Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and, unfortunately tight budgets may be preventing you and your significant other from celebrating the romantic holiday. Well, we are definitely feeling the love at World Golf Village and want to ensure that residents of our St. Augustine golf community are excited about cupid’s pending arrival as well. To help get everyone in the spirit and give you the opportunity to win a romantic Valentine’s Day date night, we are hosting a Happy Couple Photo Contest for World Golf Village residents.  Send in your most romantic couple photo by Monday, February 1st.

We want to see how in love you are (or were, as the case may be) but please keep it G-rated! We’ll let our Facebook fans vote on the most “loving” couple.  Invite your friends and family to vote.  The winner will receive a $100 gift certificate to Le Pavillon restaurant in St. Augustine. This romantic restaurant is housed in a lovely historic Colonial Revival home on San Marco Avenue.

If you haven’t made it to one of the free Davidson Speaker Series events, you’re missing out on some great information and insight from local experts.  So grab a friend and join us at the Davidson Realty office, complete with complimentary wine and snacks, for the following upcoming sessions:

Thurs, Jan. 21 @ 7:00 pm: Health & Fitness with Doug Duggan

A former Olympic weightlifter, Duggan will cover a variety of fitness topics, including how to fit fitness into a busy lifestyle, and how to achieve a balanced physical fitness program. In addition to competing in weightlifting from 1955 to 2000, Duggan spent 11 years as a certified personal trainer and owner of a gym in St. Simon’s Island, Georgia.  His more than 150 personal training clients included six professional golfers. His areas of expertise include yoga, running and weightlifting. 

Each month, we are going to introduce a World Golf Village resident to you. This month, golf member, 6-year King & Bear resident, family man and friend, Larry Flahardy (pictured left with wife, Linda) shares a little about himself with us…

1. What is your favorite thing about The Neighborhoods of World Golf Village?

• Golf courses, trees, serenity, family oriented.

2. What’s your best golf story?

• I had my first hole-in-one on #3 at King & Bear on August 24, 2004 – one day before my birthday. Linda and I were playing with Dan and Donna Yadon, who also live in the King & Bear. We had to seek cover after eight holes due to a bad storm. We resumed play because you must finish nine holes for the hole-in-one to count. We decided to continue to play the back nine and Dan Yadon got a hole-in-one on #14. The kicker is we were both playing Callaway clubs and we each used our six iron. A rainbow came out later. It was magical!

3. What is your worst golf story?

Nestled amidst World Golf Village‘s beautiful natural landscape, tucked under majestic oak trees and surrounded by a lush blanket of green space, GroveWood feels like a personal discovery. It’s that rare gem of neighborhoods: cozy, inviting and centered around family. It’s a place where quality family time is around-the-clock. A place where neighborly comes naturally. A place where bird songs and kids playing fill the air.  And a place where trees outnumber, well, most everything.

Kristen, her husband, Austin, and their daughters Audrey and Lauren moved to GroveWood from Jacksonville about two years ago, drawn by its “small town atmosphere” and “natural setting.”  They quickly realized they found home. Kristen loves the impromptu get-togethers with neighbors and Austin has found the winding drive through The Neighborhoods of World Golf Village to GroveWood helps him decompress and recharge after a long work day.

I don’t think of myself as a wine snob…although I am pretty sure many of my friends do! (I will admit I like a nice glass of Pinot Noir more than most people though.) So when I decided to visit San Sebastian Winery on Kings Street in downtown St. Augustine, a few friends told me to keep my expectations in check. This was a Florida winery that used Muscadine grapes. However, I have to tell you, it was a wonderful experience!

They offer complimentary winery tours and wine tasting seven days a week. During the tour they teach you about wine making and show you the room where they are aging their Port in wooden barrels. Then, they take you to the tasting bar. And they teach you how to evaluate wines with four of your sense by using five S’s – like see, swirl and smell. I’m not going to tell you the other two so you will go enjoy this quaint little place for yourself! The whole tour/tasting took about 35 or 40 minutes.

The Murray Family is the lucky winner of The Neighborhoods of World Golf Village Holiday Photo Contest. Little Sophia stole our hearts with her not-quite-focused stare.  We all have felt a little “cross-eyed” during the holidays! Too cute! Congratulations to Sophia and her family.  They will receive a $100 Visa gift card.  We hope everyone enjoyed the holidays and got lots of funny snapshots to capture the memories for years to come.

For more information on The Neighborhoods of World Golf Village become our Fan on Facebook.

We are very fortunate to be living in St. Johns County for many different reasons.  One important fact that you may not be aware of is that St. Johns County has participated in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) since 1973.

The NFIP is a federal program enabling property owners in participating communities,  such as St. Johns County, which includes The Neighborhoods of World Golf Village, to purchase insurance protection against losses from flooding.  The NFIP was established by Congress in 1968 and is based on an agreement between local communities and the Federal Government (FEMA), stating that if a community will adopt and enforce a floodplain management ordinance, to reduce future flood risks to new construction in Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHA), the Federal Government will make flood insurance available within the community, as a financial protection against flood losses.  A SFHA is a high risk area (A or AE), defined as any land that would be inundated by a flood having a 1-percent chance of occurring in any given year (also referred to as the base flood).

When I was a little girl, Christmas was a magical time. I would literally become giddy with excitement. But as the years passed, it was harder and harder to get in touch with that feeling. Some holiday seasons I didn’t feel it at all. Then I discovered St. Augustine’s Nights of Lights! Although the event lasts from November through January, I like to go on a brisk December evening with my family and friends. As we drive into downtown St. Augustine and see millions of white lights twinkling throughout the city, I get that old feeling again!

Depending on the activities scheduled for that evening, we may tour a historical inn and hear romantic stories from our guide who is all dressed up for the holidays or we may take a train ride to see many, many more lights or we may simply stroll through the narrow streets and stop in a quaint restaurant for a glass of wine or a decadent dessert – sometimes both!

There are some people who make everyone they come into contact with feel happier. Mark Downing, managing partner of CornerStone Homes, is one of those people. So, it is no wonder that 99% of CornerStone Homes’ clients will happily recommend them to their family and friends!

Of course, there are a few other reasons too. When I spoke with Mark Downing recently, he shared that the foundation of CornerStone’s success is built on attention to detail and customer care.

If you know Mark, he has a quiet confidence about him. And it was in this humble, but assured manner, that he recommended I compare the finished work in a CornerStone Home with any other builder’s home.

Well, we just had another successful Sneak Peek Open House in Heritage Landing at World Golf Village on December 5. Families from around the area strolled through five homes in the community that are available for sale through Davidson Realty. One of them told me they like being able to look at a bunch of homes without any pressure. And that is great – because that’s exactly why we host the Sneak Peek Open House every month! Since we encouraged visitors to bring toys to donate to Sertoma Toys for Tots this month, the event was a double success. Thanks to those that donated!

As I mentioned, we normally have Sneak Peek Saturdays on the first Saturday of every month, but since the first Saturday in January is the day after New Year’s, we thought we would skip January and host the next event on February 6.