I've been searching around for the past few days for info on things to do in town. I've come across some really informative websites that are full of attraction news, tour ideas, and links to different companies such as those that host kayaking tours or parasailing. There will be a lot more of these coming, but I figured I'd post some of the better ones that I've found so far on here!
Florida's Historic Coast - St. Augustine and Ponte Vedra
Old City - Connecting St. Augustine to the World
Trusted Tours - St. Augustine Division
Augustine - The St. Augustine Vacation Guide
There's also a lot of great organizations on twitter which I've started following. Any good leads, I assure you, will be posted on here forthwith!
Get ready tomorrow for Drake's Raid, too! That will be on the blog for Sunday, but I want to warn you of the pirate invansion now ;)
Until next time! <3
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Friday, June 3, 2011
Phasmophobia
Phasmophobia, also known as spectrophobia, is the irrational fear of ghosts. I have a tendency towards this phobia, which is completely unhelpful in a town like St. Augustine which is, like Savannah or Charleston, one of the most haunted cities in North America. Not only do we have a whole stinkin' lot of history (we were founded and named officially in 1565, making us the OLDEST city, since we are the oldest continuously run settlement in the New World), but the history we have is also gruesomely bloody or otherwise unpleasant. Even our more recent history is on the more ghastly side than not. This is an anxiety filled nightmare for a phasmophobe like me, but it has done wonders for our ghost tour industry which, in the past decade or so, has blossomed (see: exploded) and overtaken the town.
Now, I'm not necessarily complaining. I'm a tour guide for the City of St. Augustine and I have given my share of ghost tours. Yes, even I have dressed up in all black, lantern in tow and scared the willies out of friends and visitors. Even a phasmophobe like me has swallowed my pride now and again and partaken in the city's most prosperous and growing industry. Hell, I even live in Ponce Hall! But I won't talk about that...the college doesn't like to associate itself with ghost stories (they're sitting on a gold-mine).
I've also been on a handful of ghost tours in town and I've seen or overheard the ones I haven't actually paid for, and there are definitely ones which stand out above the others. They depend greatly on which tour guides you get, what kind of night it is, and how drunk the rest of the people on the tour are, of course, but you'll have a better chance of getting a better show with some tours over others.
One of my favorites, when we have the right tour guide and the moon is positioned right in the seventh house (kidding), is the one my parents currently work for: Ripley's Ghost Train Adventure. Now, do I like this tour because I can get on for free? Probably. But it's also darn good. All of the tours are bloody expensive, but for this one I truly feel that you get what you pay for.
The tour goes through changes once every few months, but the constant is that you jump on the train, armed with your free disposable camera and ghost meter, ride around the city listening to stories. You stop at at least two known "hot-spots" in town and then round out the tour in Castle Warden, which now houses the first Ripley's Believe it or Not museum in North America. So, not only is the castle haunted and creepy, but there's also loads of horrible things in there like tattoos with skin still attached and medieval torture devices. Cool.
The stories are true. I will put that out there. I say that a lot and it usually makes people cock their eye brows at me and shake their heads, but I tell you, most everything you hear on most of these tours you can find in a history book on the city. Will you find tales of spirits walking parapets and floating lanterns? No. But you will find story after story of bloody deaths, families torn apart, wars, lovers lost, and other brilliant and scary fodder for ghost tales. There's also lots and lots of dead people in town. Every where. It was a small city, they ran out of places to bury people. Often.
So come on a tour, any of them. They're great good fun. Take pictures even if you're a cynic. I've seen some terrifying photos which even I, while trying to make up excuses and reasons for things, have yet to be able to explain. Dust particles or not, there's some stuff caught on film that's darned scary.
The only picture I'm sharing with you today, however, is one that will relate to the post for tomorrow. Today is my friend TJ's 21st birthday and myself and a couple of friends are in charge of his "list." If you've not heard of this tradition, it involves friends who love you very much giving you a giant piece of poster paper to wear around your neck for an entire night of bar-hopping with a hilarious and embarassing list of things that must be completed during the evening. Lists can include anything from "make a wish in a fountain" to "get a lap dance from a stranger" to any number of sordid things. Last time we went out for someone's 21st, a friend got a lap dance from a drunk bride while her happy groom cheered from the sidelines. That was not on the list...
