A Trip Back To 1565

Happy birthday to Nana! We called to give our birthday wishes yesterday, since she is going to be out today. I had to get up and get ready really quickly today since

Mum wanted to be out by 10:30am and she wasn’t going to wait. Apparently she’s the one who gets pissed at me if I don’t get up, not Dad but since Dad has been the only one telling me to get up earlier, I had no idea. Hmmmm. We had a hard time finding parking since it’s still Christmas break and the historic district was ridiculously busy. Eventually we found hour long street parking and pulled up just as another truck was pulling away. We walked over to the Visitor’s Centre to learn about things to do in the city. It was already amazingly hot outside, which was great but also not the best when you’re walking around. I read a timeline in the centre, about St. Augustine’s history, which is quite a long one as it is the

oldest settlement in the United States still in use. It was settled in 1565 by the Spanish, Florida originally being a Spanish colony, la Florida, which means beautiful flowers. It fell under the British empire once after the war between Spain and Britain that I can’t remember the name of right now. The British eventually gave it back before signing it over to the United States in 1821, eventually becoming a state after about twenty years as a territory. They still have the city gate up in front of the historic city as well as some recreations of the wall that was once erected around the city. You can also still se the dip in the ground where a moat used to be.

After the Visitor’s Centre, we wandered over to the old fort across the street. The fort surrounded by a moat and has been built up on an artificial hill so as to have the advantage of high ground. We didn’t go inside since we had the dog but we walked around along the outside and I spent most of the time up on the sea wall. By the time we had finished our round, our hour of parking was up and we had to hurry back to the truck. Instead of going straight back to the campground, we headed out on a coastal drive which took us over to an island above the one where we are staying. The houses and stuff were neat to look at but you couldn’t really see the ocean so we turned around after a bit and drove back. After lunch, we headed out to the beach for the second half of our day. I spent most of the time reading and writing, although the boys did go into the water and the ocean is really warm down here. Back at the trailer, we played a game of Euchre after calling up Uncle Adam to get a run-through of the rules since we had forgotten how to play. Mum and I lost three to five, but we only played half a game since Isaac was getting tired. Peace out m8s.

#camping #staugustine #florida