St. Augustine -- Part 2

Our first morning in St. Augustine started with it's largest landmark -- the Castillo de San Marcos. It is the oldest fort in America (construction began in 1672) and was used as recently as World War II to hold war deserters. It's made of coquina shell rock, which is similar to limestone. The coquina held up remarkably well to artillery and cannons, absorbing the shock. This was part of the reason the fort was never defeated, despite some serious siege attempts, one lasting two months!

Enjoying the breeze by the cannons.

A view looking down into the fort from the top. Can you imagine 1,500 people and their livestock living in here during a 2-month siege?

Spying on intruders

St. Augustine also is home to the oldest wooden one-room schoolhouse, so of course I had to take a picture outside of it! But we opted to eat popcorn and popsicles instead of paying the entrance fee to see it.

Walking around a cute tourist town like St. Augustine provides for lots of quirky shops to peek in. One of our favorites was Pop'N Off, a gourmet popcorn shop. They had dozens of flavors (and ship from their website!) and many to sample. We tried dill pickle, strawberries and champagne, and peanut butter and jelly, but eventually settled on buying a bag of half tiramisu and half dark chocolate caramel. Yum!!


Another cute find was The Hyppo, a gourmet popsicle shop. They made popsicles from all-fresh, mostly-local ingredients. They had crazier flavors like pineapple cilantro and cucumber lemon mint. Mine was mango champagne (SO good!) and Shaun ordered a key lime (also SO good).

Side note: Shaun wore an Auburn shirt, and in the Hyppo as well as from a passing car, we got two "War Eagles" hollered at us! (I know Caroline and Ashley would be proud! War Eagle!)

We finished our evening with St. Augustine's number one attraction, according to TripAdvisor.com -- the History, Mystery, Mayhem, and Murder guided walking tour. It sounded a little more appealing than your typical ghost tour. We followed our guide Dion around the town learning about pirates, scandals, massacres, and exploding corpses (no lie!) that color St. Augustine's past. This was one of the cemeteries we stopped by.

Dion in front of an inn that used to be a funeral parlor in the early 1900s.

Stay tuned for Part 3 -- Shaun's favorite day! :)