Florida

Northwest of Orlando we went to seven different Florida springs. Florida Springs have crystal clear water that boils up from limestone caverns. In all cases, the water started as rainfall that seeped into the limestone rock formations only to come back to the surface sometimes after spending hundreds of years underground. Crystal Clear Water Water

Is it crazy to combine an alligator farm, amusement park, and a Screamin’ Gator Zip Line into one location? Gatorland has the answer. To the best of my knowledge, zip-lining above pools swarming with alligators is only found at Gatorland. Gatorland has combined wildlife adventures into a gator-themed thrill ride. We are moving north through Florida

The Big (bad) Cypress Swamp is a very wild place. In most areas not only are you knee-deep in water without any dry land but you are always surrounded by plenty of wildlife. Most of the big wildlife is able to kill you. Some of the small wildlife is also able to kill you (mosquitos

We are in the middle of the swamp. It is swamp for at least forty miles in every direction. To the east, everglades. To the west is the Big Cypress Swamp. Beyond the Big Cypress Swamp is a mangrove swamp called Ten Thousand Islands and the Gulf of Mexico. For the next sixty miles to

It is hard to go deep in the everglades without special equipment. We went deep in the everglades and found it enchanting. The everglades define the largest contiguous wilderness in the country. The one defining characteristic is that it is a shallow freshwater swamp nearly everywhere. Most of the swamp is covered in sawgrass. We

The Dry Tortugas National Park is well beyond Key West. To get there, you must go by boat or seaplane. That is the only way to visit. I didn’t know you could go beyond Key West I have wanted to visit Key West since about 1974. My goal was always to drive there. Once there,

Most visitors have a different view of Key West wildlife than I do. Most people associate Key West wildlife with Key West nightlife. Key West is an amazing vacation location, it also has tremendous sport fishing in every direction. Surprising most people, Key West wildlife is very abundant. No Name Pub It would be an

Key West sunsets are amazing !!! Sunsets here are a special treat especially after not seeing sunsets for most of this year. It isn’t that the sun didn’t set all year, but nearly every place we went this summer, during our travels around the east coast, we were in trees. Frankly, we missed the sunsets.

For the last two months, we have been hunting crocs and gators as we proceed south along the coastline here in Florida. Frankly, our gator count is very small compared to what I had expected. The way I think of Florida is that every lake, river, swamp, and tree hides a gator. Not true. One

Yes, we saw a space launch at Cape Canaveral. It was super. The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is my number one attraction in Florida. I don’t have a bucket list, but seeing a space launch would be near the top if I did. As far as Florida goes, most people think of Disney World.

Saint Augustine in Florida (named after Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo Regius, now in Algeria) claims to be the oldest European settlement in North America. Is it true, or just a marketing ploy? Well, it depends on how you define settlement and on how you define North America. Other cities, now in the United States,

The very first place we went after crossing the Georgia/Florida border heading south was to one of the historic forts in Florida. After Columbus, Spain moved fast to capitalize on the opportunity a “New World” presented. The riches in the new world were ripe for the picking according to their thoughts on the subject. Exploiting