Castillo de San Marcos National Monument

I had to look through over 14 photo albums to find the photographic evidence that we explored at Castillo de San Marcos. I finally found the photo album in Sammy’s room. Whew!

Bo’s Mom Betty lived in St. Augustine, Florida for many years and during one trip to see her in 2010, we visited the park. It was so hot that day and we all were sweltering. You can see the heat in the redness of the boy’s cheeks!

We are getting ready to head back to Florida for Spring Break, this time only with Ryder and Sam as Mak is away at college and does not share the same Spring Break any longer. I’ve spent the morning booking hotels and charting our grand adventure on roactrippers.com. We will be going back to Castillo de San Marcos to get some new snaps … and of course my official stamp.

“Built by the Spanish in St. Augustine to defend Florida and the Atlantic trade route, Castillo de San Marcos National Monument preserves the oldest masonry fortification in the continental United States and interprets more than 450 years of cultural intersections.”

Our trip will be a bold attempt to do the almost the entire Florida NPS in one week. Florida has 11 NPS Units and we will experience 10 with the exception of The Gulf Islands National Seashore. I’ve been to 3 of them before … Castillo de San Marcos, Everglades National Park, and Biscayne National Park (by boat). I will attempt to add 7 new units … Big Cypress National Preserve, Canaveral National Seashore, De Soto National Memorial, Dry Tortugas National Park (which we will travel to by sea plane! A first for me.), Fort Caroline National Memorial, Fort Matanzas National Monument (I hope! It is first come for the ferry tickets, so fingers crossed our timing works. I might have to save this one for later.) and Timucuan Ecological and Historical Preserve.

I think I have finally taught the boys that Park Chasing is fun!

Thank you so much to the awesome NPS Park Rangers at Castillo de San Marcos National Monument for sending me an official stamp in August 2022!!!