This time I visited St. Augustine, Florida,
and here is what I have to say about the so-called Oldest City in the United States.
In 2019 I'd said to myself that I wanted to visit more places within my state,
 and get to learn more of my home Florida.
I have been living in Florida for the past 10 years now,
and even though I have been to several places,
I feel like I haven't truly discovered the old and historical Florida.
I've been meaning to visit St. Augustine for a while now,
but since I started hiking the Florida Trail,
my calendar is getting busier and busier every time.
We got to St. Augustine around 12:00Pm on a sunny Saturday,
by that time we have already checked into our hotel room,
and headed to the city to start exploring.
Our first attraction was The Old Jail,
a historic old jail in St. Augustine full of fascinating stories
about the most underground criminals at the time.
After visiting our first attraction,
we spent most of our afternoon at The Fountain of Youth.
The Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park is the first settlement area in the entire nation.
This is where I learned so much from this great old city St. Augustine,
the park offers many things to do, from watching Navigators Planetarium,
taking a tour through the Timucua Village, Blacksmith Exhibit, Canon Firing,
among other attractions.
 Ripley's Believe It Or Not was our next stop.
This is the first time I've been to one of these museums,
even though they have several locations throughout the country,
founded by the great Robert Ripley.
Here you can observe and learn from a handful list of artifacts,
objects, art, pictures and many other things.
By far a pretty interesting and amazing museum,
it is definitely a must see and one of my favorites exhibits in St. Augustine.
At night it can get pretty crowded but one thing is for sure,
tourism never stops here.
We enjoyed a nice meal at the White Lion,
a pub & grub with an excellent view of the public avenue.
The next day it was time to visit the historical Castillo De San Marcos.
The oldest fort in the continental of the whole United States,
it is by far the oldest structure in St. Augustine with 315 years of age,
and of course, the #1 attraction to see in St. Augustine.
There are plenty of things to do in the Castillo,
you can check out the several rooms in which once soldiers and prisoners lived in,
visit the notorious and hidden caves inside the Castillo,
and the most exciting exhibition of all,
the cannon firings and weaponry demonstrations.
It took us about 2 hours to really explore the entire Castillo De San Marcos,
this is to let you know how impressive and interesting this fortress is.
Later during the day,
we decided to visit the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum.
It stands 165 feet above sea level,
overlooking the Matanzas Bay and Anastasia Island,
and in order to get to the top of the lighthouse,
you will need to climb the 219 steps.
I'll be honest after getting to the top I expected a better view,
not that it wasn't that bad it just it was pretty crowded
to even enjoy the top of the lighthouse.
Apart from that, the Maritime Museum tour was pretty delightful,
they have all sort of artifacts, nautical souvenirs,
preserved canoes, among other great marine equipment.
You can also enjoy what it's called the Dark of The Moon Tour,
an exclusive after-dark guided tour of the "ghostly stories" and
ancient tales behind the light station and keeper's house.
Unfortunately, I was not able to be part of this tour,
I suggest you take the tour if you have time,
it sounded like a pretty cool tour.