floridatraveler

One of the important Florida economic institutions that are in limbo during this Coronavirus Pandemic is the restaurant industry.

While you can pick up and have delivery of most comfort foods from the large restaurant chains, the stand-alone family restaurants that are most famous for unique Florida favorites are often closed.  So I thought it might be time to honor Florida food so much we appreciate it when it is unavailable.

What foods and drinks remind you of Florida?

ORANGE JUICE is more than Florida’s official beverage.  The Spanish brought it to Florida in the 1500s although commercial production did not boom until railroads in the 1870s could ship oranges to the North.

90% of Florida’s oranges are grown for juice while California specializes in the hard skin oranges.  One of the reasons for this was World War II and the development of frozen concentrated orange juice by a one-time high school science teacher and football coach Cedric Donald Atkins.

KEY LIME PIE is usually an untruth.  After several freezes and a plague very few real key lime trees exist.  This is probably why Floridians state that key lime pies taste best in the Florida Keys where the real limes exist.

Those large green limes are really Persian limes and even more horribly supermarkets are filled with bitter Mexican green limes. The tiny, seedy, yellowish real Key Limes are rare and prized by tree owners who hide them from neighbors.

FLORIDA STONE CRABS are famous around the world and the last time I looked at Joe’s Stone Crabs on Miami Beach had delivery and take out.

This is the second most profitable family restaurant in the USA, taking in $37,243,159 in the trade or an average check of $80.

APALACHICOLA OYSTERS are struggling to survive due to pollution coming down the Apalachicola River from Alabama and Georgia. The industry is developing new hatcheries and methods and my wife and I support the industry.

Do you know that an oyster will actually clean 50 to 75 gallons of water every day? 

CUBAN SANDWICH is not like Havana imports like Fritas, Cafeato, and Mojito.  The Cuban sandwich was invented in Tampa’s Ybor City in 1915, and actually reflects Cigar City’s “mixto” heritage. Notice the Genoa salami, Italian pork, Spanish ham, and the German mustard.

I oppose those Cuban restaurants that are using mayonnaise and other foreign ingredients.  At least you can still take out Cubans in Florida.

GROUPER SANDWICHES are the food of choice if you are taking in the beach volleyball courts or piers anywhere along the Florida Gulf Coast.  Unfortunately, my excursions to Frenchy’s will have to wait until the virus is quelled.

Some people like the grouper blackened and that is OK.  Mahi-mahi, once called dolphin or dolphinfish, is the second choice.  While on the topic those weird creatures on Disney’s Dolphin Resort are the fish and not the mammal-like Flipper or Winter.

SMOKED MULLET is probably an acquired taste and most people find it extra work to scrape the meat off the fish bones.  It is a distinctive Florida experience.

GATOR BITES might not replace Chicken Nuggets, but I’ll challenge people to go blindfolded and see if they can taste the difference. Half of my friend Northern transplants couldn’t tell the difference.

With 1.5 million gators sharing Florida’s real estate, I wish more people would try our big reptiles.

FLORIDA SPINEY LOBSTERS are the same as the Bahamian variety, often called in Nassau crayfish.  For scuba divers, it is one of the most popular sports with a July two day season and an eight-month August to March season.  Don’t ask me to explain these rules.  I do know that you can catch six more lobsters in the Gulf than in the over-fished Florida Keys and Miami areas.

COMMERCIAL FOODS:  I guess I should furnish this food excursion with a few man-made examples.  A few blocks down the street from my home on Henderson Boulevard is the first Outback Steakhouse. You mention what food icon came from here and you will be shocked to know how many people will say: “Blooming Onion.”

Tim Gannon, one of Outback’s founders, got the idea from a New Orleans restaurant back in 1988.  He turned it into a full family appetizer for a few individuals who will tackle a full one.  In the last three years, over 40 million Blooming Onions have been consumed, making it to my Florida Food List.