So this is what will soon be TJ's list. Oh...and a polar bear.
Until next time! <3
Now, I'm not necessarily complaining. I'm a tour guide for the City of St. Augustine and I have given my share of ghost tours. Yes, even I have dressed up in all black, lantern in tow and scared the willies out of friends and visitors. Even a phasmophobe like me has swallowed my pride now and again and partaken in the city's most prosperous and growing industry. Hell, I even live in Ponce Hall! But I won't talk about that...the college doesn't like to associate itself with ghost stories (they're sitting on a gold-mine).
I've also been on a handful of ghost tours in town and I've seen or overheard the ones I haven't actually paid for, and there are definitely ones which stand out above the others. They depend greatly on which tour guides you get, what kind of night it is, and how drunk the rest of the people on the tour are, of course, but you'll have a better chance of getting a better show with some tours over others.
One of my favorites, when we have the right tour guide and the moon is positioned right in the seventh house (kidding), is the one my parents currently work for: Ripley's Ghost Train Adventure. Now, do I like this tour because I can get on for free? Probably. But it's also darn good. All of the tours are bloody expensive, but for this one I truly feel that you get what you pay for.
The tour goes through changes once every few months, but the constant is that you jump on the train, armed with your free disposable camera and ghost meter, ride around the city listening to stories. You stop at at least two known "hot-spots" in town and then round out the tour in Castle Warden, which now houses the first Ripley's Believe it or Not museum in North America. So, not only is the castle haunted and creepy, but there's also loads of horrible things in there like tattoos with skin still attached and medieval torture devices. Cool.
The stories are true. I will put that out there. I say that a lot and it usually makes people cock their eye brows at me and shake their heads, but I tell you, most everything you hear on most of these tours you can find in a history book on the city. Will you find tales of spirits walking parapets and floating lanterns? No. But you will find story after story of bloody deaths, families torn apart, wars, lovers lost, and other brilliant and scary fodder for ghost tales. There's also lots and lots of dead people in town. Every where. It was a small city, they ran out of places to bury people. Often.
So come on a tour, any of them. They're great good fun. Take pictures even if you're a cynic. I've seen some terrifying photos which even I, while trying to make up excuses and reasons for things, have yet to be able to explain. Dust particles or not, there's some stuff caught on film that's darned scary.
The only picture I'm sharing with you today, however, is one that will relate to the post for tomorrow. Today is my friend TJ's 21st birthday and myself and a couple of friends are in charge of his "list." If you've not heard of this tradition, it involves friends who love you very much giving you a giant piece of poster paper to wear around your neck for an entire night of bar-hopping with a hilarious and embarassing list of things that must be completed during the evening. Lists can include anything from "make a wish in a fountain" to "get a lap dance from a stranger" to any number of sordid things. Last time we went out for someone's 21st, a friend got a lap dance from a drunk bride while her happy groom cheered from the sidelines. That was not on the list...
Until next time! <3
Thursday, June 2, 2011
It's a Dance-Dance-Revolution
As a precursor to this post, I'd like to say that I love to dance. I enjoy ballet, contemporary, and jazz, but mostly I like to get out on a dance floor and flail to whatever the DJ puts on, whether I know the words or not. There are not many places in St. Augustine in which to do that sort of thing, but I assure you I'll point out some of them on here in due time. For now, though, I focus on dance itself. Dancing is elating. Dancing is freeing and fun and...another "f" word that would round this sentence out marvelously. Fantastical is too much...
In any case, dance is perfect for a person like me who loves to work out but hates to sweat. A person, also, who likes going to the gym, but never knows what to do once I get there. A person, finally, who wants to move and lose some weight, but wants to do so in the comfort of the airconditioning. I also hate running.
This brings me to Zumba. Zumba is a revolution. Do you remember when your mom used to go to Jazzercize every Saturday morning and you'd watch her and all of her friends through the partition glass as they would "sweat to the oldies" in their leotards and hair bands? Zumba is just like that...except much, much (much) cooler.
Zumba combines latin dance, hip hop, jazz, and aerobics into a conglomerate of heart-pumping, non-stop, dance-party-like exercise. It's a freakin' BLAST! I went to my first class this morning at Anastasia Athletic Club on Anastasia Island.
