On our last day we wanted to check out Castillo de San Marcos in downtown St. Augustine. It is a very old fort that was built over 350 years ago. It is right on the water and was used to defend against sieges by sea. The fort changed hands between countries several times. Reading about its history and seeing it from the outside was neat. I found it hard to fathom that twice the fort was "besieged" and taken over. The idea that of a group of people traveling across the entire

Thursday was Thanksgiving, and along with the holiday came a decent drop in temperature. The temperature would only get to about 65-70 degrees. Great weather, especially relative to what is was like back in Cleveland, however we definitely would not be getting in the water. We decided to check out the St. Augustine Alligator Park, which was an attraction that had some really good reviews online. I must admit that I was quietly not very enthusiastic about going here. I don't h

On Wednesday we knew we all wanted to hit the beach. It was 80 degrees out and the beach was literally about 100 yards from our camper. There was still a lot of stuff we wanted to see in St Augustine so we decided we would check out some more stuff in the morning and then spend the afternoon at the beach. We drove back through downtown and made our way over to the Ponce de Leon Fountain of Youth. Supposedly when Ponce de Leon ended up in Florida he was on a search for the Fou

I learned a lot of things on this trip. On all of our trips I assume I'll learn things each day. Between seeing new places and going to museums and historical sites there is always a lot to take in. But on this trip I felt like I learned things I really should have known before. On our way down to Florida Allyson told me that St. Augustine was the oldest city in the United States. I think my response was "that can't be right". Well, it turns out it was. The Spanish, led by Po

On the Sunday before Thanksgiving Allyson and I got a babysitter so we could relax together and go over Christmas plans. The next day we were leaving to take a family trip to the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee for Thanksgiving. We stopped for coffee and I pointed out that the weather forecast didn't look so great for our trip. It was supposed to rain for at least one full day, and then it was going to be in the 40's for a couple more. Not great weather for getting out in the N