I have returned at a strange time.  Most of Florida’s attractions and resorts are closed so to fully benefit from my articles you might have to wait until that sunny day when things return to normalcy.

Still, if you enjoy living in Florida, visiting Florida, or seeing Florida, this blog will have a lot of entertaining as well as educational features.

Since my last blog, I have added the title “Emeritus” to my career as a historian and traveler.   Since all of my four classes are now online and we are prisoners to our homes, I am really tied down to my desk. Therefore, you will find more frequent and diverse information at this site.

I am mainly a “Florida specialist” and this blog will contain excerpts and even chapters from my books and materials past and present. This year I will be publishing an Insiders Guide to Walt Disney World and Universal Studios which will contain lots of material that will both save you money and time at Florida’s biggest attractions, but also reveals insights to make your vacation better.

Thanks to the wonder of ebooks and quicker self-publishing options, I will put out a Guide to Florida Extreme Sports and Adventures as well as new editions of some of my travel books produced for tour groups, but now designed for Florida travelers.

If there are Florida topics you would like me to include in this blog, please email me at flahist@aol.com.

Florida has 11,000 miles of rivers and most Floridians will remember that the 310-mile St. Johns River flows very slowly northward just a few miles from the Atlantic before reaching the ocean. People recognize the Suwannee River, with its 206 miles in Florida and 32 miles in Georgia from a song written by a man who never visited Florida..

Yet many of Florida’s smallest rivers provide locals and visitors the most recreational fun. I am not going to include the many springs that flow just a few hundred yards into a major stream. These are my “favorite little Florida rivers.”

The Braden River is a 21-mile (34 km) waterway and the largest tributary of the Manatee River. The lower river is navigable by canoe and kayak and despite its almost urban location, the river is home to abundant wildlife.

At the Linger Lodge

Linger Lodge is a place to rent boats, park your RV, and eat old Florida style in a place that Forbes Magazine called one of the most unique dining spots in the nation. Some would call the rustic location and menu of gators, frog legs, and local seafood a little weird. The food is great, but service depends of how busy they get. I don’t fish or camp, but I vouch it is a neat place for nature photography.

Over in urban Palm Beach County the 17 mile Loxahatchee River a great place to fish, canoe, kayak, and enjoy natural Florida. The North Fork goes to Jonathan Dickinson State Park, my choice as the best all-around Florida facility.

This is near Palm Beach?

You can not only rent canoes and kayaks, you can hike up Hobe Mountain. This park is the largest in Southeast Florida and has cabins, RV sites, horseback riding, mountain bike trails, and primitive camping. And just across A1A is the Atlantic with swimming, surfing, and boating.

The Estero River is just six miles long but it makes an exciting trip location. Enter Koreshan State Park to see the many surviving buildings of a 19th century utopian community who believed people lived inside the globe.

The Planetarium at Koreshan Utopian Community

Besides the usual camping and hiking facilities, experienced paddlers will want to go charter down the river to Estero Bay to Mound Key, site of the largest Calusa Indian village, the one that Ponce de Leon probably saw on his second voyage.

Up by Saint Augustine is Pellicer Creek, an eleven-mile coastal river and one of the favorite state designated canoe trail. The best place to get a canoe or kayak is at Faver-Dykes State Park.

The creek is just two to six feet deep and it is a lovely route, where the sighting of bald eagles and river otters are a regular observation.

Most everyone in Florida knows that the place to canoe or snorkel next to manatees is the very clear Crystal River, a seven-mile excursion into the Gulf of Mexico. It is best to have an experienced guide to paddle into the complex of mangroves and that form the wide ocean delta.

A resident of Crystal River and Kings Bay

The town of Crystal River has several waterside motels and restaurants with the Plantation Inn the largest and most famous. The resort has a 27-hole championship golf course and four on site restaurants. This means some family members can be swimming with manatees in the spring while others fish or golf.

The eight-mile Homosassa River is just twenty miles to the south on US19 and there is the Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park with its underwater observatory where you can watch both freshwater and saltwater fishes. There will be manatees here also as well as a boat tour along this tropical river.

