Florida trip part 2: St Augustine

It has been several years since we have traveled down to St Augustine from Jacksonville.

The kids don't even remember the last time that we went,

so we decided to take them on a ghost tour--

it was right before Halloween after all.

We also took them on a scenic boat cruise that we've taken in the past.

And we visited the Castillo de San Marcos fort, which was new for all of us.

At the St Augustine visitor's center

At the Castillo de San Marcos fort


At the fort they reenact the soldier's march to the cannons
and they actually shoot the cannons too.
It is SO loud, but we didn't take Chase near the cannons.

Chase with Grandma Susan

Shooting the cannon

Leaving the fort

The scenic cruise was just a few blocks up the street from the fort.
Julia and Grandpa Buzz waiting to board the boat


Ethan and Grandpa Buzz on the upper floor of the boat


This is how Chase spent the boat cruise


Right in front of the lighthouse, from the top floor of the boat

The captain actually let Julia steer the boat for about 15 minutes.

She was so excited!

She had to do some tricky turns too,

but he told her which way to steer and she did it.



That night we went on our ghost tour.
Ethan wasn't really looking forward to it
but he ended up having a lot of fun.

They basically take a walking group around town
and show you lots of the historic buildings
and tell you stories of ghosts visiting each spot.

We stopped by the cemetary of course.
The headstones are really old,
and look extra spooky.

Chase thought the ghost tour was very exciting: