Exploring the Culture, Coasts, and Hidden Corners of Florida
Florida’s most astonishing water often appears far from the coast. Springs rise from the aquifer through openings in the limestone, feeding rivers, swimming areas, wetlands, and entire ecosystems. Some are deep blue. Others spread into broad basins. Some support paddling,…
Family vacations are frequently planned by adults and endured by children. The itinerary may include scenic drives, architectural significance, historic context, and a restaurant described as “worth the detour.” The children would often prefer a dolphin, a giant dinosaur, a…
Florida’s major destinations are designed to keep visitors moving. Small towns invite the opposite. They reward the person willing to park once, walk without urgency, enter a local museum, inspect old houses, order lunch from somewhere without a national advertising…
Florida makes more sense from the water. Its oldest towns grew around rivers, harbors, and protected bays. Its barrier islands divide open seas from quiet estuaries. Its springs rise from the aquifer and become rivers almost instantly. Even the Florida…
Florida is usually experienced through a windshield. Visitors drive from airport to hotel, hotel to beach, beach to restaurant, and restaurant back to hotel while complaining about traffic generated by everyone else doing exactly the same thing. But Florida becomes…
People often speak of Old Florida as though it disappeared beneath highways, condominiums, theme parks, and shopping centers. Much of it did. But not all. Old Florida survives along working waterfronts, spring-fed rivers, brick streets, fishing piers, historic forts, courthouse…
Florida is often described as crowded. That is true if you are standing in traffic. It is less true if you are drifting through a spring beside a manatee, watching dolphins surface off a beach, scanning a refuge for birds,…
Florida’s roadside attractions were built for the age before travelers stared at navigation screens and drove directly from one predetermined destination to another. Back then, a giant sign could change the family itinerary. A painted alligator promised danger. A mermaid…
Florida changes personality at sunset. The heat loosens its grip. Neon signs begin to glow. Fishing lines disappear into dark water. Historic streets become quieter and slightly more mysterious. Restaurants fill, frogs begin shouting from the wetlands, and every coastal…
Florida does not have one cuisine. It has shrimp boats and cattle ranches. Cuban coffee and Greek pastries. Key lime pie, smoked mullet, strawberries, oysters, stone crab claws, citrus stands, dockside sandwiches, and enough seafood festivals to keep a person…