EVERYTHING WHAT YOU NEEDTO DREAM...
Jacksonville
KNOWLEDGE OF Jacksonville
Nowhere else in Florida or in the nation will you be closer to the nation's roots than in this region of Florida which likes to call itself Florida First Coast.
That "First" is a reference to the region's undisputed antiquity, not to mention its spot in history as the first place in the nation to welcome European explorers and the first foreign settlement in the nation.
Historically, Florida was born here, and it was here that the first tiny trickle of tourism flowed into what was to become a flood of visitors to the nation's number one vacation destination.
When Jacksonville welcomed its first tourist, Miami was still a swamp. And long before that, when Jacksonville was just a forest of scrub pine and some lonely sand, neighboring St. Augustine was already a thriving colony.
Here on Florida's First Coast, you meet a part of the state that is like no other sector of this sunny peninsula. Its sand is packed hard enough to drive on; its lifestyle is as gentle as its Southern drawls.
Here mists drift over wide rivers, and "piney woods" and giant live oaks drip an odd, epiphytic plant called Spanish moss that makes an eerie sight on a foggy morn.
This land was in the middle of a battle long before the Pilgrims ever dreamed of sailing off into the sunset. In those early days, the religiously persecuted were the French Huguenots, whose Protestant religion was frowned upon by Catholic Europe. In 1562, they set sail from France, arriving here months later and settling in a tiny colony that was to meet a violent end.
Long before that, in 1493, the region's favorite son, Juan Ponce de Leon, landed here as part of an explorative group led by another intrepid explorer of some renown, none other than Christopher Columbus, the man generally credited with discovering America.
Ponce de Leon, who went on the become the governor of Puerto Rico, must have liked what he saw on the First Coast: he returned here in 1513 on an expedition of his own, landing in nearby St. Augustine. Legend has it that Ponce de Leon was seeking the famed fountain of youth. You can still visit the reputed site of his Fountain of Youth in St. Augustine and see if it works!
Pragmatists, however, claim Ponce de Leon had something much more prosaic in mind: gold. Whatever the truth is, the explorer certainly made a most lasting impact on the state. He landed on Easter Day, called Pascua Florida, or Feast of Flowers, in Spanish and promptly dubbed this new land Florida, a name that, clearly, has stuck.
That "First" is a reference to the region's undisputed antiquity, not to mention its spot in history as the first place in the nation to welcome European explorers and the first foreign settlement in the nation.
Historically, Florida was born here, and it was here that the first tiny trickle of tourism flowed into what was to become a flood of visitors to the nation's number one vacation destination.
When Jacksonville welcomed its first tourist, Miami was still a swamp. And long before that, when Jacksonville was just a forest of scrub pine and some lonely sand, neighboring St. Augustine was already a thriving colony.
Here on Florida's First Coast, you meet a part of the state that is like no other sector of this sunny peninsula. Its sand is packed hard enough to drive on; its lifestyle is as gentle as its Southern drawls.
Here mists drift over wide rivers, and "piney woods" and giant live oaks drip an odd, epiphytic plant called Spanish moss that makes an eerie sight on a foggy morn.
This land was in the middle of a battle long before the Pilgrims ever dreamed of sailing off into the sunset. In those early days, the religiously persecuted were the French Huguenots, whose Protestant religion was frowned upon by Catholic Europe. In 1562, they set sail from France, arriving here months later and settling in a tiny colony that was to meet a violent end.
Long before that, in 1493, the region's favorite son, Juan Ponce de Leon, landed here as part of an explorative group led by another intrepid explorer of some renown, none other than Christopher Columbus, the man generally credited with discovering America.
Ponce de Leon, who went on the become the governor of Puerto Rico, must have liked what he saw on the First Coast: he returned here in 1513 on an expedition of his own, landing in nearby St. Augustine. Legend has it that Ponce de Leon was seeking the famed fountain of youth. You can still visit the reputed site of his Fountain of Youth in St. Augustine and see if it works!
Pragmatists, however, claim Ponce de Leon had something much more prosaic in mind: gold. Whatever the truth is, the explorer certainly made a most lasting impact on the state. He landed on Easter Day, called Pascua Florida, or Feast of Flowers, in Spanish and promptly dubbed this new land Florida, a name that, clearly, has stuck.
Chapi