Vaca 2020 - Day 11 - Castillo de San Marcon

So roughly 10, 11, 19 days into vaca at this point and we're all a little frazzled. Whenever something doesn't go smoothly, which rarely happens on a vacation, one of us is more miffed than the others and expresses their personal displeasure. 

We were all at a somewhat stable place when we "arroved" at the grand fort, or Castillo. This reminded me of a soap opera in the late '80's / early '90's where there was a Castillo, maybe a Bo & Hope... Victor Curiaucis (sp???), ALF and perhaps some others. 

No matter, here we are at the "Castillo" ready for as much of the tour as we can do because, you see, apparently the 'Rona is inside the fort/castillo and everybody who has entered the aforementioned has perished but those who remain just on the other side of the walls are safe, so for the outsiders sake, they closed the inners... 

It was still a pretty cool thing to see, and as such, we shall take you on the 'Rona safe self-guided-tour that we self-guided ourselves on. Let's go!

Cannons.  I need a cannon.  And when you see the "oven" later on, you'll see what kind of a cannon I want/need!

One of the few family pics from this vaca as you didn't just walk up to strangers and hand them your obviously 'Rona afflicted phone and demand a pic.  Mama Chaos, who plans our treks, is obviously still in fine form even though she's likely been berated by all of the boys at this point for something that she "obviously misplanned" or whatever,  Caleb appears to still have his wits about him but Rob and I appear to appear like we're pretty much ready to be back home.  I really like home.  Vacations are cool, but this is dragging on a bit at this point. 

This is the wall that fortifies the fort from the ocean waters.  I'm not exactly sure what it's made of, but it was crazy looking!

The previous photo is what Mama and Calebber are standing on here.  Caleb lost a tooth shortly before this so, as a bit of tradition, we like to have the kids throw teeth into the ocean.  If you don't like that, I don't care... move on.  So I believe that we have kids' teeth off the coast of Maine, Hawaii, Oregon? and now Florida.

Ah, the Castillo!  Really a pretty cool thing to see!  We're in the moat.

Speaking of the moat, click on the pic to make it bigger and read a bit about it.

I need a house with a moat around it.  But it needs a straight driveway, not a driveway like we have now where people, unwisely, try to back down and slide off into the ditches.   Here they would slide off into my gator infested moat and then I would not be able to help get them out.  They would be on their own.

This is a close-up of the stone from the wall of the fort/castillo.  Crazy stuff.

Hmmmmmm...  looks like their outdoor cooking space, aka oven!

So if I get a cannon for my birthday, I will need to build one of these where I can get my cannon balls up to red hot but also be able to smoke meat when I'm not in need to send red hot cannon balls at my enemies.  This seems justified.

The Chinese lad on the other side of the "castillo" but still in the moat.

And what does that pic look like from a different angle?  A bit like this!  Mama and Rob were faster than Calebber and myself, so that's how this happened.  I'm not gonna lie as that would be unbecoming, but there was a dad/scout master/something of authority who had four teenaged boys with him.  He was trying to teach the 4 lads about the rocks that were used and everything else about the fort. The boys, being teenaged boys, were paying attention about 10% of the time and not heeding the bosses commands. At first he calmly stated, "Please, do not touch the monument.". He started ramping up to, "C'mon guys, DON'T TOUCH the monument!", until he finally flipped his lid when Caleb and I heard, "GET THE F--- OFF OF THE F------ MONUMENT!!!!!". I giggled and we made it a point to put a bit more distance betwixt our party and theirs. LOL!

Here we see the entry bridge that we saw from the other side earlier in the post.  I'm beginning to think that we really need a castle!

And it seems our visit has concluded and we were back on the road heading up the road to Jacksonville.

Curly Schmitz Lambeau

Walking out of the Packers tunnell with the fake crowd noise building.  It gives you goosebumps!

 

Bubble Boy

Robby at his 2nd birthday party catching bubbles that Mom was blowing to him.  We're coming up to the 14th anniversary of this pic and should get him bubbles for his birthday!  It looks like it would make him happy.

 

Grandpa and Robby!

We found another memory stick that belonged to my Mother-in-law.  On it were some pictures that we've already seen but many that we had not seen.  Always fun.

 

Throwback... Blue Mounds State Park

Blue Mounds State Park.  I learned, learnt?  Whatever...  I found out about this place when I started working for Berkely Technology Services in early January, 2010.  As it turned out, the system that I was brought on to support was (mostly) written by a fella who lived in Luverne, Minnesota and there was a satellite office there.  My boss and two co-horts went up there for a week for training from the man himself.  One of the days, he had the four of us over to his house for lunch as his wife made one of the better lasagna's that I have ever tasted.  Anyway, that guy, whose name I can't recall, told us about Blue Mounds just a few miles North of Luverne... 

A little blurry, but quite adorable!

Skinny daddy with a boy very proud to be with his dad!  I also just noticed that I have a carpal tunnel brace on my right hand!  I wonder if I have the other one on too!?

Robby with his hiking boots on.  He was quite proud of those!

So first, no left hand carpal tunnel brace... we got the answer to that mystery pretty quickly!  Those days when the lad could see no flaws in dad.  

Not sure if something happened to his knee or if he was just being goofy?  He's my son so just being goofy is a strong possibly!

As you can tell, the views from the park are a bit lovely!

I don't know for sure if this is the correct line of rocks...  I don't think it is as I thought it was a bit more predominate, but anyway, there is a stone line/wall that aligns with the sunrise and sunset on the first day of Spring and Fall.

Yes, there's a bit of a drop just behind us.  You'll see it from the bottom looking up in a pic or two.

The descent...

 

Appears to be a bit of a drop behind Rob here too!

1 shot of where we were on top of the drop.  There were some repellers along these bluffs that we didn't take pictures of, but I do recall them offering to take Rob up if we were ok with it.  We weren't then.  I would be now.

Cool park.  If you're in the area and have a little time to spare, stop by.  A cool park with spectaculer views and a bit of history that I did not cover.

Some Time Ago... I'm Getting Old!

Looking thru old pictures is a source of great fun for me!  I see some pictures that I've never seen before and also have memories brought back from years ago, like this post.

Robby and I getting ready to cook a meal with the aprons that my sister Doris Brunette, made for us.  We still use the today while I believe they were made in 2007, maybe 2008.

Mama Chaos with Robby in his Lightning McQueen crocs, with Sammy as a toddler!

I'm not sure what Sam is sticking in his mouth here, but Rob seems to be less than impressed.

My sister and her boy!

Robby,  a tiny pumpkin and a very chill kitty!

The fams...

Sam and a very concerned Robby!