St. Augustine Florida

[RABBITFISH]

Well it looks like our vacation plans are set!
We will be in the St Augustine Florida area between June 13 - 19th week. Are any of you in the area? Perhaps some of you who have been there before can offer some suggestions? Where to eat, what to see, who to fish with, etc.
This will be my first time in that area and any advice will be welcome!

Thanks!!!

[spareparts]

neat area, I've been thru a couple of times, allways work related, never had time to do a lot of looking. There is a used boat junk store there(don't remember the name), I found it after it was closed, I looked thru the window, looked a lot like my storage building. theres also a comercial marine supply store there thats pretty cool, has all the grundies you need, lots of cool comersial stuff. That whole area is kinda tacky, buts it legit tacky, like they froze it in 1962

[phatdaddy]

used to go there a lot in the 70's surfing and found a lot of dive bars, then didn't go until 6 years a go with my son's 5th grade class. had a great time. if your going with kids, we went on a boat tour of the st johns river and inlet, then went to the fountain of youth, and the fort. warning, the fort closes at sundown, so go early and let the kids run. its kinda old florida tourist traps, but i like it a lot better than that mickey mouse crap further south. as far as food , we ate at a fish camp like place on the river that was ok and for some good cuban, the columbia is downtown. being from la, you like hot stuff, pick up some datil pepper sauce while your there. after the kids go to bed , stroll down to the mill top for some old roadhouse type atmosphere.
hope that helps...

ps after they tell you they are "the oldest city" remind them pensacola is actually the oldest city , but was wiped out due to fever & indians, the are the oldest continous city. it makes them mad..

[RABBITFISH]

Sorry about the delay guys, I have been furiously attempting to catch up since I got back.
First thanks for all of the tips they were most helpful! St. Augustine is a very beautiful area, very low key and no pressures, traffic was no problem and everything was close to each other. We visited the Forts, (both) were impressed with how clean they were and very well organized for touring. We did the walk through the St. George street area, it was well worth the trip to see this! Although it did take two days to get the most out of it. We did find the Pizally Pizza Place through the first store into the one in the back (quite by accident) the clerk sent me through to check out the happy hour specials while my wife and children were shopping in a clothing store next door! We ate at the seafood kitchen on A1a and loved it, we tried the Manatzas Innnlet restaurant and crossed that one off of our list! Whew that was one pricey place for what you get! We passed Osteen's several times and never saw it without a line outside no matter what time it was so we passed on it. We did make it out to Caps on the Water, thats the place to spend some time on the outside dock area it was beautiful! I loved the place! A bit on the pricey side though for dinner! We took the Pirate Ship Cruise, don't laugh I had to provide entertainment for the family after walking through forts all day! I was pleasantly suprised by the experience though, the cast are entertainers, though not doing any Pirate fights they did provide interactive entertainment that kept all themembers of my family focused on the actors and not looking at the scenery, which I had to prompt them from time to time to look around at the shoreline. The trip covered about the same area as the tour boat without the narrative so I felt like I got the better deal with the Pirate Cruise, (note we did use the internet discount to get a better rate for the tickets which would not have been worth the original asking price!) We were unable to afford one of the private charter boats without eating a significant portion of our budget and after checking on several of the boat rentals places, I decided to check out the Sea Love head boat. I know that there were some bad impressions discussed so I went to the docks when they came in and talked to several people that were getting off of the trip to get honest opinions! Almost all of them were satisfied with the trip. As I had two teenagers and my wife with me I took the plunge and signed up for the next available trip. The weather was very good with calm seas, and even though very hot we prepared with our own chest of drinks. The water was very blue and all of my family enjuoyed the trip. The deckhands were amazing, I was soooooooo glad I didn't have to do the untangle, unhook, retie, reset, place fish in box stuff that normally comes with taking the family out on a fishing trip. My teenagers, and my wife outdid me though catching most of the fish! Mostly bottom fish, vermillion snappers, but others on the boat did catch others cobia, amberjack, barracudas, etc, even one medium size shark made an appearance. All in all I got to go fishing offshore, the family had a big enough area to walk around and shade to get out of the sun, plenty of help and things to see, I thought it was worth the price, $80 per person, it was for a full day and I feel like I got my moneys worth. Coming from my area I did notice that once out of the pass if you did not know where to go, you would be blindly looking for a place to fish at. There were no rigs to aim for!!! This would not have been good for someone not familiar with the area. We visited the fountain of youth park, and my family said that they enjuyed this one the best? We stayed there for allmost three hours, it is a beautiful area, parklike, and they serve ice cold beer! Works for me! We visited the lighthouse also, it's amazing how much work has been done to preserve the entire facility, enjoyed that one very much also. Oh yeah, almost forgot, Sailors Exchange, spareparts you were right, although only of interest to boating people, it was AWSOME!! I did make it out of there without spending any money, (my wife was with me) it was worth the stop! All in all it was a great trip, and I cann't thank you guys enough for all of the helpful info to help with the planning!
RABBITFISH