East Coast of Florida
Florida, my natural habitat. I wasn't too excited to be back in the heat, but I was happy to be in familiar territory with familiar faces. Florida has 11 national park sites, including three national parks, but the two I visited when I got back to my homebase of Orlando were Canaveral National Seashore and Castillo de San Marcos National Monument.
First, my boyfriend Nick and I visited Canaveral NS. This is a beautiful stretch of shoreline along the Atlantic Coast. We brought our canoe and first started out on the Shipwreck Island Canoe Trail. This trail goes around many little islands in Mosquito Lagoon. We followed the trail markers around and around the islands and sandbars. Some places were real shallow so we had to get out and pull the canoe along. But the birdwatching was amazing. We saw many many ospreys, ibises, great blue herons, great egrets, snowy egrets, tri-colored herons, little blue herons, you get the picture, lots of shorebirds. Another thing we were very fascinated by was the fiddler crabs. They were everywhere! We would look over at the sand and just see thousands covering the ground. They looked so interesting moving around together, like a blanket being pulled across the sand. It was amazing how many there were.
After canoeing, we walked over to the beach on the Atlantic side. This beach was beautiful. The water was clear and blue, and the sand was pink! All of the crushed shells and rocks made the sand look pink. We swam for a while in the refreshing water and then we took a walk down the beach. I looked at all the pretty seashells covering the sand, Nick found some snails, and we both saw dolphins swimming around. It was a great day at the beach, and we'll definitely make this park a regular spot.
About 70 miles up the coast from Canaveral NS is the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument in St. Augustine, FL. This is a well preserved fort built in early colonial times. It started out as a Spanish fort when Florida was Spanish Territory, and Spain used it as a defense against British encroachment. The fort eventually ended up as a U.S. fort where it was used during the Seminole Wars and the Civil War. This was a highly armored and well stocked fort with many cannons. Now as a national monument, the park service has many programs to share the fort's history. When Nick and I were there, we first did the self guided tour of many of the fort's rooms. We used our brochure and walked around and learned a lot, with the help of the many volunteers that were available. We saw the soldiers quarters with their hay mattresses, the jail cell, the storage room for food and goods, the armory, and of course the "necessary room," or the bathroom. They actually had a pretty smart sewage system. The necessary room was in a corner of the fort where the tide could come up and clear out the waste, ick.
After exploring the fort, we went upstairs to the gun deck. The gun deck and the city wall together had over 70 cannons to defend the city. On the gun deck we watched Spanish soldier reenactors perform a cannon fire. We saw the very formal and drilled procedure for firing a cannon. It seemed like a very slow and ceremonial process, but doing it that way prevented mistakes. It was very neat to see and a very loud boom to hear.
Overall, the fort was very fun and interesting. The whole city of St. Augustine is very historic with a lot to see and do. We walked around town and saw many old buildings, visited the pirate museum, and climbed to the top of the historic lighthouse. Florida is a very special place with lots of history and unique ecosystems. It's a wonderful place to explore.
