The real 1st America settlement

St Augustine is the Oldest settlement in the Continential US. This will surprise many, but it was founded some 60 years or so before Plymouth Rock. Settled by the Spanish in North East Florida it was the first stop on the their trade route. It grew in prestige and was attacked several times. Thankfully the Castillo de San Marcos, this huge fort made of ‘coquina’ (or something like that), a sort of concrete rock made of crushed shells, is there to protect the citizens. The fort has never lost a battle. Ok, enough with the history lesson… But St. Augustine is really cool. It has been a family favorite for a long time. My Mom loves old stuff, so this place is right up her alley. Erin, my Mom and I all took off up there when we left Daytona to spend half a day there. Our first stop was the fort of which I used as such a splendid introduction. They have a cannon demonstration, and 5 guys in thick wool suits (remember this is mid-day in Florida…), march out and shoot like 3 pounds of gunpowder off, with unfortunately no cannonball. They shortened the demo to 5 minutes, from the historically accurate 10 minutes to fire the cannon. Crazy, I know, in the shows its only like 10 seconds. We walked around the Fort and took in the sites around, and then headed to St George Street. It is kinda the main street of Old St Augustine, with loads of old buildings that have been converted into money making museums and shops. One cool thing about it is that the road is super narrow so they converted it to a walking only street. So we walked around and checked out the shops and sites until we were too tired to move. We had a long drive ahead of us back to Orlando so we weren’t looking forward to it, but had to trudge on in our adventure! Check back for Erin’s telling of our fun times at Universal.