Grab'n Life: Jacksonville and St Augustine

Hey Everyone! As you can see we are all smiles here. We went to the top of the St Augustine Lighthouse today. Isn't it beautiful. I'm getting ahead of myself though. This was our last day at the Jacksonville Naval Air Station RV park. We've been busy. Hit our share of beaches, state parks and the oldest town in the USA, St Augustine. We both give this area 2 thumbs up. There is something here for everyone. Nature, shopping, history, golfing (we do have some friends who would like to know that, the World of Golf Hall of Fame is here guys), sightseeing, the fun stuff for kids and dining. It's been very easy to get around too. Which is great with our vehicle. Not terribly expensive either. We started off with visiting Jacksonville beaches. Not quite as picturesque as the beaches of the Florida gulf coast but still not bad. Water was 80 and we enjoyed the couple hours we spent walking the beach.

Yes, more shells :)

There were others on the beach, but not too many. We can only imagine how crowded this gets during their busy season.

There were several surfers, you can't quite make them out, but they were there.

Next day we headed to St Augustine. We really wanted to see Castillo De San Marcos and we knew that St Augustine was the oldest permanent European settlement in the continental US. The fort was built by the Spanish in 1672. It changed hands four times, from Spain, to Great Britain back to Spain and finally the US. In 1935 it became a National Park. We spent several hours here it was very interesting.

This is the National Park sign.

Walls were made of a mixture of limestone and shells. The walls are over 3 feet thick.

This is what the rooms looked like off the inner courtyard.

The cannons weighed over 2000 pounds, these are the originals.

Notice the date on this cannon, 1743.

The design of the fort protected it from all sides.

This is a mortar cannon.

That's me straight across from this cutout.

The fort protected the town from invasions over the years. But couldn't protect St Augustine from being burned to the ground three times, the fort remained. We walked the old narrow streets, had lunch in a small tavern built over a mill. You could easily spend several days exploring the oldest city in the US. There is so much history here. Old town St Augustine was packed. This week was part of Biker's Coast week.

The next day we decided to stay on base and check things out. This is the main gate with a Blue Angel on display.

They have a static plane display, probably 30 planes total. We met a man who was on base for a 25 year reunion with his squadron. This is the type of plane he flew on during the search for the Soviet submarine, Hunt for Red October. This is a sub chaser plane. Rog probably would have talked with him longer, but he spotted 2 bus loads coming in with his fellow shipmen and he took off to follow them.

We found a nature hike close to where our rv. This NAS backs up to the St John's river.

We stopped out on this boardwalk and watched some folks do blindfolded canoe races from the base marina! No kidding. Three people to a canoe. The person in the middle wasn't blindfolded but had to tell the other two what to do, when to turn.

Things you just never expect to find on a military base. So serene and beautiful.

Next day we headed up the coast to find Amelia Island and Big Talbot Island State Parks.

The island is known for excellent surf fishing and sea shells. Rog talked with a couple fishermen and we saw some very large Red Snapper they had caught. Oh, and we did cook the Pompano Rog caught while we were in Grayton Beach, it was delicious!