Walls, Cannons, and The Great Tidal Toilet Of Castillo De San Marcos

St. Augustine's Castillo de San Marcos was begun in the later 1600s, a century after the town's beginnings, and, although attacked and besieged several times, it was never taken by force of arms. It did flip-flop back and forth between England and Spain, diplomatically, in the later 18th century, but that was because in those days nobody really wanted Florida. San Marcos is perhaps the smallest castle we have yet seen in our extensive travels, except Nunney, but that was because the realm of Castile and Aragon had, by the 17th century, shot their wad on the wars of religion, losing badly, and were barely holding on to their "New World" possessions. Still, there were many wonders to behold.

Approaching the fortress, one gets the impression it is a star fort

As shown in this helpful model, it is, sort of; minimally; small
star; maybe just an asteroid

Alas, there was no Lightning Lane

The waters protected

Historical and other background information; among the usual excellent
National Park Service interpretive signage

Walls and cannons

Moat; no alligators in sight

Crest of Castile and Aragon: imperial Spain;
sic transit, Gloria

Soldiers' quarters; reminded us of some hostels and refuges we've
stayed in, in France, Italy, New Zealand, Nepal

Wall graffiti...ships and such

Not a huge fortress

Gunner's view of parking lot, downtown St. Augustine

Spare cannons

Mortar [original phallic joke caption censored by Vicki]

Everything you ever wanted to know about cannons, and then
some

All the nasty things a cannon could fire; in addition to cannonballs

And now, the moment you all have been waiting for...the Great
Tidal Toilet of Castillo de San Marcos [click to enlarge]

Or what remains; one wonders what they knew about global warming,
rising seas, etc....

St. Augustine, America's Oldest European City

Our next destination was St. Augustine, the nation's oldest European city, and its San Marcos fortress, oldest such in North America. We enjoyed St. Augustine, its history, architecture, fun and funkiness, and not least the city's free RV parking just inside the old town. A few blocks' walk, and you're there.

Thus, with the fortress's star points jutting into
the waters

Throughout, whether federal, state, local, or non-governmental, 
the interpretive signage was great

Okay, probably not dating from Ponce de Leon, but still a first;
of sorts

Also probably not the first tourist train in the New World

Definitely the only place we've ever been that had competing/dueling
tourist trains, something unique, we  guess, to the New World and its
profit motives...

Original city gate

Drawn bridge

Nice tree and restaurant area, early in the day

Among the interesting venues along the old town's main drag

Snake handling, $11.95 a session (probably free at some of the
local churches)

Many, many homeless persons around; "Spaceship Broken" 

Cathedral; we passed

Spare fortress parts

Henry Flagler, railroad magnate, was the first and probably greatest
Florida developer, early twentieth century, who built hotels all the
way down the state's east coast to Miami; this one now Flagler College

Facing it, another, now the city hall

Flagler

The "Spanish revival" architecture he promoted is what I remember
mostly growing up in Miami; I keep hoping to find the original
Hotel de Cocoanut, but, alas, it was not here

Speaking of revival, the zocalo--city central square--was all

abuzz that day with a subdued hare krishna recruiting fair; just what

you'd expect in America's heritage-conscious first city

Here they are, massing for attack; but not chanting the familiar
hare! hare! bit; almost a stealth thing

Charge! Recruitment signing bonus: total consciousness! And
maybe some snake fondling!

Jettypark, Cape Canaveral

After our very pleasant nearly week-long visit with Carole and Jim and Lexi, we decamped and headed back north, stopping for lunch with Vicki's cousin Carla and her husband George in Port St. Lucie. Vicki's sister Marie, on one of her cruises, had, from aboard ship, espied the Jettypark campground at Cape Canaveral, on the now sizeable cruise-ship port; and that was our planned destination. It's a nice enough city/county campground, a hundred sites perhaps, with all the amenities, and more, tucked in between the port and jetty and a mammoth Holiday Inn vacation complex, but with access to the gorgeous east coast beach. We stayed two nights, not doing much but blogging (me) and researching future travels (Vicki), as well as a walk toward town and another along the beach. These two are documented below.

You know your'e in the South when you see boiled peanuts sold
by the quart can; or at all

The locals are very proud of their peacock population

Peafowl?

To wit: females only here

Clever advertising campaign

Apart from the beach and fishing pier, watching the big ships pass
by is the main activity here

Or watching them dock and unload/reload

Venturing boldly onto the beach

Big long beautiful beach

Air/sea fun

Jetty and fishing pier

Beach sand-configured walker

In the distance, Tesla launch pads?

Unidentified floating object

A pod, scoop, pouch, squadron, or a fleet of pelicans, massing for attack

As with other sights, the population varies inversely with the
square of the distance from the parking lot

Us, there