St Augustine Fort & Lighthouse

Castillo de San Marcos or the Fort at St Augustine protected the town for many years mainly against the English !
It's the oldest and best preserved masonry fort of a Spanish Colonial fortification in the USA. It is constructed of a unique sedimentary rock called Coquina.
This photo is for Barry C from Michael, he wondered if this is where you got the design for your bread oven :0 

The Fort is run by the National Park Service and we are in luck that we have arrived as they are about to start a demonstration of firing 2 of their cannon.  

Apart from the chap in front the rest are volunteers

It was much louder than we expected and a great demo.....

On to St Augustine Lighthouse which is actually on Anastasia Island not far from our campsite.

The lighthouse keepers house

The Fort taken on full telephoto from the top of the lighthouse
Just 219 steps to the top,  a piece of cake compared to Cologne Cathedral !!!

More views from the top of the lighthouse

It's a Harley Davidson "bike-fest" this weekend, we are told that approx 50,000  bikes will be in the St Augustine area which is only half the amount that attend the week long "bike week" held each year in February

This and next pic for Marion :)  

We have very much enjoyed our stay at St Augustine, as well as some historical sight-seeing it has been a good opportunity for some R & R
On the way back from the beach today we were able to repay some of the help we have received over the past months  by helping fellow campers to find our campsite, turns out they are from New Hampshire, have a 5th wheeler like us and are also new to RV-ing !!
Tomorrow we hitch up and take to the road again should be about a 6 hour drive across to Carrabelle Fl