Saturday, January 2, 2010

Day one























































































































































Well, it was an interesting morning for us. We woke up to Jacqueline saying her tummy was feeling yucky... we packed he car and sure enough, she got in and threw up... so we cleaned up and she seemed to feel better, so we decided to go ahead and leave, and though she has not eaten much today (not unusual for her) she is in a great mood, says she feels fine and has been perfect all day. We had an uneventful trip down and made great time. The girls slept on and off most the way and watched a couple of movies.






























When we arrived to Florida we stopped at the visitors center and picked up some maps and coupon books. In the center they had Florida orange juice tasting... so the girls and Adam had a taste of "fresh" real Florida orange juice in Florida, and yes, Makenzie thought that was just wonderful.






























We made it to St. Augustine just after lunch and headed over to the Fort. It is the oldest for in America it was attacked 15 times and never lost a battle. The English invaded several times and one point was with in a pistol shot away and the 1300 townspeople and the 500 Spanish military took refuge in the fort for 50 days while the city burned around them. It is a fascinating place to visit. The walls of the fort are made from sea shells and still have cannon balls in beded in them from the battles. There are volunteers that do cannon fire several times a day and walk around and talk to everyone. We got there in time to see one of them and stayed long enough to watch another from a different vantage point. It was great. The first time was from the top side and was loud. The second was from the shore line under the cannon and was loud and we could feel the boom in our chest. The girls and Adam thought hat was great. We walked all around it most of the fort is open . They have bunks and a bathroom and dungeon and kitchen all kinds of cool things to see. The court yard is wonderfully kept and it was worth our trip over there to see it. After leaving there we went to the promenade, it's a pedestrian street with stores and markets that is about 2 or 3 miles long. There were some very interesting things to see there including the oldest school in America. It is the oldest building in America that has not been restored. It was redecorated by the last students to use it as they remembered it. It was so cool. The kids thought it was pretty neat to see how the kids went to school. It was a very small building but we learned some neat things about how the kids went to school. After that we walked the promenade and looked into some shops, watched a one man band, walked through the Greek Orthodox museum. Saw some amazing buildings and the ocean. Its been a great day so far! Tomorrow we are going to see more of St. Augustine then head to Orlando. Oh, and there was a squirel at the school house that took a nut right out of Adams hand... it was soooo cool!