This morning we headed right for one more visit to the Canaveral National Seashore. There we were able to view a new movie about this beautiful natural area and check out a brand new visitor center there. It was a brief but worthwhile visit. Next we continued up I-95 (right past the excitement of the Daytona 500) and on to St. Augustine, and our first historic stop...Fort Matanzas. Matanzas Inlet was the scene of crucial events in Spanish colonial history. The massacre of French soldiers here in 1565 was Spain's opening move in establishing a colony in Florida. The construction of Fort Matanzas (Spanish for slaughters) in 1740-42 was Spain's last effort to ward off British encroachment on St. Augustine.

Having made contact with another PKI alumnus and friend of John's, Doris Ahting Adukiewicz, we next headed over to Doris and Sam's beautiful home in the Moses Creek area of St. Augustine. It was great to see and visit with Doris, Sam, and of course their two beautiful labs, Jasi & Chili. Doris agreed to be our tour guide in St. Augustine, so we took her up on her expertise. Doris shared the historic sites in downtown, Old St. Augustine, the St. Augustine City Harbor (where Sam is the Harbor Master), took us to a wonderful local restaurant at the seaside, and completed our tour with a visit to the Castillo de San Marcos!

The Castillo de San Marcos for many years was the northernmost outpost of Spain's vast New World empire. It is the oldest masonry fort (completed in 1695) and best-preserved example of a Spanish colonial fortification in the continental US. It anchored East Florida's defenses and it protected St. Augustine from pirate raids and from Spain's major rival, Great Britain, during a time when the Florida-Georgia-Carolina coastline was an explosive international battleground.

We'll let the pictures show you more that we were able to learn about the oldest permanent European settlement in the continental United States, St. Augustine,, Florida....established in 1565!

 

 

Fort Matanzas

Timeline of the Historic Matanzas

Diagram of Ft. Matanzas

 

 

Matanzas Inlet, so important to the Spanish Colonization

Another Kings Island Reunion....John & our
expert tour guide & friend, Doris (Ahting) Adukiewicz
 

Our seaside view from South Beach Restaurant

 

Beautiful Old St. Augustine park  near the visitor center

The original city gates to St. Augustine

Doris said that this is where John began his
 teaching career, when the school opened!

The recently renovated "Lion Bridge" at
St. Augustine's City Harbor

A pirate adventure and reenactement on Matanzas Bay

A mill running in Old St. Augustine

Beautiful St. Augustine Lighthouse

The Great Cross (over 260 feet tall) celebrates the
400th anniversary of the Mission of Nombre de Dios &
the City of St. Augustine

Former "Flagler Hotel"....which is now Flaggler College

Just outside the walls of Castillo de San Marcos

Sedimentary coquine (rock made from compressed
seashells) were used to build this fortress

 

Crossing the drawbridge into the Sally Fort

Stairs leading to the upper level of the 4 pointed star-shaped fortress

One of the many cannons used to protect Castillo de San Marcos

Cannonball furnace used to make the
cannonballs redhot before loading them