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Florida Off the Beaten Path®. A Guide to Unique Places PDF

243 Pages·2014·10.626 MB·English
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O F F T H E B OFF THE BEATEN PATH® E A T E THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO EXTRAORDINARY TRAVEL N FLORIDA P A T Praise for the Off the Beaten Path® series H A GUIDE TO UNIQUE PLACES “For the traveler who enjoys the special, the unusual, and the unexpected.” —The Traveler newsletter F “Globe Pequot publishes some fi ne books in its ‘Off the Beaten Path’ series. . . . These L books cover states that no other publisher covers thoroughly.” O —San Diego Union-Tribune R Tired of the same old tourist traps? Whether you’re a visitor or a local looking for some- I D thing different, let Florida Off the Beaten Path show you the Sunshine State you never A knew existed. Head to Weeki Wachee Springs in Spring Hill and catch a live mermaid show. Hop a boat from Panama City Beach to Shell Island and bask amidst pristine beach- es and windswept dunes. Swim with dolphins at Marineland in St. Augustine. So if you’ve “been there, done that” one too many times, get off the main road and venture Off the Beaten Path. Diana and Bill Gleasner have published over thirty books, including the popular Popoki series for children, and they have written hundreds of articles for national and international magazines and newspapers. As professional travel photojournalists who have roamed the globe in search of travel adventures, they admit a continuing addiction to Florida. 1 2 T H Cover design by Georgiana Goodwin ED Cover photograph of egret at Merritt Island and back cover photograph of IT Castillo de San Marcos National Monument licensed by Shutterstock.com IO N GPP Travel is an imprint of Globe Pequot Press Guilford, Connecticut GlobePequot.com GPP Travel is an imprint of GPP Travel is an imprint of GGuloilfboerd P, eCqounonet cPtirceusts Globe Pequot Press www.GlobePequot.com Guilford, Connecticut GlobePequot.com off the beaten path® florida OBP_FL_2-3pp.indd 1 1/10/14 2:08 PM Help Us Keep This Guide Up to Date We would love to hear from you concerning your experiences with this guide and how you feel it could be improved and kept up to date. Please send your comments and suggestions to: editorial@GlobePequot .com Thanks for your input, and happy travels! OBP_FL_2-3pp.indd 2 1/10/14 2:08 PM Off the Beaten Path® SerieS twelfth edition off the beaten path® florida a guide to unique places Diana & Bill Gleasner ® OBP_FL_2-3pp.indd 3 1/10/14 2:08 PM To Ed and Susan Cottle—Intrepid Florida Explorers And to our noble assistants, Bob and Carole Rowell All the information in this guidebook is subject to change. We recommend that you call ahead to obtain current information before traveling. Copyright © 2014 Morris Book Publishing, LLC ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed to Globe Pequot Press, Attn: Rights and Permissions Department, PO Box 480, Guilford, CT 06437. Off the Beaten Path is a registered trademark of Morris Book Publishing, LLC. Editor: Amy Lyons Project Editor: Lauren Szalkiewicz Layout: Joanna Beyer Text design: Linda Loiewski Maps: Equator Graphics © Morris Book Publishing, LLC ISSN 1539-0845 ISBN 978-0-7627-9201-6 Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 OBP_FL_2-3pp.indd 4 1/10/14 2:08 PM Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii Northeast Florida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Northwest Florida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Central Florida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Southwest Florida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 Southeast Florida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 The Florida Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Florida State Parks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 OBP_FL_2-3pp.indd 5 1/10/14 2:08 PM Florida Pensacola NORTHWEST Tallahassee FLORIDA Jacksonville NORTHEAST FLORIDA Orlando CENTRAL FLORIDA Tampa Sarasota SOUTHEAST FLORIDA SSOOUUTTHHWWEESSTT FFLLOORRIIDDAA Miami THE KEYS OBP_FL_2-3pp.indd 6 1/10/14 2:08 PM Introduction Warning! Straying from the beaten interstate can be addictive. But is it ever fun! By poking and prowling around this incredible state, we discovered a high- rise for bats, the world’s smallest police station, a McDonald’s complete with salt licks and hitching posts, and a museum dedicated to the inventor of air- conditioning. Florida seems to have cornered the “world’s largest” market. We saw the largest concentration of saw grass; the largest bald cypress tree; and the largest collections of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, Art Deco buildings, Salvador Dalí artworks, and Tiffany glass in the world. We even strolled the world’s longest continuous sidewalk. We traveled by inner tube, pontoon boat, car, motor home, houseboat, sailboat, seaplane, canoe, motorized gondola, swamp buggy, and airboat. Our meanderings took us through