Florida Favorite Tips by grandmaR

Song of Florida

Favorite thing: We were lying half asleep on our boat in Daytona early one morning. My husband said "Listen to the symphony of Florida". I listened. I heard:

A train across from the marina
A forklift backup alarm
A bridge warning bell (photo 3)
A power boat rumbling by
An airplane flying overhead
Birds calling

That's present day Florida. Then recently, I read Elizabeth Bishop's poem Florida.

Fondest memory: Elizabeth Bishop first visited the region in the 1930s. Her view of an older Florida is still true today.

"Florida"

The state with the prettiest name,

the state that floats in brackish water (photo 2)

held together by mangrove roots… (photo 5)

The state full of long S-shaped birds, blue and white,

and unseen hysterical birds who rush up the scale

every time in a tantrum. . .

[T]he careless, corrupt state. . . the poorest

post-card of itself.

Florida Sunsets

Favorite thing: Where I would take someone if they had never been to Florida before would depend on what kind of person they were. My favorite places are the Everglades and Key West. I don't care much for Orlando.

(1st number=tips, 2nd number = photos, third number = travelogues)

I have top 5 pages at
Daytona Beach 9 36 3
Everglades National Park 42 54 1 (see National and State parks tip)
Florida Keys 13 56 5
Key West 84 104 3
Melbourne 10 33 3
Miami 47 92 5
Saint Augustine 26 71 5
Titusville 6 42 5

I used to have a top 5 page for
Marathon 85 128 5 but there aren't 6 rated pages there anymore.

I have specific pages (not all of them completed) at:

Amelia Island 18 55 4 (spillover from Fernandina)
Bahia Honda Key 2 4 0
Big Pine Key 20 46 3
Biscayne, Key (just 2 photos)
Boca Chica Key 1 10 1
Boot Key 13 54 4
Boca Grande 0 2 1
Brickell Hammock (43 pictures of Vizcaya - no tips)
Clearwater 5 6 0
Cocoa 32 51 1
Coral Gables (mostly Fairchild Gardens) 4 47 5
Crescent Beach (just 2 photos)
Fernandina Beach 25 53 4
Fisher Island 8 19 1
Flagler Beach 0 11 1
Flamingo (in the Everglades) 2 5
Fleming Key 1 12 1
Footman 1 20 2

Fondest memory: Ft Lauderdale 1 7 1
Ft Pierce 15 52 5
Gasparilla Island 0 1 0
Grassy Key 4 7 0
Hallandale (2 photos from the Atlantic)
Indian Key (one of 4 in FL) 2 21 2
Indian River City 1 11 1
Jacksonville 2 4 1
Jacksonville Beach 5 48 5
Jay Jay (just 3 photos)
Juno Beach 1 3 0
Key Biscayne 7 14 1
Key Colony Beach (one picture)
Kissimmee (one tip)
Knight Key 1 14 1
Lake Buena VIsta (Disney) 8 7 0
Lighthouse Point 1 3 0
Little Torch Key 4 6 0
Lower Matecumbe Key 3 7 0
Mahogany Hammock (part of Everglades - one picture)
Marquesas Keys 2 29 3
Miami Beach 2 10 1
New Smyrna Beach 18 41 2
Ocala 0 9 1
Orlando 11 13 0
Ormond Beach 30 41 1
Palm Coast 2 12 1
Pigeon Key 5 40 4
Ponce Inlet 1 12 1
Port Everglades 0 3 0
Port of Miami 1 12 1
Port Orange 8 37 3
Riviera Beach 2 5 0
Silver Springs (1 tip)
Sombrero Key 2 5 0
Stock Island 3 30 3
Tank Island (1 photo)
Tarpon Springs (1 photo)
Tingler Island 1 8 1
Vaca Key 5 48 5 (overflow from Marathon)
Vero Beach 1 12 1
Virginia Key 1 4 0

Orlando

Favorite thing: One of my pet peeves is with people who put their tips under the state when they have only been to one location in the state.

Or sometimes people only have tips on Orlando (Disney World etc) and they put the tips under the United States as though that was the primary thing to see here.

There is so much more to Florida than Orlando. And Disney World isn't really in Orlando anyway. It is in Lake Buena Vista

I've only been to the Orlando area once since 1954. (Disney World had not been built yet in 1954).

Around Memorial Day 2000, I had a convention to attend in Orlando, and my mom had a family reunion afterwards at Disney. It was my mom (age 90), me, my husband, my four children and their spouses, and 7 of their 8 living children, my sister, her husband, two of their three children, one of two spouses, and two grandchildren. (My niece and her husband were at a wedding in California, and my oldest grandson couldn't get off from his job.)

The reunion was nice. But my husband refused to attend any of the parks, so it wasn't as much fun as it could have been.

Fondest memory: I had a good time early Sunday morning before it got hot when I took my grandson and we went to the Magic Kingdom.