St. Augustine Trip

Littleton Elementary's 4th Grade caps off the school year

with a trip to St. Augustine to see first hand the FL history

they have studied all year. While I am not normally an

overprotective Momma, I just couldn't let Ian go without

one of us. I'm so glad I went! The boys were great and

the tours were so interesting. I learned so much...and now you

are going to be educated as well. (sorry)

Facts about St. Augustine:

Oldest city in the USA.

*First hotel to have electricity

*Very haunted City

*6 flags have flown over Castillo de San Marcos
*Ponce De Leon "discovered" St. Augustine in 1513.

*He named it La Florida because all of the tropical flowers

were in bloom.

*He discovered "the fountain of youth" which still brings

spring water today...and tastes like nasty well water.

Boys will be boys and the first thing

they did was start a race competition with Drake's Dad

as the turn around point. One of the boys said to me,

"Ian sure loves to run". Indeed he does!

Here are some of the boys we toured with, posing in

front of one of the city walls. This was right before the teachers

yelled at them to get off the wall. Sorry boys...

The kids were fascinated with these beautiful birds.

We saw a pure white one as well but I couldn't

get a good picture of it.

This is the proof that Ponce De Leon was here in 1513.

This cross has 13 stones across and 15 down. A Spanish

Catholic relic was found in the same vicinity.

This crazy fellow taught us all about blowing

things up. He explained how the cannons

and guns worked.

No matter where we go, we always

seem to find something that reminds

us of John!

This is the skin of an alligator. I was touring with

boys so as soon as we were given free time to explore,

this is where they headed first. GROSS!

This a dugout canoe. The Indians would burn it and then

use shells to scoop out the inside until they were only

left with the shell of the log. Ta da...a canoe.

Giant ceramic pots used to catch rain water.

This is an example of the wall that was

built around the city limits.

Yup, it rained...HARD. We were soaked during our

windowless/doorless tram tour.
This is a statue of Admiral Pedro Menendez de Aviles.

In 1565, the Spanish realized the French were going to

try and seize St. Augustine, Spain sent Menedez to

fortify and settle the city. It has been continuously

settled ever since, thus making it the oldest city

in America.

After visiting the city during his honeymoon, Henry Morrison Flagler

decided to build it into vacation destination. The land he desired

was already occupied by various churches. He bought the buildings and

had new churches, even more grand than the original, built in thier

place. The archway and red brick are signature to his buildings.

Alcazar became the tourist destination for those wanting a break

from the cold winter. Flager's hotel was the first to have

electricity. In fact, his guests were afraid to use it so he

hired staff just to turn on/off lights. It had the first indoor

pool and he would hire trapeze artists to perform above the

swimmers.
It is now known as Flagler College.

The oldest city also has the oldest Catholic Church. The

first mass was said here and the first bishop presided here.

To help celebrate the rich Catholic history, The Pope is

coming here in 2015 to celebrate the 400th year of

the Catholic faith in the city.

We've had a ton of education and now it's time for

some fun! We got to tour Ripley's Believe It or Not!

This was the original museum. Mr. Ripley settled here and

decided to put his eclectic collections on display.

Here are the boys showing that "the pirates

life's for me!"

The crown of thorns on this statue are from the

same tree of Jesus' crown of thorns.

Hmm...I don't really have anything to say about

a two headed lamb. Just odd...

"Bus One" rocked Castillo de San Marcos. This is the fort

that kept the city safe for hundreds of years.

Random Facts: *6 flags were flown over the fort but all

by official decree---it was never lost in battle. *The moat

was not filled with water but instead the city's livestock when

under attack. *The walls are made of coquina (limestone and shell).

Due to the physical structure of coquina, cannon balls are embedded

into the fortress walls instead of shattering them.

http://www.st-augustine-travel-guide.com/castillo-de-san-marcos.html

Where prisoners faced the firing squad.

Ian with a cannon that looked out into the Inter Coastal Waterway.

Some of these cannons could accurately shoot up to 3 miles.

One of the very ornate cannons

We had a medical lesson at the Spanish Military Hospital.

It was the most advanced for its time. Compared to most hospitals,

it had a very good survivor rate (75% compared to 20-25%).

By decree of the Spanish King, doctors MUST wash hands.

Patients received their own "poop pots", linen and beds.

These measures were not standard in most hospitals.

Most surgical procedures were done outside on the porch

because the Florida sun was the brightest light.

Here, our guide was demonstrating the tools used to

perform many medical procedures... well, mostly

amputations. Lucas lost his thumb, arm and needed to have

the fluid drained from his head, all done without anesthesia.

After dinner, we went on a ghost tour. We started and ended

at The Huguenot Cemetery. It's a cemetery that was

outside of the city wall where all the non-Catholics were buried.

(non-Catholics were not allowed to be buried within city limits)

It was hastily created during the yellow

fever epidemic. Often times, many bodies were buried

together, just in order to keep up. This tombstone

belongs to a little girl and they say that some

nights, her face appears on the tombstone.

Here is a site to learn more about the cemetery.

http://www.haunted-places-to-go.com/haunted-st-augustine.html

The kids went on a dig at an archaeological park.

They found items that they had to identify as

echo-facts or artifacts. Ian found some bones

and some pottery fragments.

Ian's sample after writing with a quill pen and ink.

We learned about what school would have been like in

the 1800's. It would have been an honor to have

a teacher. The teacher slept and ate at various

homes in the city. If you got into trouble at

school, you got into double trouble at home.

The kids were shocked to learn that teachers

were allowed to paddle when students

misbehaved.

After "class", the kids were sent out to do chores that would

have been typical of an 1800's child. Here Ian is pumping water

to do laundry. There was also a plow, lasso, and the

wash boards for the laundry.There were also games for the kids

to try, checkers or a hula hoop that you tapped with a stick.

What a far cry form our world of YouTube and Nintendo DS.

After the archaeological park, we went to an alligator farm.

This is an albino gator, first discovered in 1987. The

albino's worst enemy is the sun. The sun aids in digestion for

the regular gator but for the albino, it will burn while

waiting for the assistance, often causing sun poisoning.

A komodo dragon,

that wouldn't look at me!

This gator was no match for our boys!

mmm...look at those snappers!

My boys, Chris, Ian and Jake.

These are the 3 that were lucky

enough to be assigned to me! :)