St. Augustine was my first stop in Florida. It is on the east coast and it is quite beautiful.

I knew soon after entering Florida that I would like it.

This is part of my journey around Medieval America

I have always had a neutral opinion of florida. It is a bit of cliche but lots of people thing of the state as a place where senior citizens retire. And, there is Disneyland there too.

That pretty much sums up what I knew about Florida.

I spent several days in the state and came to the very firm conclusion that I love Florida. It is beautiful, it is temperate and it is nice. It's a great state from what I saw.

I had previously stayed in a Super8 in Adel Georgia. I took a day off there and caught up on some work, and did some laundry. The following morning I left for St. Augustine. It was a little over a three hour drive.

My original thought was to see a castle fort in St. Augustine. it is pretty famous and somebody had told me about it. The name of it is Castillo de San Marcos. And it didn't disappoint. But what I didn't realize is that St. Augustine has a lot more to offer in terms of castles. It also has the Ripley's Believe it or not castle and a building called Villa Zuranayva, There is also a private castle called Castle Otttiss.

I visited all four of these castles so my stay in St. Augustine was very fruitful.

One thing that did catch me by suprise about this area in Florida was that every afternoon at about the same time heavy rain storms moved in. They stayed for half an hour then moved it. It was uncanny. It did this every day like clockwork! Here's a video:

Here is a picture of part of the front of Castillo de San Marcos. It is a stone star shaped fortress on the coast. And it is still in perfect shape. It is also quite unique in the material it is made from. It is a cannonball killer. Cannonballs can't bring down it's walls. I have more pictures and more about this fortress here: Castillo de San Marcos.

I also paid a visit to Ripley Castle which is also in St. Augustine. It's an interesting castle and it is also a museum that houses a whole lot of great Ripley's style stuff. I have more about Ripley Castle here

I also did a drive by of a privately owned castle named Castle Otttiss.