Oldest everything

St. Augustine lays claim to being the first permanent settlement (1565) on the North American continent, beating Jamestown by 42 years. The Spanish held Florida until 1763, regained it after the American Revolution, then in 1821, finally sold it to the United States. Because of this long time hold on St. Augustine, it retains a Spanish feel.

Today we took a guided tour, on a trolly, and saw a lot of "the oldest...." The oldest wooden schoolhouse, oldest house, oldest pharmacy, oldest oak tree (nicknamed the Old Senator), etc. We did all this on the oldest trolley tour in St. Augustine.

I didn't take a lot of pictures of St. Augustine because we want to go back and revisit some of the places we just travelled by. One such place is a tour of the Whetestone's Chocolate factory. I don't think it is the oldest anything, but it is located in one of the old wharf warehouses .

We spent a fair amount of time at Castillo de San Marcos, which is under the direction of the National Park Service.  Getting a handle on the history of the fort provides a nice understanding of the history of the City of St. Augustine as well as the history of the state of Florida.

The Bridge of Lions - from St. Augustine to Matanzas Island and the lighthouse. There are two marble lions at the beginning of the bridge.

Exterior of the Castillo de San Marcos.

Close-up of the stone blocs that the fort is built from. It is called Coquina, a unique sedimentary rock that is partly formed from shells.

This fort is much smaller than the one on Dry Tortugas.

This is Alan who provided a nice historic tour of the fort.  His family lives in East Greenwich, a couple of houses down from Lincoln Chafee' house.

In 1702, during a siege of St. Augustine, 1400 people lived in this fort for nearly three months.

During our tour of the fort, out in the river, we could see and hear a reenactment of a pirate ship firing on a merchant ship. Puffs of smoke from the cannon firing and loud shooting of a boarding party. Very exciting!

This is the pirate ship that moved awfully fast for not having any sails up.

This is a replica of the seal that was placed at the entrance of the fort. The original is under glass in an exhibit room in the fort.  It represents Castile and Leon which formed modern Spain.

Oldest oak tree.

Peacock, who nicely spread his tail when the trolly driver rang his bell, on the grounds of the "Foutain of Youth"