The Underwater Observatory at Homosassa Springs

If you like a little history you might like the eleven-mile Wakulla River, which starts at the Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park, where they filmed the Creature of the Black Lagoon. The inn here is the largest such property on any Florida park.

Traffic on the Wakulla River

The Wakulla flows into the St. Marks River three miles north of the Gulf of Mexico where St. Marks Lighthouse is the landmark. Up the St. Marks is San Marcos de Aplachee State Park where old Spanish and Confederate fortifications can be found.

After reading Jack L. Roberts’ The Writers Compound, a book about four Key West writers, I became curious how many National Register Literary Landmarks were in Florida and I discovered that 33% of Florida’s sites are found in one town – key West.
The island city is still Florida’s best place to visit if you are a writer or a lover of books.

I do suggest that there are places which you should visit elsewhere, such as: Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ Cross Creek country house surrounded by the living pages of her books The Yearling and Cross Creek; Zora Neale Hurston’s Eatonville; and Marjorie Stoneman Douglas’ cottage in South Coconut Grove in Miami.

The Marjorie Stoneman Douglas Cottage

But Key West became the winter refuge for writers and poets and dramatists after Ernest Hemingway set up shop in 1931. Back then in the Depression the rundown Conch City was a funky, inexpensive, social community that tended to accept the unusual and the non-conformist.

Heck – when Florida seceded from the Union, Key West seceded from the Confederacy!

The Hemingway House Captures The Writer

Ernest Hemingway’s Home and Museum at 907 Whitehead House attracts thousands of writers and readers every year. The town even has an annual Ernest Hemingway lookalike contest. Hemingway did not write any of his best novels here, but the beauty of this place is you see his workplace, his pool, his bathroom, his kitchen.
His bed always has a sleeping cat or two. In fact, visitors spend a lot of time looking for cats with deformed toes. This is one tourist spot where stray animals find a welcomed home.

The Tennessee Williams Cottage

Hemingway attracted many to Key West but none but important than Tennessee Williams who finished Streetcar and other plays here. His cottage is at 1431 Duncan Street and there is a Tennessee Williams museum at 513 Truman Avenue. Fanatics claim you can stay at his hotel room at the La Concha Hotel at 430 Duval Street.
It is not a shock that the local theater named after him often has a Tennessee Williams play. It may be more of a surprise Williams was baptized as a Catholic at St. Marys Church.

The Windsor Lane Compound has 11 cottages

There are actually many cottages and shanties that have recruited writers and artists over the years, but the Windsor Lane Compound, a complex of some eleven little cottages is the most famous. John Hersey’s cottage is here as are places where Ralph Ellison (The Invisible Man), poet John Wilbur, and writer John Ciardi were neighbors.

Poetry lovers will want to see Robert Frost’s winter cottage at 410 Caroline Street. It’s behind what was once the Heritage House museum. Now private property – I heard you could possibly rent the Frost place for your own literary vacation.

I found this on Tripadvisor

624 White Street was the home of poet Elizabeth Bishop when she wasn’t roaming the globe. While people will track down all of Hemingway’s drinking spots, you might want to visit the Key West Public Library where some modern writers hang out.

I would be amiss if I didn’t tell you to visit the 1890 San Carlos Institute at 516 Duval Street. It is here at the center of Key West’s Cuban Revolution against Spain that poet and revolutionary leader Jose Marti made many visits. Inside there is a wonderful Marti statue by Manuel Carbonell.

Jimmy Buffett may have left the scene to build huge resorts but don’t be surprised to see a writer like Judy Blume going to the local grocery.

#florida  #writers  #keywest

The story of European Florida begins with the two voyages of Ponce de Leon to the peninsula of Florida, but despite good records by the explorer, the location of his first landing on the East Coast of Florida can not be verified.