Little Havana, the Greek community of Tarpon Springs, and a Miccosukee Indian village. We heard a dolphin take a deep breath in the Everglades, toured a thoroughbred farm, and chatted with a cow hunter rounding up one of the few remaining herds of scrub cattle in existence. We saw manatees, wood storks, a herd of buffalo, and alligators romping in the surf! We slept in a lighthouse, cheered ourselves hoarse at a rodeo, hunted for fossil shark teeth, lunched in an indoor swimming pool (luckily for us, it was dry), nibbled on alligator tail (lucky for us, it was no longer connected to the animal), and pitched a tent on more than a few of the Ten Thousand Islands. In short, we have enjoyed an abundance of serendipitous experiences. But there are many more discoveries waiting to be made in Florida. Write us (c/o Globe Pequot Press, PO Box 480, Guilford, CT 06437, or editorial@ Globe Pequot .com) and tell us your special finds. Travel safely and have a terrific time! Florida Facts Name: Discoverer Ponce de León named it “Florida,” the Land of Flowers, for its abundant flora. OBP_FL_2-3pp.indd 7 1/10/14 2:08 PM viii Introduction Official nickname: The Sunshine State Location: Southeastern US. Florida’s southern tip is 1,700 miles (2,742 kilometers) north of the equator. History: Florida has belonged to five different nations: Spain, England, France, the Confederacy, and the US. State capital: Tallahassee was selected as the capital in 1824—a com- promise between Pensacola in west Florida and St. Augustine on the east coast. Population: With more than 19 million people, Florida is the fourth- most populous state in the US after California, Texas, and New York. The population increased 2.7 percent from 2010 to 2012. The largest concentration of Finns (17,000) outside of Finland lives in the Lake Worth/Lantana area. When asked where they would most like to live other than their current residence, many Americans made Florida their first choice. Time: Most of Florida is in the eastern time zone. The area west of the Apalachicola River is in the central time zone. Weather: Abundant sunshine, pleasant coastal breezes during summer months, and 53 inches of annual rainfall. Average annual temperatures: Summer: 80.5 degrees Fahrenheit in north Florida and 82.7 in south Florida. Winter: 53 degrees Fahrenheit in north Florida and 68.5 in south Florida. Geography: Total area is 58,560 square miles. From Pensacola to the southernmost point of Key West is 832 miles (1,342 kilometers). Lakes: Florida is sprinkled with more than 7,800 lakes, ranging in size from an acre to the 448,000-acre Lake Okeechobee, the second- largest freshwater lake in the US. Rivers: Florida has 34 major rivers. Certainly one of the best-k nown rivers (thanks to Stephen Foster’s song “Old Folks at Home”) is the Suwannee, in the northern part of the state. OBP_FL_2-3pp.indd 8 1/10/14 2:08 PM Introduction ix Springs: There are 720 known springs in the state and 33 are classi- fied as “first magnitude.” First magnitude springs produce at least 100 cubic feet of fresh water per second. One of the longest underwater cave systems in the continental US (over 28,000 feet), Peacock Springs State Recreation Area, is a popular place for cave diving. Beaches: A beach is no more than 60 miles (96.7 kilometers) away no matter where you are in Florida. Sand beaches account for 1,200 miles (1,935 kilometers) of the state’s 1,800 miles (2,903 kilometers) of coastline. Florida’s beaches are rated among the finest in the country by University of Maryland coastal geologist Stephen Leatherman, who researches and rates the nation’s beaches on 40 criteria. Shoreline: Florida has more tidal shoreline than any other state except Alaska. Islands: Florida has 4,510 islands that are 10 acres or more in size, more than any state except Alaska. Elevations: Florida’s highest point is Britton Hill, at 345 feet, near DeFuniak Springs (Walton County) in the northwest section of the state. Tourism: Tourism is the state’s number- one industry, followed by agri- culture. In 2012, 89.3 million tourists visited Florida. National parks: Florida has 11 national parks: Big Cypress National Preserve in southwest Florida; Biscayne National Park in Biscayne Bay; Canaveral National Seashore at Titusville; Castillo de San Marcos National Monument in St. Augustine; De Soto National Memorial in Bradenton; the seven islands of the Dry Tortugas; Everglades National Park; Fort Caroline National Memorial in Jacksonville; Fort Matanzas in St. Augustine; the Gulf Islands National Seashore, which stretches from Cat Island in Mississippi to the Santa Rosa Islands in Florida; and Timucuan Ecological and Historical Preserve in Jacksonville. National forests: Florida’s four national forests—Apalachicola (includ- ing Choctawhatchee), Osceola, Florida National Scenic Trail, and Ocala—cover more than one million acres. Nearly half the state is cov- ered with uninhabited forests. OBP_FL_2-3pp.indd 9 1/10/14 2:08 PM

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