The only reason I took this 72 hour — three day trip to Florida’s Historic Coast was that I had never been there before, although I had been to Miami and Orlando, many times. I found out later that I was not alone. Last year, about 54.1 million visitors came to visit Florida in 2015, many came to the Miami/Orlando area, seeking great shopping, great art, and Mickey Mouse. But fewer travel north to Ponte Vedra Beach, and St. Augustine, on Florida’s Historic Coast. This is the place for those who love golf, pirates, early American history and alligators.
Day One: Sawgrass and Golf
If you take golf seriously, even though you may not know the nuances of the Historic Coast, you do know Ponte Vedra. The Tournament Players Club at Sawgrass (TPC at Sawgrass) is the golf course at Ponte Vedra Beach It is home to the PGA Tour headquarters, the elegant TPC Sawgrass Clubhouse, and annually hosts The Players Championship, a major golf tournament on the PGA Tour. The TPC at Sawgrass is in Ponte Vedra Beach's Sawgrass development. Constructed specifically to host The Players Championship, this course is known for its signature hole, the par-3, 137-yard 17th, known as the Island Green, one of golf's most difficult holes. This hole is essentially a 78-foot long green with a tiny bunker in front. Except for a small path to the green, it is completely surrounded by water.
We stayed at the Sawgrass Marriott Resort that lies adjacent to the course. The balcony views from our sixth floor Golf Suite were not only of the course, but of the landscaping and footbridges nearby. There was, at sunrise, a clarity of air and water, as Spanish Moss, hung and swayed like fuzzy icicles, from the trees. This landscape gave us a taste of the history and mystery here, and this taste a full meal in St. Augustine, our next stop.
The city was founded in the late 1500s, and Spaniards, English, French, many pirates, and Americans have been living and sailing here ever since. It is the oldest continually inhabited city in the U.S. There are many buildings that reflect and refract the history of this area. One of the most famous we explored was the Castillo de San Marcos, a masonry fort made of a stone called coquina, made of ancient shells that bonded together to form a an impenetrable barrier. It was completed in 1695. Though the fortress was attacked many times by the British and by pirates, it never fell.
Pirates that attacked that old Fort, and occasionally burned the city to the ground, were much feared. We walked across the street to the St. Augustine Pirate Museum, where we saw real doubloons, pirate flags, that gave us a sense of this complex, dark and often unwritten history. The Pirate Museum is also within steps of the colonial quarter of St. Augustine, again dating back to the 1700's.
St. Augustine might have remained a small Florida coastal town with an interesting pirate history, and an old colonial section, if it hadn't been for Henry Flagler, a multi-millionaire who lived in the later part of the 19th century and founded Standard Oil, along with his partner, John D. Rockefeller. Flagler was the one who had a vision for this town – he wanted to reinvent St. Augustine into a lively new winter playground for wealthy Easterners who didn't like ice and snow. He built three significant hotels, so that his Florida East Coast Railway could bring shivering New Yorkers to warm Florida sunshine. In January of 1888, the grand Ponce de Leon Hotel opened for the first season, and its sister hotel across the street was well underway. Flagler built three high-end hotels in St. Augustine.
These buildings are still standing, and are now Flagler College, the City Hall complex, and the Lightner Museum. We spent half of the day at the Lightner, which was once The Alcazar Hotel, and saw a truly eclectic collection of decorative art and glass, including Tiffany, from the 19th century, as well as human hair art, cigar label art, button art, a collection of old typewriters, plus a major collection of 5000 salt and pepper shakers. Suffice it to say these shakers were not all on display at the museum proper, but many were. The vast collections of chairs, gravy boats, old typewriters, adding machines, glassware, and so much more are in storage on the fourth floor of the Museum, where access is restricted. WE got in, and that is another story.
Day Three: Hungry Alligators and The Ponte Vedra Inn & Club
I won't forget this one, because when I was offered a Zipline over the St. Augustine Alligator Farm And Zoological Park, a mile in length, at the last second, I just could not do it. My other brave colleagues were more comfortable, but I just said no. The kindly young woman who helped me get out of all the harnesses, straps and belts said many other people felt this way also. So, I was offered an alternative: seeing feeding time at the other section of the Alligator Farm And Zoological Park. How could I resist? So I saw the joyful feeding of about 200 alligators. With all the snapping and grabbing, I was glad I did NOT go on that Zipline. Also, a small detail: the alligators were fed their favorite delicacy: frozen white rats. To each his or her own.
Our last stop on our last day was the Ponte Vedra Inn and Club, an elegant place, built in 1928. I stayed in a one-bedroom suite in the Georgia House complex – a spacious suite in itself, and paradise for those who loved the beach, as it was right outside the door and down a few steps. The Ponte Vedra Inn and Club had exceptional amenities: the spa, the fitness center, the dining. But for me, I loved my Ocean Suite's quick beach access.
On my last day, I walked the beach at sunrise, and saw the colors of the peaceful, clear dawn at Ponte Vedra Beach, right outside my Suite. Walking the beach with only sandpipers as company, I felt I knew only a small part of this coast's ancient history, but for now it was enough, knowing i could return again, and explore again the better angels of the mysteries found here.
