{"id":852,"date":"2011-05-16T12:43:12","date_gmt":"2011-05-16T19:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/traveltattler.com\/?p=852"},"modified":"2011-05-31T09:24:30","modified_gmt":"2011-05-31T16:24:30","slug":"first-coast-first-class-in-florida-st-augustine-and-jacksonville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/library\/852\/first-coast-first-class-in-florida-st-augustine-and-jacksonville","title":{"rendered":"FIRST COAST FIRST CLASS IN FLORIDA \u2013 ST. AUGUSTINE AND JACKSONVILLE"},"content":{"rendered":"

America\u2019s oldest city is right next to the biggest city in the continental United States. Can you name either of them?\"\"
\nSt. Augustine, Florida was founded by the Spanish in 1565; Jacksonville, just to the north, occupies an 874 square-mile corner of northeast Florida. If you\u2019ve flown over or driven past either of them on your way to Orlando or Miami, it\u2019s time you discovered the miles of Atlantic beaches, shopping, nightlife, outdoor activities and historic attractions of the \u201cFirst Coast.\u201d
\nSt. Augustine gives you what you expect in terms of \u201cedu-tainment:\u201d narrow brick streets, historic buildings, street characters in period clothing, horse-drawn carriages, a centuries-old waterfront fort, ghost tours, creaky churches, floating Spanish galleons, and charming inns. But don\u2019t let anyone tell you Charleston, S.C. has cornered the market on this brand of Southern charm.
\n\u201cCharleston is a pretty place, but it\u2019s a little stiff,\u201d admits Richard Goldman, Executive Director of the St. Augustine-Ponte Vedra-and The Beaches Visitors and Convention Bureau. \u201cWe\u2019re not Key West either, mind you, but we\u2019re someplace in between.\u201d
\nSt. Augustine lights up at night and I strolled the cobblestone streets feeling like I was in the setting of a stylish, yet hair-down \u201cPirates of the Caribbean\u201d movie. Old style architecture is infused with international flair by street musicians, jazz clubs, romantic cafes, and renowned restaurants. The famed \u201cColumbia,\u201d where diners enjoy Spanish dishes such as paella and chorizo on indoor patios amid the ambiance of hand-painted tiles, fountains and fauna, is a favorite.
\nThe Conch House, across the inlet, is an almost completely open-air marina resort inhabited by swaggering boaters and loopy \u201clandlushers\u201d all swaying to the live steel drum bands playing in various locations along the pier and docks.
\nJacksonville is a watery town, too, featuring miles of rivers (and water hazards) with sandy beaches (and bunkers.) As home to the PGA Tour and the World Golf Hall of Fame, the average golfer can feel first rate on the First Coast. The Tournament Players Club at Sawgrass, infamous for its\u2019 island green 17th hole – one of the most photographed in golf – invites golfers take their best shot just the stars who go for broke there each May in the lucrative Players Championship.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s the strongest field in golf every year. Winning that big a tournament in my hometown was huge,\u201d popular professional Fred Funk told me. He won the Players Championship in 2005 and makes his home in the Ponte Vedra area of Jacksonville. \u201cThe first-place check was great \u2013 paying the taxes on it was not so much fun, though!\u201d
\nArnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, arguably the most compelling stars in the game\u2019s history, collaborated to design and then lent their respective nicknames to the playable and fun \u201cKing and Bear\u201d course at World Golf Village, which, like Nicklaus\u2019 Ocean Course at Hammock Dunes, to the south in Palm Coast, has hosted a Champions Tour event. I found the Ocean Course to be a pristine experience in a sublime, quiet seaside resort specializing in sunrises. It is part of a collection of First Coast courses available through www.Florida-golf.org<\/a>, a not-for-profit organization which leads visitors to facilities of distinction such as Southampton Golf Club, a Mark McCumber designed track (he\u2019s also a local Tour star who won the Players Championship in 1988) managed by M.G. Orender, who served as national president of the PGA.<\/p>\n

\"\"Cool your soft-spikes with a walk through The World Golf Hall of Fame, an interactive, creative museum with unforgettable exhibits including Masters jackets, tournament winning clubs and revealing personal items donated by golf\u2019s historic and prolific winners. The Hall of Fame may not ask you for your golf clubs, but you can leave your fingerprints on the trophies of the greats and your footprints on the most famous courses along Florida\u2019s First Coast!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

America\u2019s oldest city is right next to the biggest city in the continental United States. Can you name either of… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":853,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3665],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-library"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2011\/05\/FL.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=852"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":855,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852\/revisions\/855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}