My geography professor at the University of South Florida – Dr. Robert H. Fuson – used the logs of Ponce de Leon’s and placed the explorer’s landing closer to Cape Canaveral than Saint Augustine.  Early records and detailed history books reveal that most Americans have a totally mythical image of Ponce de Leon.

• Ponce de Leon did not discover Florida – there are two detailed maps showing Florida as a large peninsula (or possibly an island). As former Governor of Puerto Rico, Ponce knew of the maps and the fact Cuban slavers went there to capture natives for Cuban plantations.

• Ponce was not looking for a Fountain of Youth – he was in fine health and only on his way back did he send a few men to the island of Bimini, where some thought there was a magical spring. His boss King Fernandina did believe in the legendary waters.

• Ponce wasn’t interested in gold – he had a successful plantation and a lovely family, but had been ousted as Governor when the Spanish High Court ruled that Diego Columbus owned all islands his father had explored. Ponce wanted to regain the family honor and status.

Ponce de Leon’s unsuccessful attempt to set up a colony on the Gulf Coast is honored at Ponce de Leon Park in Punta Gorda Isles.  In truth, no one knows the exact location of his landing.

A more interesting excursion would be to visit the Calusa Heritage Trail (Randell Research Center) on Pine Island to see the miles of canals and mounds that Ponce described in his trip.  If you have a boat or kayak, going to Mound Key Archaelogical State Park in Estero Bay is another sight noted by Ponce de Leon.

Up the coast on the Manatee River five miles west of Bradenton is the DeSoto National Memorial, a museum and constructed village describing the 1539 arrival of the ruthless conquistador who deserted his colony to search for gold.

No one is certain exactly where DeSoto landed in the Tampa Bay area, but this 26-acre complex offers a worthy look at early Spanish colonies.  In Saint Petersburg is privately owned Jungle Prada Park, the site of a Tocobaga mound and possible location of the 1528 arrival of Panfilo de Narvaez.

Most visitors want to see more than a few artifacts so I would like to point out two places history buffs should put on their visit list.   The Crystal River Archaeological State Park, just two miles northwest of Crystal River off US19/98, is Florida’s best early Indian site.

There is a museum, six large burial mounds, and a temple platform which leads to a great river view.  This was the type of village that the conquistadors saw.

While this site represents the early colonization of Spanish Florida, Mission San Luis in Tallahassee  is a wonderful reproduction of a 1633 Franciscan mission and the Anhaica capital of Apalacha Provence.  The Indian meeting place is massive.

We know de Soto came here for nearby is the DeSoto Historic State Park, just off US27, where actually artifacts used in his long and futile excursion into Southeast United States took place.

The recent destruction of much of Notre Dame in Paris brought a lot of questions from my college students since they know my long-time involvement in historic preservation.
The restoration and rebuilding of historic structures is guided by the 3-M principles: money, manpower (skilled artisans), and materials. Notre Dame will have no problem with the first M for people who have never even been to France are sending in tons of money.
Getting skilled manpower is not as easy as it seems – there are Gothic specialists still working on European cathedrals damaged or destroyed by World War II, seventy years later. Most of what was destroyed in Paris was 800 to 500-year old wood – from forests that no longer exist in Western Europe. Notre Dame purists will resist rebuilding the cathedral with steel, plastic, and California redwood.
Here in Florida our oldest man-made structure is relatively safe from serious fire, hurricanes, and other natural causes: the Castillo de San Marcos, built in 1672-1695 by Spaniard Ignacio Duza.

With eight-foot thick walls of stone and coquina (shell and limestone), the Saint Augustine landmark is stronger than any other building in the Ancient City. I would be more concerned if a hurricane Category 5 hit the Government House (1713) or Oldest Wooden Schoolhouse (1713) in the Historic District.

The oldest building in Florida is the monastery St. Bernard de Clairvaux in North Miami Beach. It was built of stone in 1133 outside Segovia, Spain, and illegally obtained in 1925 by William Randolph Hearst for his California complex. He lost the directions book and a Florida group finally purchased the “boxed masterpiece” in the 1950’s as a tourist attraction.