I'd been to the club before a few years ago for a yoga class here and there. Back then, the guest rate was $5 if you came with a club member. Now it's $10 (eek!). Now, ten bucks is not a whole lot of money for an exercise class, but I'm a college student. An exceptionally poor college student. I'm keeping this blog this summer instead of getting a real job (don't tell anyone). But! Wonder of wonders: they have a 7 day trial membership special! The guy behind the counter asked if I was from "here," which I'm assuming can mean either St. Augustine or St. Johns County, and gave me a little slip of paper on which to fill out my trial membership information. So, between now and seven days from now I can visit up to 3 times, which is perfect since my friends go to Zumba every Tuesday and Thursday.
What will I do after my trial membership is over? I might fork out the ten dollars a couple of times around, but more likely I will bounce around to other gyms in town to see if they also have free trial memberships, because HOW COOL IS THAT?! That's a great way to help out college students, let alone a great way for people to see how great your gym is.
And Anastasia Athletic Club really is a great gym...it's just a great gym for people with jobs and money. If you have both of those things, you should check it out! If not, at least find a Zumba class somewhere, I feel like I could kick BUTT right now! Woo!
Until next time <3
In any case, dance is perfect for a person like me who loves to work out but hates to sweat. A person, also, who likes going to the gym, but never knows what to do once I get there. A person, finally, who wants to move and lose some weight, but wants to do so in the comfort of the airconditioning. I also hate running.
This brings me to Zumba. Zumba is a revolution. Do you remember when your mom used to go to Jazzercize every Saturday morning and you'd watch her and all of her friends through the partition glass as they would "sweat to the oldies" in their leotards and hair bands? Zumba is just like that...except much, much (much) cooler.
Zumba combines latin dance, hip hop, jazz, and aerobics into a conglomerate of heart-pumping, non-stop, dance-party-like exercise. It's a freakin' BLAST! I went to my first class this morning at Anastasia Athletic Club on Anastasia Island.
I'd been to the club before a few years ago for a yoga class here and there. Back then, the guest rate was $5 if you came with a club member. Now it's $10 (eek!). Now, ten bucks is not a whole lot of money for an exercise class, but I'm a college student. An exceptionally poor college student. I'm keeping this blog this summer instead of getting a real job (don't tell anyone). But! Wonder of wonders: they have a 7 day trial membership special! The guy behind the counter asked if I was from "here," which I'm assuming can mean either St. Augustine or St. Johns County, and gave me a little slip of paper on which to fill out my trial membership information. So, between now and seven days from now I can visit up to 3 times, which is perfect since my friends go to Zumba every Tuesday and Thursday.
What will I do after my trial membership is over? I might fork out the ten dollars a couple of times around, but more likely I will bounce around to other gyms in town to see if they also have free trial memberships, because HOW COOL IS THAT?! That's a great way to help out college students, let alone a great way for people to see how great your gym is.
And Anastasia Athletic Club really is a great gym...it's just a great gym for people with jobs and money. If you have both of those things, you should check it out! If not, at least find a Zumba class somewhere, I feel like I could kick BUTT right now! Woo!
Until next time <3
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
EVOLve
There's nothing better than a night out with the girls. Especially if the girls are ones who you haven't had a night out with in about as long as you can remember. It's an interesting and unique thing as a local living in my hometown that I haven't been in the same room with my closest high school friends since a little bit after graduation. But neither this blog nor this post is about what I haven't done in the past four years or so, it's about what I'm doing this summer. Summer 2011.
The idea of this blog began as less than a nugget when I first started going to school at Flagler College in my hometown of St. Augustine, FL. Like every proper born and bred St. Augustinian, I had been harboring a gnawing dislike for the sleepy drinking village in which I was convinced I would become trapped. Nothing means much at the age of 17 other than leaving the only place you've known for the past seventeen (obviously very well versed and worldly...) years of your life. Contrary to this feeling, however, I chose to stay in town for college, despite the fact that I kept willing Flagler, the only school to which I applied, to up and move to another place. I stayed in St. Augustine at that point as an 18 year old and soon became a resident of what is known as Downtown St. Augustine, living in the female dorms at Ponce Hall.
