Memorial Day 2016

First, never forget.  Never forget all those that have paid the ultimate price in the defense of your freedom and liberty in this great country.  As bad as we're getting, this is still the best country in the world.

I spent the day at Fort Clinch State Park at Amelia Island, FL (this is as far north in Florida as you can get).

This is an incredible place to visit and I highly recommend it if you ever get to the southeastern US.  It is one of the best preserved 3rd System (meaning brick and stone) fort in the US.  It is even better than Castillo de San Marcos in St Augustine, and I thought that was a great fort.

The best thing about Clinch is that they have populated most of the rooms with period stuff so you really feel like you are walking into the 1860s.  Most weekends there are some number of reenactors there to explain things.  And they do it in character!  Bunk rooms have beds with mattresses, store rooms have casks and wooden boxes, and the blacksmith shop has all the tools and equipment.  If you're lucky the blacksmith will be there and show you a thing or two.

Also interesting is the design of the fort.  Each bastion is reached by a tunnel (tunnels are always fun, besides be a nice respite from the Florida sun and heat).  The Castillo only has rooms reachable from the courtyard/parade ground in the middle.  Once in the bastions, the roof is accessed by a narrow spiral staircase.  Narrow spiral staircases are always fun too!  It's as close to being in a castle as you can get in the US I think.  So lots of fun to be had by all going in and out of tunnels and up and down narrow winding staircases.  Plus there are a bunch of large cannons atop the bastions and works (10 inch Rodman guns I believe).  What I would give to see one of those babies fired!

The park is a great place to visit, and not just for the excellent fort.  There are bike trails, nature trails, picnic areas (with a playground too), and a small museum. To top it all off the entrance fee is only $6 a car (I think, the web page doesn't say exactly, but it's not much), and then it's only $2 more per person to get into the fort.  We took a picnic lunch (the picnic area is right by the visitor center which is the entrance for the fort and museum as well) so it was a very economical day all around.

Very highly recommended!