By Rachel - 3/2/07

Yesterday, we left home at 4:30 in the morning!!! We arrived in St. Augustine around 1:00 p.m., and then scootered around the campground and played on the playground. Today, we were supposed to go on a boat ride, but it was raining so that didn’t happen. But we did go to St. Augustine Lighthouse, and then we got to go up to the top of it. We also got to climb the 219 steps. To go up and down, that would be 438 steps!!! Then we went to the Colonial Spanish Quarter. This was based around the time period of 1740. We started out at a normal 1700s Spanish type house. Just about every Spanish house there had two rooms with one bed for the parents only. Children would sleep on what we call today, a sleeping bag. When they eat, the children roll up their sleeping bag and sit on it like a bean bag. If it was nice outside, they would take them outside to sit on the porch and eat out there. Then we went to the carpenter’s shop. When we got to his building, he was working on a handle for a tool that he would use to make a bowl or something rounded. Then we went to the blacksmith. He said that he could make a nail in about 20 seconds. Then we went to the leather shop. The leather man even made a canteen out of leather. He can repair shoes, make canteens, bags for ammunition, and tons more things. Then we went to another much larger Spanish house. There they had lacing lessons yesterday, so we got to see lace that was partially made. These Spanish homes don’t have ovens, so they can just drop off their flour and salt at the bakery and pick it up later. Each house has a courtyard which is used almost like our living rooms. They also have gardens, livestock, and orange trees. Speaking of orange trees, the orange tree is not native to Florida and California. The Spanish brought it from Spain. We also went to a fort called Castillo De San Marcos. This fort was made by a special material made from crushed shells. It was started in 1672 but took 22 years to build. The fort was never taken over by fighting, but only by a treaty. It is now owned by the National Park Service.