Visited Saint Augustine!! (Jacksonville, Tampa, Key West: house, high school, college)

[FireballFL]

Hey everyone, I thought I would let everyone know, that back in April, my partner and I visited St. Augustine. It was my first visit and we stayed in Oldtown for 4 nights. We did just about everything from the ghost tours to the carriage ride. What a fun time! It was enjoyable to see the cannons go off at the oldest fort in America. I loved all the restaurants. The Columbia Restaurant, which is a Tampa original was nice. A1A Ale House with the various brews was worth it. Going to Scarlette O'Hara's was great. There is also the place that you eat and feed the fish and seagulls-can not remember the name. That was an awesome place! Touring the grounds of Flagler College was fun. We just enjoyed everything. We were nervous that with being a gay couple, that some people would have said something under their breathe or something that was not nice, but everyone was warm, welcoming, understanding, friendly, and very open minded. Thanks for making our vacation special for both of us.

We will definitely make this another go round in the future.

[manchester]

It's my town where I live so you just stayed in the historic district then, much more to st augustine than that area.

The place you were at was a tourist place full of tourists you'll find st augustine isn't gay friendly when you're outside of that tourist place.

here it's a very conservative place with old fashioned views, I remember seeing an SUV north carolina plates once what stopped at the lights and it had one of those gay rainbow stickers on(not sure why they do) and they got a lot of grief off not just guys but also gals on the back of the two pick ups so much they drove through the red light on to 16.
I've heard others say things too which some are much worse

a gay lobby out of town group had been trying to get those rainbow flags flying on a historic bridge when they were refused off the city they went to court tying tax payers money up so they got to fly them for a day or two now a law has been passed that they can never flying their rainbow flags again

also I believe the same gay out of town group tried to get a gay group going in a high school and they've been refused so guess what they are now taking the city to court again

[Samierra]

So glad that you had a great visit.

My family and I are relocating to the Jax area and have visited numerous times over the last several months - our trips have included St. Augustine. We are a racially mixed family (white, Latin, black) - my girls are adopted. We are sometimes initially wary of any area, as we occasionally get a less than welcome reception. However, we've always felt comfortable and welcomed in both Jax and St. Aug.

It's nice to hear a confirmation of what we have experienced.

Hope you get to return again soon - the area has so much to offer.

[FireballFL]

Originally Posted by manchester

It's my town where I live so you just stayed in the historic district then, much more to st augustine than that area.

The place you were at was a tourist place full of tourists you'll find st augustine isn't gay friendly when you're outside of that tourist place.

here it's a very conservative place with old fashioned views, I remember seeing an SUV north carolina plates once what stopped at the lights and it had one of those gay rainbow stickers on(not sure why they do) and they got a lot of grief off not just guys but also gals on the back of the two pick ups so much they drove through the red light on to 16.
I've heard others say things too which some are much worse

a gay lobby out of town group had been trying to get those rainbow flags flying on a historic bridge when they were refused off the city they went to court tying tax payers money up so they got to fly them for a day or two now a law has been passed that they can never flying their rainbow flags again

also I believe the same gay out of town group tried to get a gay group going in a high school and they've been refused so guess what they are now taking the city to court again

Hmmmm...... I guess our experience was different. Everyone was just so friendly and we even went out to the Lighthouse and to St. Augustine Beach and everyone was just so nice...... I guess if you are a tourist, then they will be, but I did not get anything mean from them.

P.S. We had a rainbow around our Florida tag and no one bothered us. No one really even gave it a second look and we drove around quite a bit.

[FireballFL]

Originally Posted by Samierra

So glad that you had a great visit.

My family and I are relocating to the Jax area and have visited numerous times over the last several months - our trips have included St. Augustine. We are a racially mixed family (white, Latin, black) - my girls are adopted. We are sometimes initially wary of any area, as we occasionally get a less than welcome reception. However, we've always felt comfortable and welcomed in both Jax and St. Aug.

It's nice to hear a confirmation of what we have experienced.

Hope you get to return again soon - the area has so much to offer.

Yeah, we are going to Key West in November, but next year looks like a real possibility.

[manchester]

like I said touristy places

visting a place and staying longer are two different things a few gays have come and gone luckily you never got hurt though why they feel the need to say hello I like having sex as a man with a man or vica versa is beyond me going off topic now

This town is still the old south unlike tampa or miami

anyway this was about you saying thanks about the visit and you said thank you so unlike your other posts this is not about gays and this time the mods won't have to say stop going off track there's another forum for that



enjoy key west we just got back from there

[backtofla]

"why they feel the need to say hello I like having sex as a man with a man or vica versa is beyond me"


cheese and fries!!! what in the hell are you saying?

[riveree]

Originally Posted by FireballFL

Hey everyone, I thought I would let everyone know, that back in April, my partner and I visited St. Augustine. It was my first visit and we stayed in Oldtown for 4 nights. We did just about everything from the ghost tours to the carriage ride. What a fun time! It was enjoyable to see the cannons go off at the oldest fort in America. I loved all the restaurants. The Columbia Restaurant, which is a Tampa original was nice. A1A Ale House with the various brews was worth it. Going to Scarlette O'Hara's was great. There is also the place that you eat and feed the fish and seagulls-can not remember the name. That was an awesome place! Touring the grounds of Flagler College was fun. We just enjoyed everything. We were nervous that with being a gay couple, that some people would have said something under their breathe or something that was not nice, but everyone was warm, welcoming, understanding, friendly, and very open minded. Thanks for making our vacation special for both of us.

We will definitely make this another go round in the future.

So glad you had a good time ! You did a lot of my favorite things.

Not everyone takes advantage of the tour of Flagler, but they have some amazing pieces of stained glass by Tiffany that alone are worth the tour(some of the earliest glass he did).

I've always found Jax and St. Aug to be gay-friendly. Not to the likes of NYC or other major cities, but considering it is the Deep South, I think it's pretty friendly. There is gay culture here, mostly in Jacksonville. I'm sorry you had some anxiety about your visit beforehand, but it sounds like there was no reason for concern (nor should there be ).

You might want to visit at holiday time on one of your future visits - they do "Night of Lights" and the whole city is lit up in white lights.....it's really beautiful .

[manchester]

I'm saying why do they need to have the gay rainbow stickers telling folks what they are or want rainbow gay flags flying around


Riv
you are so wrong and besides it's getting off topic

like a mod has mentioned before about when the poster posted on another thread there is another forum for this topic

[sweet_scruples]

Just FYI the resturant that you feed the fish was called Santa Maria's next to the Bridge of Lions.

Glad you enjoyed. I truely love it there!
-Lexy