March 9, 2006 - St. Augustine, Florida

We had to check out by 11:00am. It was off to Starbucks for our morning coffee. We met a couple of guys from Niagara Falls at Starbucks. There were down to Florida for Biker week. This Biker Week is really something else, motorcycles everywhere…people of all shapes and sizes and bikes of every kind. The Harley’s are the loudest and their owners are sure to let you know they are around, reving their engines, what a racket!
We visited the Fountain of Youth for a couple of hours. This is a park that is dedicated to Colonial history, the landing of Christopher Columbus and the oldest archeological discovery in North America. It was quite interesting.

We went to the Cracker Barrell for a late lunch, early supper, then it was off to the World Golf Village. We were met at the door by Eugene who helped us in with our luggage and gave us a verbal tour of our surroundings.
We have a suite overlooking the entire village. I will post a video of our view tomorrow to show everyone how beautiful it is here….all the golfers will appreciate this place as much as we do…Some highlights around here is, the World Golf Hall of Fame, an Imax Theatre, an 18 hole (real grass) putting course, the challenge hole which is a replica of the 17th hole at Sawgrass, the famous par 3 with the island green, by the way, the TPC is being played at Sawgrass in a couple of weeks. Next door is the Caddyshack, it is a restaurant owned by actor Bill Murray and his 5 brothers…tons of memorabilia on the walls form the Caddyshack movies and golf in general.

The golf courses here are pretty impressive as well, two close to the village are the Slammer and Squire (designed by Sam Snead and Gene Sarazen) and the King and Bear (the only course in the world designed by both Nicklaus and Palmer)

The high speed internet is a bit of a challenge here, with it being a resort it is not free, so we opted for the wireless, which is only available in the Links Lounge on the main level. I find with resorts they tend to nickel and dime you…like the $4 bottle of water in our room…best to make a trip to the grocery store and stock up on bottles of water for our fridge…

When we were checking in, Eugene gave us each a drink of Arnold Palmer’s favorite drink, it is a combination of lemonade and iced tea….they have a cooler setup in the lobby with cups and they offer this between 3 and 6 every day…likely for the golfers finishing their rounds for the day can stop on their way to their rooms and pick up a drink to refresh themselves…it was ice cold too…would be a nice treat after a long hot day of golf…they think of everything here…