Palm Cost & St. Augustine, FL

 So we just spent and beautiful and relaxing week in Palm Coast, FL. We stayed in a lovely "home" (mansion..lol) right on the beach with a 50 yd boardwalk directly  dropping us on some of the softest sand I have ever encountered. It was amazing. We were just wrapping up our brief 2 week recap of the United States , so it seemed fitting that we visit the oldest continuously occupied settlement in the USA... St. Augustine, FL.

The kids favorite site in St. Augustine was the Castillo De San Marcos National Monument. We had an amazing tour and presentation by this lovely gentleman in costume. The kids also completed the workbook required to receive their Junior Ranger badges and Master Range patches while we were there. It took them some time and looking but they did great. Even Hulk accomplished this though a few of the Rangers on duty let him cheat by answering orally since he's not up to writing much yet. But hey a five year old who listened to the talk and remember something was impressive..lol.

One of the coolest things we learned about was the rock from which the fort was made.  Coquina is a form of limestone made primarily of shell fragments. The entire fort is made from coquina and it uniquely qualified as a building material for a military fortification. When cannon balls hit coquina instead of shattering the rock, the cannon balls just got stuck. The rock was strong but porous enough to absorb the shock. The large reef of coquina is what given the beaches in the area their "cinnamon" color.

The kids loved being on a less traveled beach this time around because they got see a lot more nature. (seeing a shark in the wild sorta made up for not having other kids this trip). This is just a small list of the wildlife we saw from a distance, up close, and sometime a little too close for comfort:

Dolphins

Pelicans

Gecko-2 kinds

Skink

Salamanders 

Snake

Sand crab 

Starfish
tree frog

Toad
Reef Shark
a lot of fish ( all kinds)
lovebugs and distinctly missing..... MOSQUITOS!!!!!

The reef shark is a story my husband and daughter will be telling for years to come. They happened to be out near low tide about 30 m from shore. they were watching large schools of fish in the waves. My husband put Ying  up on his shoulders to get a better view. He turned around and next thing he saw was a large reef shark chasing those same schools of fish. Needless to say, they slowly backed away until they got out of the water.

Well a good time was had by all and a little school got thrown in, too!