Here is a recipe for a successful venture on Cumberland Island – whether for your first trip, or many returns: Rise and ready yourselves and have a breakfast at your favorite spot.  Drive to St. Marys, arriving before 11:00 AM.  Check in at the Park Service water-front welcome center and proceed to get on the 11:45 AM ferry service to the island.  Depart the ferry at the Ice House Dock / Dungeness Dock on the island at about 12:20.  Gather up your party and strike out beneath the Live Oaks for the Dungeness Ruins.  Along the way, look for the wild horses, turkey, deer, the ubiquitous armadillo and myriad bird species.  Take the shore trail from Dungeness to the marsh-side boardwalk – then to the open dune system.  Cross the dune trail to the wide, wide beach.  Walk the beach and marsh-wrack line (looking for shells and other flotsam jewels), north to the Sea Camp boardwalk.  Stroll the boardwalk up to the Live Oak tree line – making sure to stop and linger in the open sun before venturing into the Maritime Forest.  Be very observant at this point and take it slow – for the transition from the open, squinty, harsh, wind-swept and sun-drenched beach environment to the sheltered, shady, cool, dark and quiet forest floor beneath the swaying Live Oak canopy is a remarkable and dramatic change.  Let it envelope you, enjoy it and open your senses to it.  Pick out a picnic table and serve yourselves your homemade lunch treats, along with a good (discreet) bottle of wine.  Afterwards, benefit from the Sea Camp facilities, freshen-up and embark on the Parallel Trail through a luxurious habitat of bent and twisting Live Oak canopies and an exuberant, green understory of Saw Palmetto, ultimately arriving at the Greyfield Inn cross island beach path.  Take the path, west, to the grounds of the Greyfield Inn housed in the former Stafford House, erected in 1909 (be discreet, signs say “guests only”).  Check out a few of the largest Live Oak trees on Cumberland Island which punctuate the Great Lawn of the Greyfield, they are truly magnificent.  Take the Main Road back to Sea Camp and the rest facilities at the dock.  Arrive by 4:15 so that you will not miss the afternoon ferry which departs sharply at 4:30PM.  Arrive home in time to change and go to dinner, where you can re-live your day and commit it to memory – you will certainly want to return many more times to discover all of the other benefits that time on Cumberland reveals.  Once you do, you will want to add Jekyll Island State Park, St. Simons Island, Little St. Simons Island, Sapelo Island National Estuarine Sanctuary and Tybee Island to your future explorations.  When you too fall in love with the Georgia Coast, you will want to make extra plans to get yourself onto Little Cumberland Island, Sea Island, St. Catherines Island, Blackbeard Island National Wildlife Refuge, Ossabaw Island State Heritage Preserve and Wassaw Island National Wildlife Refuge.

Early on in the design and construction of World Golf Village, a series of out-of-town entertainment consultants were invited to “critique” our place and offer suggestions.  One of my favorite criticisms was that the place “was too green”.  I laughed at that and took it as validation that we were building an endearing and lasting landscape; one that was naturally inspired and would define our environment.  Through the years, I have nurtured and watched our landscape grow.  Today, our choice to feature our signature tree, the Southern Live Oak, throughout the grounds of World Golf Village is proving to be a great decision.
 
For me, my love affair with the Southern Live Oak began during my first family visit to Jekyll Island, Georgia in 1968.  Walking amongst the giant, moss-draped, old trees was ethereal.  The experience was imprinted in my mind, drawing me back to the Georgia Coast for the next 14 years.  Upon college graduation, I moved to the Coast and worked to preserve its beauty through the administration of Georgia’s Coastal Marshlands Protection Act of 1970 and the Shore Assistance Act of 1979.  For a year, I mapped 4,600 acres of the Georgia Coast for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife’s National Wetland Inventory.  I was privileged to have countless helicopter fly-overs for photography and surveillance.  I gained access to every one of the major barrier islands.  I was able to stomp around everywhere, even deep into the remote hammock islands of the great Altamaha swamp, to find native Indian pottery shards lying uncovered on the ground.  My immersion into the wilds, the marshes, islands and pristine beaches was thorough and complete.

Watch out bunny.  There’s a sly cat trying to move in on your Easter gig.  Congratulations to Buckaroo the Cat and his owner Lynn Whitley for winning our Easter Photo Contest.  The handsome feline edged out cute kids and adorable dogs for the grand prize.  We think his mini necktie sealed the deal, although his girth is impressive too.  From the looks of it, he may or may not share his $100 gift certificate prize to Kilwin’s with his owner. 

Thanks to everyone who participated!  Our photo contests are gaining steam and another is on the way soon.  So sharpen your claws!

I recently had the opportunity to see the new “Hubble” IMAX at World Gold Village as part of our Davidson Realty company outing. “Hubble” is the amazing story of what it takes to maintain the Hubble telescope and the incredible view of the universe that Hubble sends back to Earth.

