sleeping quarters (Andrew really liked all the tunnels you could crawl through), the upper level had an amazing view of the ocean with a ton of old cannons lining the edge, I am a total history nerd so I loved this place. After the Castillo we walked around old town where they have shops and galleries to look at. The buildings were so old and had a very beautiful European look to them and all the tiny streets were lined in cobble stones. I could not believe the cute little old houses down there, they had so much detail. Right before the sun went down we drove over to the lighthouse, it was awesome, all 219 steps of it. The view from the observation deck is amazing and the sunset was beautiful. They offer ghost tours of the light house at night because of the paranormal activity that goes on there ( I think they were featured on Americas Most Haunted and Ghost Hunters) and Andrew really wanted to go after dark but I was way too big of a chicken. I am definitely not a photographer and someday I want to buy a real camera but here are are some pictures we took.

The Castillo de San Marcos
(this overhead view of the fort is one I got from the Internet)

The outside walls were HUGE, no wonder it was never defeated in battle

Old Town just outside St. George Street

An old Huguenot Cemetery, I guess this is why they St. Augustine is so haunted


I think this is pretty self explanatory, I thought it was gonna tip over any second

This water wheel was so pretty. The building in the back is a tavern, it is so old it didn't even have glass in the windows

On the path to the lighthouse

Sunset view from the top

This is a picture of the whole tower with the fuel house at the bottom. I love the black and white spiral with the red roof

As Andrew would like to say, Looking out to AFRICA!!!


Looking up inside the lighthouse

Another view from the observation deck, it had started to sprinkle a little bit

The actual light sits 10 feet above the observation deck, it was so spectacular to see rotating at night

Looking across at St. Augustine.

We love it here and are so blessed to have so many amazing things to see here in Florida. It was honestly such a beautiful day and I am so glad we went on this little adventure. If you are ever out the Orlando direction you really really should make a stop here.