After watching the royal wedding Saturday morning (easier to watch being on the east coast!), we took off to St. Augustine, the oldest city in the U.S. if you’ve never been there. We “happened” on a great restaurant for lunch, O.C. White, and ate outside overlooking the harbor. The food was so good that we went back later in the afternoon to get out of the rain, and I had some key lime pie. Yum.
Our real adventure for the day was visiting the old fort from the late 1600s. We had been there years ago, but they’ve really updated the experience. We learned so much about the fort as it changed hands over the years from Spanish to British to the United States. The emphasis at the fort is on the Spanish occupancy in the 1700s since they’re the ones who built it.
The Spanish started building this fort in 1672 and helped them hold Florida against the English for many years. During the American Revolution, it was a British stronghold. Later it became a battery in the U.S. coastal defense system. (We’ll see more about this defense system in our 2021 quick trips to southern Alabama.)
Volunteers did a reenactment of shooting off a cannon–in Spanish of course–that could have sent a cannonball 3 miles away.
Bunks looked pretty uncomfortable and it would have been so hot and humid for the soldiers when they tried to sleep.
When we got home, we did the mundane task of laundry but it was the first time we could use our little red wagon to bring clean clothes home–a great Christmas present from Barney.
One of my take-aways from our day away? I do better emotionally when my mind is engaged and I’m learning something.