From the very beginning, the Hubble had technical issues and since it was launched there have been several missions to improve the telescope. This movie mentions the previous missions to give people an idea of what it’s taken to maintain the Hubble, but focuses on the last mission to keep the Hubble in orbit. Large portions of the movie were shot by this Astronaut team. One of my favorite scenes was the shuttle launch, captured in the IMAX format makes you feel like you are sitting in the bleachers of Kennedy Space Center watching it live. The spectacular views of Earth from space are also incredible. It’s amazing to see how difficult the simplest task is for the astronauts working in their space suits; at one point the movie compares the delicate work of fixing the Hubble in a spacesuit to trying to do brain surgery wearing mittens.

Even though I’ve been on the WGV marketing team for almost a decade now, I’m ashamed to say I had never played the putting course at the St. Augustine golf community. So when friends asked me to last Thursday, I jumped at the chance! We met at 4:30 at the World Golf Hall of Fame and as soon as I realized I putt right-handed (even though I write left-handed) I did surprisingly well. This isn’t your average Putt-Putt couse after all!

This putting course is comprised of 18 greens that are maintained to USGA specifications. And the flags are moved daily – at least that’s what I heard! Because we wanted to catch the 6:00 PM “Hubble” IMAX movie, we decided to play “best ball”. The round of 18 took us about an hour, thanks to my friend Candy making a hole in one on the final green! We have a guest blogger writing a review of the movie next week so I won’t mention that the movie was fabulous and everyone should go see it!

Mark your calendars because this Sneak Peek Saturday is going to be a fiesta you don’t want to miss! Join us May 1st from 1-4 pm for an open house event in Heritage Landing at World Golf Village.  The theme is Cinco de Mayo and you can register to win a $100 gift card to La Nopalera, one of the best Mexican restaurants in town.  Make sure to try their pitchers of margaritas – they can’t be beat! 

Heritage Landing is a neighborhood full of fun! The amenity center, Camp Heritage, is a sight to see for any family looking for summertime fun. This clubhouse features an open air picnic pavilion, Jr. Olympic swimming pool, tennis courts, and an awesome water slide with a lookout tower that promises to entertain your kids for hours. The Camp Activity area offers horseshoes, volleyball, shuffleboard and more!

If you read this blog on a regular basis, you know many of my blog post ideas come from casual conversations I have with the Davidson Realty team. (Well, conversations I either have or overhear!) This post is no exception. After the sales meeting on Tuesday, a few agents were talking about the ridiculously good deals on houses in St. Augustine, specifically at The Legends at World Golf Village.

Here’s a little background on The Legends…. They are a condominium community at World Golf Village that offers many private amenities for their residents, including a fitness center, putting green, tennis courts, clubhouse and two pools. It has a wonderful location near shopping and restaurants and is an “A rated” school district. Like much of WGV, it is only 20 minutes to the beach. Sounds pretty good, right?

So I wanted to learn more about the “ridiculously good deals” they had. Ashley Wood, one of Davidson’s agents, knows all about condos in St. Augustine and she lives in The Legends so I asked her for the inside scoop. She explained there are two builder closeouts that are available right now for around $50,000 each. Can you believe that? A WGV condominium for $50,000! I’m not a Realtor, but if you do a little quick math and assume you put 20% down and get a 6% rate on a 30-year fixed, your loan payment would be under $240 a month! That’s simply a crazy good deal!

If you want to learn more about The Legends and all of the opportunities they have there, contact Ashley.

The morning of March 17th, a couple hundred of us gathered at the west end of the Bridge of Lions for the re-opening of the Bridge. It was raining. It was also raining in 1927 for the original opening ceremony. But, the rain didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of those of us attending. We were all there to participate in the history of the moment and to honor those who fought to renovate the bridge instead of tearing it down and building a modern bridge. The Save Our Bridge committee led a community wide battle that ended with the commitment of the city and the state to renovate.

The nationally circulated trade magazine for commercial landscape and development, Landscape Architect and Specifier News, selected the Davidson Companies’ headquarters building at the gateway to World Golf Village as its February, 2010 showcase project.  The magazines choose the Davidson building as the cover feature based on the storyline and pictorial beauty portrayed in the project submittal.  Working from the materials and script produced by the Davidson Companies, the magazine’s editor emphasized the project’s “people-friendly” characteristics and gracious business environment.  The fusion between the building’s indoor spaces and its outdoor rooms fascinated the editor, who displayed, in the article, all of the intriguing design elements that distinguish the building.

As one of World Golf Village‘s featured builders and a company that continues to innovate in home design, we were eager to learn more about local home builder Providence Homes.  Despite a challenging real estate market, Providence continues to keep moving forward.  In 2009, Providence ranked second in production of detached single-family homes in the Jacksonville area. Providence Homes are featured in the family-friendly enclave Grovewood in World Golf Village’s King and Bear. Last week we talked with Providence Homes’ Director of Marketing Mike Fox.