To be honest few Floridians are excited about the low-lying monastery even though it is “the oldest European-built structure in the USA.”
Fire is always a concern in Florida – with it low-lying terrain, closeness to two oceans, and huge winds. Florida is the “Lightning capital of America” and this is a fire issue to rural church steeples and tall wooden buildings.

The 1901 Jacksonville Fire was the third worst in US history (Chicago, San Francisco), destroying over 2,000 buildings in 146 urban blocks, and turning 9,000 homeless. A 1908 fire almost destroyed the historic Latin district of Ybor City in Tampa.

I am quite sensitive to Florida’s historic hotels and resorts which were mainly wooden structures despite the innovation of cement into the Flagler Hotel structure by Henry Flagler. Flagler was not so successful with his hotels in Palm Beach.

The Hotel Royal Poinciana built in 1905 as the nation’s largest wooden resort fell victim to the Great Depression and another Florida problem – the termite. Historic buildings in Florida, left vacant and untreated may be destroyed by bugs in Florida’s subtropical climate and heavy rains faster than buildings in other parts of the USA.

Flagler’s Breakers Hotel, a famous landmark today, is in fact the third hotel on the site as fires in 1903 and 1925 leveled the structure.

It is not shocking that when a older structure finds a new tenant that can restore its original condition and maintain its costly features, the building can remain the symbol of a community. That is the case with Henry Plant’s 1891 Tampa Bay Hotel, today the University of Tampa.

Famed Yankee catcher Yogi Berra once said that “no one goes to that (place), it’s too crowded.”

That is the problem of many of Florida’s top beaches – if you don’t get there early, you might not get a decent parking space.  These famed beaches are also usually filled with people, screaming kids, and blaring music. As I get older, I don’t like such crowds.

So here are some ideas for visiting nearby alternative beaches that offer almost the same quality beach and accessories (food, parking, drink) but with less crowds and often less price tags.

On Miami Beach, every tourist thinks of South Beach – it’s the Malibu of South Florida minus the mountains and surfboards.  It is great to walk the boardwalk, look at the models in volleyball tournaments, and take in the cafes. After all that if you want a huge, wider beach – try Haulover Beach Park.   WARNING: it has a nude beach section.

On Key West, most arrivals pass huge Smathers Beach with its restrooms and recreation rentals by the dozens.  It is free but the water is shallow and dusty.  If you want to avoid the crowds and snorkel in the rocky parts, the beach at Fort Zachery Taylor State Park is hidden from a lot of Key West first timers.

This Key West beach (Fort Zack) is a calm treat.

Some people love the pier, the automobiles, the action of Daytona Beach although  I am not a big fare of hard, wet sand.   You get the same beach without the crowds and noise to the north at New Smyrna Beach and there are neat shops and food spots to visit.

Where are the cars?

Palm Beach has a narrow beach with very limited access for visitors and little parking. If you can’t get invited to a tycoon’s beach party, I suggest you travel north to John D. MacArthur State Park, the only state park in Palm Beach County.  Besides the natural beauty of the dunes and sands, there is a great rock reef offshore for divers.

John D. MacArthur State Park

Sanibel Island is wonderful as a beach spot if you staying in one of the island’s tropical resorts, but it has its serious shortcomings for walking for food.  I prefer the lovely but small Captiva Island Beach, whose only shortcoming is limited parking.

For people who want a more action-filled beach, you should go to the Times Square section on north Fort Myers Beach.  But if you want a South Sea Islands isolated beach spot, you should wander around the beaches at Lovers Key State Park, an island further south.

Everyone will tell you the best beach in the heart of the Suncoast is Siesta Key in Sarasota County and I will NOT reject that headline, but if you don’t like the crowds of families and activities, drive southward.  Crescent Beach has the same cooling white sand and more privacy.