That's when my perspective on my life as a St. Augustinian shifted irreversibly. Suddenly, I was not a local shmuck still haunting the streets of my childhood. Now I was a Flagler student, wearing new paths in this place which was, inexplicably, new to me. At the time, I attributed this fresh sight to the fact that I was seeing St. Augustine through the eyes of friends who had never been to this richly historical and beautiful place I called home. Over my past four years at Flagler, however, I have come to realize that I was not seeing St. Augustine with new eyes. I was in fact seeing St. Augustine with eyes that were slowly, ever so slowly, falling in love. This love became clear to me in and around my junior year at Flagler, when I finally turned 21. Not only was I able to experience the more family friendly delights which St. Augustine had to offer, but now little is barred to me. I relish in St. Augustine's marvelously abysmal nightlife (it's there, I promise. You only need to know where to look) and even the more "grown-up" tourist traps (a term which will henceforth be banned from this blog) such as the San Sebastian Winery wine tasting tours.
This blog is simply one of the many fruits which has been born of this love. When my sister and I took a road trip to Savannah, Tybee Island, and Hilton Head, there were countless people (seriously. bunches.) who kept saying things to us like, "Wow, you're from St. Augustine? Well, this place is just like St. Augustine except --insert some inane and unimportant difference here--." That's when I knew. That's when I knew that I was living in my own vacation and had yet to recognize it.
What is the point of this blog? I suppose it forces me to explore the parts and sections of St. Augustine that not even I have ventured into yet. But it is also here for the purpose of disproving other 17 year olds who were born and bred here with their natural disdain. Trust me when I say, this place is cool. This place is fun. This place is vibrant and active. This is my hometown and I love it.
And if you love it enough, I promise St. Augustine will love you right back.
About that girls night out? We'll get back to that. That story got away from me a bit, but it will be re-explored. For now, I'm off to make more stories. Please stick around so that I can share them with you.
The idea of this blog began as less than a nugget when I first started going to school at Flagler College in my hometown of St. Augustine, FL. Like every proper born and bred St. Augustinian, I had been harboring a gnawing dislike for the sleepy drinking village in which I was convinced I would become trapped. Nothing means much at the age of 17 other than leaving the only place you've known for the past seventeen (obviously very well versed and worldly...) years of your life. Contrary to this feeling, however, I chose to stay in town for college, despite the fact that I kept willing Flagler, the only school to which I applied, to up and move to another place. I stayed in St. Augustine at that point as an 18 year old and soon became a resident of what is known as Downtown St. Augustine, living in the female dorms at Ponce Hall.
That's when my perspective on my life as a St. Augustinian shifted irreversibly. Suddenly, I was not a local shmuck still haunting the streets of my childhood. Now I was a Flagler student, wearing new paths in this place which was, inexplicably, new to me. At the time, I attributed this fresh sight to the fact that I was seeing St. Augustine through the eyes of friends who had never been to this richly historical and beautiful place I called home. Over my past four years at Flagler, however, I have come to realize that I was not seeing St. Augustine with new eyes. I was in fact seeing St. Augustine with eyes that were slowly, ever so slowly, falling in love. This love became clear to me in and around my junior year at Flagler, when I finally turned 21. Not only was I able to experience the more family friendly delights which St. Augustine had to offer, but now little is barred to me. I relish in St. Augustine's marvelously abysmal nightlife (it's there, I promise. You only need to know where to look) and even the more "grown-up" tourist traps (a term which will henceforth be banned from this blog) such as the San Sebastian Winery wine tasting tours.
This blog is simply one of the many fruits which has been born of this love. When my sister and I took a road trip to Savannah, Tybee Island, and Hilton Head, there were countless people (seriously. bunches.) who kept saying things to us like, "Wow, you're from St. Augustine? Well, this place is just like St. Augustine except --insert some inane and unimportant difference here--." That's when I knew. That's when I knew that I was living in my own vacation and had yet to recognize it.
What is the point of this blog? I suppose it forces me to explore the parts and sections of St. Augustine that not even I have ventured into yet. But it is also here for the purpose of disproving other 17 year olds who were born and bred here with their natural disdain. Trust me when I say, this place is cool. This place is fun. This place is vibrant and active. This is my hometown and I love it.
And if you love it enough, I promise St. Augustine will love you right back.
About that girls night out? We'll get back to that. That story got away from me a bit, but it will be re-explored. For now, I'm off to make more stories. Please stick around so that I can share them with you.
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