St Augustine in the Winter

We’ve discovered the perfect time to visit St Augustine…January! In December, the town has Night of Lights where everything is lit up for the holiday season. Lots of people come to walk around the town. The cool thing is that the lights stay up until the end of January. By that point, attendance is down. So we could enjoy the town, the lights, and the streets weren’t crowded. BTW, there were records set on temperature (low 80’s) so we didn’t even need a jacket.

St. Augustine is the oldest city in the United States and was founded in 1565. The amount of history here is VERY cool! The buildings are old and the streets are narrow. Matter of fact, the narrowest street in the USA is here at 7’ wide (Treasury Street). The story goes that it was purposely made narrow so pirates couldn’t ride off with a chest of treasure from the Royal Spanish Treasury to the harbor. Today, you can drive it, but mostly people walk it and several of the streets the Historical Downtown are closed to traffic so tourists can shop in all the small stores. BTW, we heard there are over 150 restaurants within this section.

The biggest attraction in town is Castillo de Marcos National Monument. Through its history, St. Augustine was defended by soldiers from Spain, England, and America. The fort was completed in 1695. It survived at least two sieges over the years. It was last used in 1898 but only as a military prison.

  

We thought the different types of cannon were cool…especially the decoration. 

We also saw a demonstration of musket shooting by rangers dressed like Spanish soldiers. It took a long time to shoot (15-20 seconds if you are good) and the guns couldn’t shoot far or very accurately. Big difference between this and modern weaponry.

Another interesting point of this fort is that it is made of coquina (small shells in the limestone). During a battle, this material doesn’t shatter but sort of absorbs cannon fire. This material helped make the fort more defensive during sieges.