Point of Rocks at Crescent Beach on Siesta Key

And there is a great bonus here for at the southern end of Crescent Beach is Point of Rocks, one of the best snorkeling spots on the Florida Gulf Coast.

 Clearwater Beach has been voted the best urban beach in the nation, but the parking lots are crowded and the crowds soon fill Pier 60.  If you arrive early and want to park next to the best grouper sandwich restaurant and the 1930’s beach pavilion, turn north until you see the park next to the Art Deco hotel.  This North Clearwater Beach spot is best.   #mcbobleonard  #florida  #beaches

March and early April are the best months to visit Walt Disney World due to reasonably mild temperatures, the lowest humidity of the year, and a low probably that your expensive day will be ruined by heavy rains.

The parks will still seem crowded and the newer attraction like Toy Story will require FastPass to ride. If you wait until August 29 when the Star Wars section opens with about 50% of the planned activities, they might have to close Hollywood Studios by noon.    WDW couldn’t afford to wait until December to cash in on the audiences.

Most of you will correctly expect that few outdoor sections of expensive table service restaurants will be booked and most of the better counter service places with outdoor seating will be crowded.   This is about less expensive meals with neat views.

What do I do when I visit WDW?  How about a relaxing fifteen-minute boat ride away from the noise of Magic Kingdom and eat lunch with a scenic lakeside meal?   Take the small launch at the boat docks that sails to Wilderness LODGE.  Don’t worry: they don’t check tickets or Magic bands – WDW would actually like some park guests to eat lunch at the half-empty hotel spots.

A view that doesn’t seem like crowded WDW

From the wharf at the Wilderness Lodge, head for the rustic resort, but don’t go inside. Walk around the pool area toward the Wilderness Villas on the left side of the complex. There lakeside is the open-air covered Geyser Point Bar and Grill, open for lunch, dinner, and wonderful sunset views of Bay Lake, the only natural lake at WDW.

The place accepts some Disney dining plans and serves the burgers, sandwiches, salads, and kids meals as well as alcoholic drinks.  The view is so relaxing, few people are watching the sports events in the bar television.

With all the new attractions, including the Mickey Mouse movie opening this summer in the Chinese Theater, Disney Hollywood Studios will be crowded.  The counter service places are generally poor.  One of the best restaurants is the expensive Hollywood Brown Derby, a replica of the lost California landmark.

Look for the maroon umbrellas around 11 am

But notice the maroon umbrellas to the right on the restaurant entrance.  The Hollywood Brown Derby Lounge opens at 11 am and serves more than just dozens of cocktails. It has the famous Cobb salad, Derby sliders, cheese boards and lush desserts.

It also has a wonderful view of the people in the Main Square.

Animal Kingdom has a lot of outdoor fast food spots, many with little cover from the sun.  If you have kids – the best food and the chance of a table by the River is found at the Flame Tree Barbecue.  Ribs, chicken, pulled pork, salads, kids meals with beer and cocktails in a wooded picnic sitting.

This spot becomes a riverside lounge-restaurant at night

But there is a secret spot.  A great evening spot for adults is The Nomad Lounge, almost hidden behind the expensive Tiffins Restaurant.  This porch overlooking the exotic Animal Kingdom River serves small plates like truffle poutine and wagyu beef sliders.

It’s a lounge so the beer, wine, and cocktail menu is vast.

Disney Springs has an incredible amount of good restaurants and none of the inexpensive counter service spots have A+ outdoor locations.  So where do I do?  I walk ride down the wharf between the Amphicar and the at upscale Boathouse Restaurant to the bar with table seating at the end of the wharf.

With a nice lake view of all of Disney Springs as well as the boat-cars going past and the huge collection of antique boats, I can order a beer and a dockside bucket of clam strips or shrimp or something from the main menu.

I must admit that outdoor dining at Epcot is poor since restaurants dominate the lake front.  The best seating at a counter service place is to come early to the outdoor Mexican spot: grab a table and get someone to buy the margaritas and the tacos.

