Spring Break in St. Augustine

We drove 6 hours east to visit St. Augustine on the Florida coast (south of Jacksonville).  St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied settlement in the USA, since first being explored by Ponce de Leon in 1513.  We were excited to see a place with so much history...  but were disappointed to see what a Tourist Trap is has become!  Nearly every building (old general store, old jailhouse, old schoolhouse) cost so much admission that it would cost our family about $50 to go into each place!  So we didn't go into too many of the historic buildings.  (Boy, did I miss Nauvoo and all its free historical sites!)

We enjoyed the Lightner Museum next to Flagler College.

Gelato was a big hit... (and the vegan alternative - sorbetto)

This was the coolest thing in the Lightner Museum:  this is colored sand, meticulously placed in these bottles to make these pictures.  Talk about PATIENCE!!

We went in the Pirate Museum

Rachel had her first Highway Driving experience and did great!  These are the easiest highways to drive:  no traffic and totally straight for miles.

 The (haunted?) lighthouse

View from the top of the lighthouse

 We walked around Castillo de San Marcos, a fort built by the Spanish over 300 years ago.

 The highlight of our trip was playing bocce ball on the lawn by the fort.  Just like we always played in the good ol' days when we camped across Europe!

 The winning bocce ball team!

On our drive home, we stopped at a great Florida History Museum in Tallahassee