Sightseeing in St. Augustine - Castillo de San Marcos & more

We left the campground on Anastasia Island this morning about 10:30 and drove over to St. Augustine. We parked the car at the Old Town Trolley lot on N. Ponce de Leon Blvd. We had bought tickets for the Trolley for 2 days and yesterday we rode it around St. Augustine checking out the different sights. Today we will be getting off of the trolley to visit some of the sights that we saw yesterday. We got our tickets for today and it wasn't too long before the next trolley picked us up.

We had planned our day so that we would arrive at the stop nearest Meehan's Irish Pub so we could have lunch there. Mike ordered the Reuben Roll (corned beef and sauerkraut in a spring roll wrapper, deep fried with Kerrygold cheese sauce & Thousand Island). I ordered the Reuben sandwich (corned beef, sauerkraut and Swiss cheese on marbled rye). It would have been nice to have a couple of beers with lunch, but since we had a lot of walking to do this afternoon we opted to have sweet tea. We had both been looking forward to eating at Meehan's and we weren't disappointed - I could go again!

Then we walked across the street from Meehan's to go visit the Castillo de San Marcos. 

We spotted this RV from Europe in the parking lot and had to take a photo or two.

The entrance fee for Castillo de San Marcos is $15 for adults, but with our Senior Passes it was free. The Castillo de San Marcos is the only 17th century military construction in existence and is the oldest masonry fortress in the U.S. The building of the Castillo was started in 1672 and completed by 1695. It is built of coquina which is a type of limestone made from seashell fragments that solidified over time.

We explored the different exhibits in the lower part of the Castillo; soldiers' quarters,

a storeroom,

and British soldiers' quarters where 2 men shared
the same upper bunk and 2 shared the same lower bunk.

We stopped to sit under a canopy on the parade ground and take a break from the sun and heat and get a drink of the water we had brought with us before going up to the stairs to the gundeck.

From there we had a good view of the Matanzas River and the several cannons and mortars that were on display there. 

We stopped in at the Gift Shop and Mike bought a "I Support America's National Parks" cap and I bought a Christmas ornament. We spent about an hour there and then walked out to the Castillo parking lot where we caught one of trolleys and rode on it until the stop at the Old Jail and Old St. Augustine History Museum. The St. Augustine History Museum is in Gator Bob's Trading Post where we saw an early 20th century RV,

a dugout canoe made of pine that is over 1,000 years old,

and Mike lifted a bar of silver that weighs 66.2 pounds.

I bought a Christmas tree ornament at Gator Bob's store before we left. Then we got back on to another trolley and rode the few blocks to where we had parked the car. Then we headed back to the campground. 

Tinker was happy to see us when we got back to the trailer. Since we had such a large lunch today, we just had sandwiches and some pasta salad for supper. We just have one more day here before we head back home. There is just so much to see in St. Augustine and 2 days is not enough time, so it will be a good excuse to come back another time.