Fort MatanzasText Box: HOME Text Box: Oops! I realized I had forgotten these pictures on another camera. So, we also went to Fort Matanzas on the same day we went to the beach. The kids groaned at yet another educational field trip—but, in the end had fun. Who wouldn’t with a ferry ride, cannons and musket firing??? Text Box: While the fort itself doesn’t seem to me very menacing, the fact is, it provided the first line of defense for St Augustine about 15 miles upstream. The French arrived to attack and 250 of them were massacred. The new name for this area became Matanzas which is Spanish for slaughter. Here is the whole story! Text Box: Before the trip to the fort, we took a walk along the trail to see the actual point of slaughter. Along the way we saw TONS of these golden silk spiders. See, they would not have even shot me, the spiders would have done me in! Text Box: Where is that kids shirt? Isn’t this no shirt/no shoes type of deal? Apparently not! We took a ferry ride across the channel to the fort. Inside were lots of guns. Text Box: Cade wanted me to add that part. Actually, he said “Cool guns.” What was cool, is you could walk the entire fort, including the upper level which had a great view. We even saw sea turtles feeding—which you cannot see in the photo below, but I included it anyhow. They were right at the end of the stone pier. I also learned the water is called “Brackish” because it is a mixture of salt and fresh water. Text Box: After the musket demo, we got back on the boat and headed for home. As we left, they fired the cannons. That was pretty cool. When we returned the kids finished their “Jr Ranger bagde books” and got their shields. All in all, a pretty nice time—because it was short too! Now, OFF TO THE BEACH!