Exploring Northeast Florida
by Janice Farnsworth



At the northeastern tip of Florida, just south of the Georgia border, lies a huge land mass encompassing city and country, swamp and ocean. This landmass, Jacksonville, has everything from an Anheuser Busch Brewery to the Jacksonville Zoological Gardens. It have its own Professional Football team ... The Jacksonville Jaguars (or Jags as the proud natives call them), as well as a pro hockey and soccer team.

Jacksonville is a network of city and suburbs and by land mass is bigger than Los Angeles. It is broken down into the North, South, and West sides and the beaches.

The beaches begin at Fernandina Beach and continue southward to Jacksonville Beach. St. Augustine Beach and Daytona Beach are a bit south of Jacksonville and are within only an hour and a half drive, which if taken down coastal highway A1A is quite scenic and interesting. All of Jacksonville is within reach of the bigger highways such as Interstate 95 and Interstate 10.

Jacksonville is plentiful with parks and nature trails as well as colleges such as the University of North Florida. Downtown Jacksonville hosts the Landing, an intricate web of shops and eateries where local entertainment, such as Jaguars Pep Rallies and special celebrations are held. Also downtown you will find Alltel Stadium, home of the Jaguars, Veterans Memorial Coliseum where many events such as circuses, concerts, and monster truck shows are held, Wolfson park, home of the Jacksonville Suns baseball team, and Met Park, an amphitheater that plays home to many concerts. Jacksonville hosts the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra and Junior Orchestra and at Florida Theatre you can see many Broadway plays as well as shows from stars such as David Copperfield, and the Nutcracker Ballet every Christmas.

No matter where you live or vacation in Jacksonville, you are close to something to do, and if you get bored with Jacksonville, you can head down south to St. Augustine, Florida's oldest city, and explore some of Florida's history. I recommend the Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum - there are plenty of weird sites within those old walls. There are tourist trains that will take you around St. Augustine and drop you off wherever you want to look, some of the sites are free and others charge a reasonable fee. If you are military, I recommend that you go to the USO in St. Augustine.

The main site in St. Augustine is the centuries old fort that sits near the bridge of lions. You can almost smell the past when walking through the stone corridors and imagine living there as you look over the ocean from the roof that used to be protected by cannons. St Augustine has so many things of history and beauty, I really can't do it justice in such a short space but for now, if you're ever in North Florida, don't pass up the opportunity to explore our Northeast coast and get to know some of our history.