We like to go to Florida and yes, we always go in the summer.  We love it really, really uncomfortably hot (actually not, but it is one of the benefits of being married to a dedicated teacher – summer only vacations).  I found a reasonably priced hotel at guestprivileges.com.  This is a site for Choice Hotels along with all of their related chains.  You can find others, but this is the one that I have used for several years.  The hotel is right on the beach where we intend to spend a week in St. Augustine.

As you know, I’m a geek so this is how I planned the summer vacation.

The first things we wanted to check on were some of the local sites and attractions.  I went to Google.com and typed, “Things to do in St. Augustine FL” and found the city’s website, oldtown.com.  The site was full of information…yes along with advertisements for hotels, sight seeing tours, airplane tours and even a special weight loss link.  But you know what, for free information I am happy to deal with some ads. 

I found out also that St. Augustine is the nation’s oldest city.  Since I am a native Virginian I bristled at that as I know Jamestown has that title.  Oops, when checking with my wife…remember the teacher mentioned before, I found that Jamestown is the oldest English settlement and St. Augustine is the oldest Spanish settlement.  OK that’s settled.

I found out that we would be going to see the Castillo de San Marcos.  Interesting in that it is over 300 years old and is built of coquina, a nearly indestructible limestone consisting of broken sea shells and coral.  That sounds neat to me!

Flagler College which has an interesting history is also there.  There is an alligator farm, museums, the actual old town which has been turned into a “mall” type of shopping area, golf courses and ghost town tours…oh scary. 

Of course there are also a ton of restaurants for all different tastes which I really look forward to.  And there are even more places to shop which the school teacher really looks forward to.

I almost forgot…there is also one of the largest Ripley’s Believe it or not “museums” there which neither of us looks forward to.

Before you plan your vacation, see how much information you can find online first.  The internet could make trip planning even easier.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 17th, 2007 at 11:38 pm and is filed under Columns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.