Florida Travel

Florida is a favorite destination for both Americans and foreigners, with the city Miami actually being the number one travel destination in America. Some people simply fly into the city while others arrive in cruise ships and some even make extreme drives as far away as Canada, all to enjoy holidays in Florida. Two hours south of Miami are the Florida Keys, tropical islands that extend into the Caribbean sea great for beaches, sailing and diving. The year around warm weather also makes Florida an ideal place to build amusement parks.. Florida has more amusement parks than any other state in America, with the most famous being Disney World followed by Universal Studios and Sea World.

Florida Links
	The largest city of Florida is Jacksonville, more so because of its vast area rather than it being a large dense city. Jacksonville's city limits are so large that it's actually the largest city in America! Despite all the potential within its borders there isn't too much that Jacksonville is famous for. The best Daytona has to offer is its large downtown area and its easy access to beaches such as the world famous Daytona. The upper left is a photo of Jacksonville's skyline, and on the right some palm trees that thrive in the warm weather.

	Just an hour south of Jacksonville is the much smaller town of St. Augustine located on Florida's eastern coast. With so many major destinations in Florida such as Disney World, Miami, Panama City Beach, the Florida keys, and countless other places I figured that St. Augustine would have few visitors. Surprisingly the town was packed with tourists, all coming to see one of America's most historic and interesting towns.
	When the Spanish empire sent ships to the new world, what is now St. Augustine was the site of their first landing in the mid 16th century. St. Augustine was founded by the Spanish in 1565, over half a century earlier than the English's first permanent colony of Jamestown in Virginia. On the left is a cross marking the landing point of the Spanish explorers. To the right is an old moss covered church in St. Augustine that was once part of the Spanish settlement.

	Eventually as Europeans began to colonize the new world, the early Spanish settlers began to face threats from pirates and other European powers. English pirate Sir Francis Drake attacked and plundered St. Augustine in 1586, and again in 1668 the establishment was attacked by another English pirate by the name of Robert Searle. The above fort was built in response to these pirate raids, and taking almost a quarter of a century it was completed in 1695 to protect their interests in Spanish Florida. Below is a photo of a souvenir that shows what the entire fort looks like from an aerial view. On the lower right are some wasps who have decided to colonize their own section of Castillo de San Marcos Fort..

	Going farther south, in the middle of the Floridan peninsula is the city of Orlando, famous for Walt Disney World being and several other amusement parks and world class entertainment. California and other places around the world also have Disney theme parks, but Disney World in Florida is the original and true home of all the famous Disney characters. Florida's Disney World is split up into four enormous parks, the Magical Kingdom, Epcot Center, MGM Stuidios and the Animal Kingdom. On the left is Cinderella's Castle with some famous Disney characters talking to the fairy god mother. Above are Mickey and Minnie Mouse doing a brief show at Cinderella's Castle.

	Magical Kingdom's entertainment comes in shows, shopping, and of course rides. On the left is the entrance of Magical Kingdom's park just after Christmas. The buildings on the sides sell souvenirs, ice cream, candy and also have all kinds of restaurants that cater to both kids and adults. On the right is the entrance to Tomorrow Land, the futuristic district of Magical Kingdom which has space and alien themed rides.

	At the end of every single day, the Magical Kingdom celebrates with a huge parade with themes of different Disney stories. Mickey Mouse, Jimmy Cricket, the Little Mermaid, and Cinderella are just some of the themes of the parades that come by. I've been to Disney World many times as a little kid, but as an adult I truly realize what a show they put on here to be able to hold large parades and fireworks every night of the week.
	You might be surprised to know that despite all of Florida's beaches, cities and amusement parks, it still lots of unique wilderness and exotic animals. On the left is Spanish Moss covering a tree in the eastern part of Florida's panhandle. Spanish Moss hugs the coast and can be seen in the United States from Texas all the way up to North Carolina. On the right is a deer in one of Florida's parks on the western side of the peninsula. In 2004 I went camping with a friend in a Florida forest to save money while we spent the day getting our scuba diving licenses. At night, we often heard loud noises that sounded like some animal crashing through the bushes. Although the Floridian cougar does live in the area, which is basically a mountain lion certainly capable of killing a human, the noises seemed to be too careless for such a cat so we weren't too alarmed. We eventually investigated by breaking out flashlights around 10pm and found that armadillos were scurrying the area in search of food. Despite being wild they weren't very concerned with our presence, but unfortunaetly I still didn't take a photo of them. Below are some photos I took during the night while we explored the local area. We spotted dozens of armadillos and the evil spider that you can see on the lower right.



	The pictures above are of a swamp in Florida. It might not look very interesting but it's actually home to the huge manatees in the winter time. They come in from the ocean because it's a little warmer inland compared to the gulf of Mexico. This place is also where I got my scuba diving license. As I dove for my qualification, I saw lots of more advanced divers entering networks of caves using powerful flash lights and self propeling vehicles. The green duck weeds on the surface may give you the impression that the water is dirty, but once you descend underneath them you'll have crystal clear waters and be able to see many species of fish.

Jim from USA: Your site is a wonderful resource for info about different places in the world and has very interesting info and great pics. Not sure how you found the inspiration and time to create this but more power to you, you've produced an excellent web site here for the armchair traveller! :)

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Florida Travel

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