St Augustine

On Friday night, my family and I drove to St Augustine( nation's oldest city). There were many houses in which survived a long time, since the 1500s. Many of the buildings were built out of crushed shells and sand. 
We stayed at a hotel for one night and had breakfast down at the restaurant in the morning. Once we left the hotel, we firstly drove to the 'Fort'.
Information

 The Fort  is known as the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument. It is the oldest masonry fortification in North America. It was constructed between 1672 and 1695 under the Spanish government with labor from the local Timucan Indians.  British forces obtained the fort in 1763 as a result of the French and Indian war, but the Spanish regained control in 1784 at the end of the American Revolution. Florida became a United States territory in 1821, and the Castillo, renamed Fort Marion, was used as a supply depot, a military base, and a Native American prison over the years. the fort was named a National Monument in 1924, and the National park service restored its original name, Castillo de San Marcos, in 1942. Today it is a immensely popular tourist attraction.

 When we reached the fort, we took photos and looked around the big marvellous castle. We were given an activity book with quizzes and hard challenges. We had to find out the information from around the different rooms in which displayed info and films. Once we finished the book, we received a badge and certificate. The walls of the fort were made out of crushed shells, rocks and sand. Did you know that cannons could fire more than just cannonballs? 
chain shot is two ironballs attached by by a chain. It is very good for destroying a ship's sails. 
Canister is a metal can full of musket balls. It acted like a big shotgun shell. Grape shot is similar to canister, but with small cannonballs and wrapped in cloth. It looks like a bunch of grapes. 
It was really interesting to go to the fort. It survives so many years!

The Fort

 After that, we went walking down the streets of the 'city'. Walking down the authentic and old buildings felt like traveling back in time. There were so many icecream shops and cafes. The weather was, as usual, muggy and hot so we bought an icecream. We had one scoop but they were so big! The name of the flavour, I chose, had crunchy caramel chunks, milky chocolate bits and nuts in creamy caramel and vanilla icecream. mmmmm! It was so delicious. There were so many shops!One of the shops was an indigenous kind of shop. There were animal skulls on the walls for sale and REAL alligator heads!!!! It was so scary and awesome at the same time! I bought a ring made from shells and one of those birds which can balance on one finger(made out of bamboo). There were also real butterflies pinned inside glass. Their wings were stunning colours. Some of which were the size of my hand. There were so many things in that shop. One of favorite shops was a jewlery shop. All kinds of jewelry were hung down the walls from the roof to the floor and across long tables. There were gorgeous necklaces with cute charms on them.  
At the end of the day, we were in the car just before the rain started pouring down. When we came to take photos at a lighthouse, the rain had stopped. We bought some homemade fudge at the gift shop and it was so yummy! 
After that we drove back to the house in Orlando Florida. 



http://www.augustine.com/index.php