Saint Augustine is just 2 hours drive from our place. The road trip is on the coastal road with the view of the Pacific Ocean passing by Daytona Beach, the mecca of motor sports. If you are traveling to Saint Augustine, you should take an hour or two and splash on the water of Daytona beautiful beach before heading to Saint Augustine.
In the vicinity of the old town of Saint Augustine there stood the oldest masonry fort of the US along the shore of Matanza Bay. I took the picture above as we head to the entrance of the fort.
This is the main gate of the fort. The area is 20.5 acres big and includes a reconstructed section of the walled defense line. The details of the architectural design of the fort are distinctive and unique. Castillo de san marcos is an excellent example of the "bastion system" of fortification.
We came here twice on our last visit and we truly enjoyed checking out each weapons and armory, old memorabilia, and canons displayed at the top of the fort. If you stand where the canon was, you will see the entire Bay area. No wonder that this fort successfully defend it's territory against British attacks.
Would you like to see some videos of ghost stories in San Marcos? Check it out in YouTube "Ghost Adventures Castillo de San Marcos" and find out what happened to the team of Ghost Adventure.
Honestly, the city of Saint Augustine is creepy and eerie at night. When we leave the fort as they close at about 6PM, we walked across the street to locate our car in the parking lot nearby the church. We were lost in downtown and though we hear the music of the bars nearby, we cannot find our way and there was no one on the streets but us. It was about 9PM when we found a guard of the Flagler College and asked for direction. We were not scared with ghosts but, we were looking at our back as if someone is following us.
In the vicinity of the old town of Saint Augustine there stood the oldest masonry fort of the US along the shore of Matanza Bay. I took the picture above as we head to the entrance of the fort.This is the main gate of the fort. The area is 20.5 acres big and includes a reconstructed section of the walled defense line. The details of the architectural design of the fort are distinctive and unique. Castillo de san marcos is an excellent example of the "bastion system" of fortification.We came here twice on our last visit and we truly enjoyed checking out each weapons and armory, old memorabilia, and canons displayed at the top of the fort. If you stand where the canon was, you will see the entire Bay area. No wonder that this fort successfully defend it's territory against British attacks.Would you like to see some videos of ghost stories in San Marcos? Check it out in YouTube "Ghost Adventures Castillo de San Marcos" and find out what happened to the team of Ghost Adventure.Honestly, the city of Saint Augustine is creepy and eerie at night. When we leave the fort as they close at about 6PM, we walked across the street to locate our car in the parking lot nearby the church. We were lost in downtown and though we hear the music of the bars nearby, we cannot find our way and there was no one on the streets but us. It was about 9PM when we found a guard of the Flagler College and asked for direction. We were not scared with ghosts but, we were looking at our back as if someone is following us. 
When we decided to visit Saint Augustine, we just look up the pictures of the hotel and we were mesmerized by the nice building and pool of one hotel posted on a site. Without reading the reviews, we booked for it. When we arrived the location, it was an old huge building with nasty surroundings. It was located in Beach Boulevard, the first hotel on the left side. We went in and told the person at the front desk that we will look at the room first. I noticed that the lobby has nasty cages of birds. The smell in the lobby is not good at all. The inside office was a mess with cats and food trays on the floor. We glanced at the room and did not bother to go inside the room. We cancelled the reservation and we were able to pay $20 for cancellation! Bummer! How could they stay in business when they can't handle the cleanliness? Anyway, Castillo Real Resort Hotel is just few minutes drive further and thankful that they still has a room for us.
Their pool is gated and every guests have the key to this facility. The place is always peace and quite. I noticed that some people left their gadgets on the umbrella table and was there the whole time. The whole facility was equipped with surveillance camera.
Every afternoon after we stroll the beach or went roaming the old city of Saint Augustine, we used the pool and their jacuzzi. We just love this place. If you plan to visit Saint Augustine, you should check out this hotel. 
If you plan to visit the Fort, you can catch the ferry at 9:30, 10:30, 11:30 and 12:30. It's free and it's fun! 
The pictures below were taken at the the bay side area of the Old City.
Watching the boats sailing on the bay during the sunset was pretty relaxing. That is why when we realized that it was getting dark, we returned to our parking lot.
But since it was dark already, we missed the turn and we were lost inside a residential area LOL! It was a hilarious experience because we were not the only one who were lost. We came to the parking lot after 10 minutes.
We were inside a big place surrounded with tall buildings and it was almost 10PM, few people are walking lost too LOL. We saw security guards and we asked where we are, they said we are inside Flagler College. Just one turn on the left is the parking lot whewww!
The place is very quite at night except for few bars open and some homeless walking on the streets. It was a pleasant vacation.