Back to town to visit the fort and take an Eco-Tour.

​We drove the truck in and parked at the Fort. We can only park for 4 hours but it should be enough for tour of the fort and to go on the Eco-Tour.

The Castillo De San Marcos fort was built by the Spanish in 1672-95. As a comparison, this fort is much smaller than Fort Pickens and will just fit in the courtyard of that fort. The Coquina “stone” was brought over from Anastasia Island. Coquina is compressed shells that have become rock like.

The advantage to constructing with coquina is that it disperses impact energy better than stone. A cannon ball can shatter stone. When a cannon ball hits coquina it is absorbed, just knocks off a little, or bounces off.

Just enough time for a short tour before we need to head to the next adventure.

Our phone alarm went off, so it is time to walk down to the dock to get on a boat. On the walk down to the marina, we passed the restaurant where we had lunch yesterday. It was nice from the balcony but a bit noisy.

On to the boat.

​The ocean was fairly flat, so we headed out to the buoy marker offshore hoping for dolphins. We did have a turtle.

We got a nice view of the fort from off shore, birds on a protected island, and bridges and the city.

There is still time left on the parking, so we head back into the fort. It is in really good shape considering all it has been through. The fort was a refuge when there was an attack. All the town's people would flee into the fort and wait. The town was burned to the ground several times, but the fort was never taken by force.  In the set of pictures, there are several of some very old cannons.  I am surprised at how ornate they are and how good shape they are in after all this time.

The fort looked very different in the past. The outer and inner walls were white from a covering of plaster. Paintings were on many walls. Here are examples of how it would have looked.

Well, time was running out on the parking spot, and I do not want to pay a fine. Paying $20 for 4 hours is bad enough. Once we found a different spot to park, we walked to the restaurant for lunch.

OK, now the museum I was really looking forward to visiting.
​The Pirate & Treasure Museum. I know kid at heart. Arrggg!

The museum is part entertainment and part history. There is a lot of theater to the presentation and some displays are interactive. This should be fun with many real artifacts. In fact, they claim to have the world's largest collection of authentic pirate artifacts

Along with the artifacts, a lot of history is presented.

Many tavern artifacts.

Of course, they have a real pirate flag.

There was a theatrical presentation of piracy. It does make the museum fun.

Even a “real” pirate captain to answer questions and speak on pirate history.

The last room they carry the theatrical presentation to the next level with movie memorabilia. It included items from old movies and not so old.
​
Pirates of the Caribbean

The Goonies

Hook

Captain Blood

We had a great time. You can stay as long as you like and use every interactive display. I am sure that they are busy some days but today there were only about a dozen people in the museum at any one time. It was fun.

Time to head back to the truck and the RV. We did pass a few buildings and churches.