Posts in Category: Florida
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Lakeland Florida – One of the State’s Nicest Cities
At the 2016 North American Travel Journalists (NATJA) conference I made a point of setting up a meeting with the reps from Visit Central Florida. I was particularly interested in two attractions – Legoland to which I did return in 2017 with Alison, my son Dale and his better half Kari and my oldest grandson […]
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Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve, Fort Myers
I’ve been coming to the Fort Myers area for almost forty years and I thought I had visited pretty well all the major wildlife viewing areas and parks in Lee County and most of Southwest Florida. Until today that is, when I found one almost right next door to where we are staying. I’d passed […]
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Captiva Island, Florida – Learn History at the Cemetery
I’ve been coming to Sanibel-Captiva for almost forty years and am not conceited enough to think that I know it like the proverbial ‘back of my hand’. Actually if someone showed me a picture of the back of my hand along with say ten others from men my size and age, I doubt very much […]
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Myakka River State Park – Experience the Canopy Walk
This is another in my occasional series on what many people including the Florida State Park promoters, call ‘the real Florida’. Yes that too has become a cliche, but trust me many of Florida’s many state parks are real treasures and the antithesis of the Disneyfied version of the state that most visitors, for better […]
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John D. MacArthur Beach State Park – The Real Florida
I get tired of people who know nothing about Florida and bemoan ‘It’s all fake. There’s no natural beauty’. While it is true that much of Florida is as fake as the tits at a Palm Beach barbecue, it is equally true that the Everglades, the Big Cypress and the Ten Thousand Islands are absolutely […]
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Naples Botanical Garden – A Gallery of Fabulous Flowers
I’m sitting at the bar in the Village Pub in Venetian Village in Naples, Florida on the last day before we return to Novas Scotia. Alison is browsing the shops of this semi-interesting shopping area – that’s my highest rating for any shopping venue. I could get depressed about returning to work in two days, […]
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Santiva Salt Water Fishing – Sharks and Sea Trout on Pine Island Sound
Time for another short break from the Holland cycling saga. We are now in Sanibel, which for the past thirty-five years has been my favourite place on this little planet. I won’t try to sell you on Sanibel in this post, but I do want to talk about one of the reasons I love it […]
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Loxahatchee National Wildlife Reserve – Canoeing with Alligators
Taking a canoe trip into the everglades at Loxahatchee National Wildlife Reserve during alligator mating season is not the brightest of ideas. Here’s why. I have loved the everglades since I first visited them over forty years ago. I have into hiked them at Flamingo, taken a National Park tour boat in Chokoloskee and even […]
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Useppa Island – Try to Get There Once in Your Lifetime
We have been visiting Southwest Florida for over 30 years and have always chosen Sanibel Island as our place of refuge from the interminable Canadian winters. During our stays on the Sanibel we have always made a point of visiting the other barrier islands including Captiva, North Captiva, Cayo Costa and Cabbage Key. But one […]