GET OUT OF TOWN...to historic St. Augustine
By T. Bennison

Overshadowed as it is by spots like Key West, Disney, Miami, and the Everglades, it's both a blessing and a curse that St. Augustine isn't one of the more popular tourist destinations in Florida. The crowds are mercifully thin by Florida standards, but its quiet loveliness and wealth of history beg more notice.

Though many revisionists qualify the age of the place by calling it "the oldest continually populated European settlement in the United States," St. Augustine, founded by the Spanish some 50 years before the Pilgrims landed in Plymouth and well before Jamestown took shape, is simply the oldest city in the country. There's plenty around to satisfy the history buff in you, yes, but St. Augustine is offset with a good deal of fun.

All trips to St. Augustine should begin in the Plaza de la Constitucion, across from the Moorish-inspired Flagler College, once the opulent Hotel Ponce de Leon. This was once the main central market for food, and a small structure from which slaves were bought and sold still stands at the eastern end of the plaza. Also eastward, spanning the Matanzas River, lies the Bridge of Lions (which is beautifully lit up along with the buildings in the town center during Christmas), gateway to Anastasia Island State Recreation Area, St. Augustine Beach, and the St. Augustine Lighthouse.

If you head south from the Plaza along St. George Street, you'll find Old St. Augustine Village (250 St. George St.), a group of several period buildings restored to their former glory. All represent the different phases of the city's often tangled history and are a great introduction to what lies ahead. From there, stroll further south through lushly landscaped cobbled streets to what many claim is the oldest house in the States.
Known as the Gonzalez-Alvarez House (14 St. Francis St.), it's been inhabited since the early 1600s and the exhibits within provide some good background on the first sacking of the city by the British back in 1586.

Turning north along quiet Aviles Street you'll come back to the Plaza and the touristy entrance to St. George Street. Here it becomes more of a pedestrian shopping thouroughfare, but surrounding structures reveal shades of its colonial past. Here's where to go for hot dogs, fudge, waffle cones, postcards, and kitschy souvenirs like muskets and plastic swords. We ignored the rumblings of our bellies and resisted purchasing a very cool, bejewelled eye patch to cruise through the Old City Gate for a trolley ride to the Old Jail (167 San Marco Ave.), where a cage sized for some poor unfortunate hangs from a tree in the picnic area. At 19 San Marco Avenue is Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum, the first of its kind, filled with curios including a two-headed cow, the requisite shrunken heads, and the Lord's Prayer inscribed on the head of a pin. You can't leave this section of town without seeing the Fountain of Youth (11 Magnolia Ave.), interesting for the role it played in the settlement of St. Augustine, but more for the burial mounds and middens of the indigenous Timucuan Indians peppered through the surrounding park.

Heading back toward the city center along San Marco and its junction with A1A is the Castillo de San Marcos, the oldest masonry fort in the country. Built to repel further British invasions in 1672, its diamond-shaped coquina walls never succumbed to extensive seiges. If you happen to go on a Sunday, you'll hear cannon fired periodically throughout the day by period-costumed soldiers. 17th century graffiti can still be read on the walls of some of the dank prison cells below and a walk along the ramparts offers great vistas of the town and the bay. After listening to one of the free talks chronicling the fort's past, we headed back through the city gates in search of victuals.

Plenty of dining options abound St. George Street, the best of which is the Spanish Bakery (47 1/2 St. George St.) which offers cheap eats like tasty meat pies and fresh sausage rolls. If you've got some extra cash, drop into the most gorgeous Columbia Restaurant in Florida, located at 98 St. George St. Its open atrium dining room replete with fountain and upstairs balcony outshines the flagship version in Ybor City and the Spanish food is just as delicious. A detour off the main drag yields rewards like the Pizza Garden (21 Hypolita St.) which serves up great slices in an airy courtyard, but the sorely underpublicized Cafe Alcazar (25 Granada St.) takes the prize for our favorite eatery. Adjacent to the Lightner Museum, the small dining area sits in the deep end of what was once the largest indoor pool in the U.S., now, of course, conveniently empty. Their affordable salads and sandwiches taste that much better in this unique setting. Above you is the glassed roof which at one time drew open on balmy evenings for late-night swimmers. We also read in the nearby gift shop that back in the '20s, "gentlemen" visitors were given access to underground, swimmable passages connected to a nearby bordello.

If it's drink you're wanting, head to the A1A Ale House (1 King St.) to try one of their well-crafted microbrews while you gaze out over Plaza and the Mantanzas River. If you're looking for variety, Rendezvous (106 St. George St.) puts all other area bars to shame with its stock of over 100 types of beer. Some like the rather touristy Mill Top Tavern (19 1/2 St. George St.) for its amazing deck view of the street life and the Castillo, but we preferred the somewhat dingy and very local St. George Tavern (116 St. George St.) where we availed ourselves of their happy hour and sat next to a few off-duty Conquistadores in full regalia. The South Seas-themed TradeWinds Lounge (124 Charlotte St.) is a St. Augustine institution and the best place in town to hear live music.

Whether you're a native or a transplant, if you've resided in Florida for any length of time, you owe it yourself to visit St. Augustine either for the first or the fifth time. Its close proximity to Brevard makes it a good day-trip destination, but it's also distant and exotic enough for a long weekend getaway. After all this time, the oldest city in the country never fails to charm and enlighten.