Today we enjoyed a tourist day in St. Augustine. We got tickets for the Old Town Trolley Tours which are a “hop-on, hop-off” tour of St. Augustine. We started at the Old Jail (stop 1) and enjoyed the narrated history of St. Augustine. There was no way we could do all of the stops, but enjoyed the day. We took more pictures than you can imagine and it is difficult to pick a few for this blog!
Let me give you a brief timeline of St. Augustine in relation to U.S. history.
1513 – Ponce de Leon claimed Florida for Spain. In 1565, Pedro Menendez landed here with 700 soldiers and colonists and founded St. Augustine, making it the oldest continually occupied European settlement in North America. In 1672 construction began on the fort, Castillo de San Marco. It took 23 years to complete. In 1702, English troops besieged the Castillo for 50 days, but the fort and citizens who had fled to the fort refused to give up. The British gave up the attack on the fort and burned the rest of the town. This event is why there are no buildings in St. Augustine older than 1702 today. Spain was defeated by England in the Seven Years Wars and Florida was transferred to English control by the Treaty of Paris in 1763. The entire Florida peninsula was returned to Spain in 1783 as part of negotiations ending the American Revolution. Spain had trouble recruiting colonists to resettle in Florida and in 1821, they cede Florida to the United States. Florida becomes the 27th state in 1845.
These are the five flags which have flown over Florida.
During the winter of 1883-84, Henry M. Flagler, co-founder of Standard Oil visited the city and was impressed by the charm and possibilities of the area. He had a major impact on the architecture and economy of the city by building the Hotel Ponce de Leon, Hotel Alcazar, the Memorial Church and more.
Flagler College (below) was originally the Hotel Ponce de Leon. 
Another stop on the tour was the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine. We went inside and marveled at the Spanish-influenced architecture.
Across from the Basilica is the Government House which now has a very nice free museum inside. There were artifacts dating back to the 1500s and so many informational signs my head was swimming!
We also went by the remaining City Gates.
We chuckled at the mini-rental cars. We actually saw people driving around the Old Town area in them!
Stop 17 was at the Oldest House in St. Augustine. We took the interesting tour in which the guide related the history of the house, as well as the town. 
We also stopped at the Castillo de San Marcos which is now part of the National Park System. 
We spent a couple hours exploring this impressive fort. The fort was built by Spain to protect their vast empire in the Americas. The fortress used a “bastion” system. The star-like outline of the Castillo is formed by diamond shaped projections called bastions, one on each corner of the fort. The design eliminates blind spots for the guards in the sentry boxes at each bastion point. It increased the fort’s firepower by allowing multiple cannons to fire on the same target, creating a crossfire effect. The fort also has only one way in or out through the “Sally Port”. There is a large drawbridge and heavy sliding door.
There are over 400,000 blocks of stone in the Castillo, all of it cut and set by hand! The stone is called coquina which is a sedimentary rock.
They have lots of cannons, mortars, and howitzers. This map shows why Spain built this fort – the Gulf Stream!
We had a nice view of the Lions Bridge from the Castillo – with the drawbridge up!
When we walked back from St. George Street which has lots of shops and restaurants, we could see the bridge with the gates down.
The oldest wooden schoolhouse in United States in located on St. George Street. 
We also went into the St. Augustine History Museum and again were overwhelmed with the history of the area! I loved these tiles from 1543.
They had a fun picture of an early RV. It looks like the “tiny houses” of today!
This was a fun car outside. 
After a full day visiting the Old Town area of St. Augustine, we headed to Anastasia State Park where we are camping tonight. Tomorrow we plan to visit the Ponce de Leon Fountain of Youth Park. Who knows, maybe we will find the fountain of youth?
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