Good seating at La Cantina fills up quickly!

The best waterfront outdoor spot of the expensive table service spots is the seating right by the water at England’s Rose and Crown.

Have a happy “outdoor dining experience” at WDW!

Last week I took my annual trip up to Dade City.  The more I visit Florida’s small towns, the more I realize how much of Florida’s personality an charm is lost of tourists who jam into the booming coastal resorts and amusement parks.

 DADE CITY, capital of Pasco County, is named for Major Francis Dade, who with 110 other soldiers was slain December 28, 1835, in a Seminole ambush. The founding of Fort Dade at Lachoochee protected homesteaders in the region but it wasn’t until the arrival of the railroad in 1884 that the present-day Dade City boomed. Judge Samuel Pasco was U.S. Senator when the county was established in 1887.

Most travelers will exit I-75 some thirty miles north of Tampa and drive eastward. It’s worth the stop to visit the historic village of San Antonio.

SAN ANTONIO, five miles to the west, was started in 1881 by Edmund Dunne, former Chief Justice of Arizona Territory and lawyer for land baron Hamilton Disston who gave Dunne 50,000 acres for his legal services. Dunne set up a refuge for Irish and German Catholics.

Five miles east, TURN LEFT (north) ON CURLEY STREET (FL 577),  Just north of this intersection is the 1913 ST. CHARLES INN, a double-balconied two story built by Charles Barthle to serve the Orange Belt Railroad. It was for years  a bed and breakfast now and while it is a beautiful building, it is now for sale as subdivisions have surrounded it..

Return southward and go left on Pennslyvania Avenue; on the left is the SAN ANTONIO CITY HALL (1933),32819 Pennslyvania Avenue, a stone W.P.A. building which originally contained the city council, police, and fire departments. Across  BICENTENNIAL PLAZA, a European style park with a Memorial to Dunne, a nifty bandstand, and recreation facilities. The town’s RATTLESNAKE FESTIVAL is held here. It was the center of the Catholic community when Dunne developed the colony.

The Arnade House

South ON MAIN STREET, lined with old Victorian frame houses,  My biased favorite is the ARNADE (1896), 219 Main St., residence for years of Dr Charles Arnade, editor of Latin American Review and my Latin American history professor..

On the south side of the park is a stone grotto and statue to St. Anthony next to the ST. ANTONIO CHURCH (1911), a twin-towered stone church replacing the 1883 original. Next door is the SAINT ANTONY SCHOOL (1922), begun in 1883 when Mrs Cecilia Morse invited the Benedictine Sisters to the village. The school and church are among the olest Catholic centers on Florida’s West Coast.

Inside Padua Church

You can join FL 52 at College Road and travel east. TURN LEFT ONTO THE CAMPUS OF ST. LEO COLLEGE, started in 1890 as a monastery by the Benedictine monks. While St. Leo has a small school campus, the institution offers classes online and in person all over the USA and on military bases.  The main attraction on the west side of campus is

ST. LEO ABBEY CHURCH (1948), a Lombardic-Romanesque structure with Indiana limestone trim noted for its fine interior and marble Christ crucifix. Go inside and you’ll recognize the image as a replica of a certain controversial cloth in Turin.

Stroll around the beautiful campus and walk down to Lake Jovita.  It is one of Florida’s most scenic colleges.   Lee Marvin and Desi Arnez went to school here.

St Leo Abbey

Five miles down  along Meridian Avenue into DADE CITY. The area west of downtown has many streets with Victoria masterpieces so a little block by block driving is in order for people who love well-preserved residences.

TURN RIGHT (south) ON 15TH STREET and TURN LEFT onto Church Avenue’s Historic District. At 37412 Church is the FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH(1894), a wooden Gothic, the site of Central Florida Normal College.  As you travel east along Church, you can’t help to notice the fine Victorian houses and large yards.  The RAYMOND-WARD HOUSE at 37335 has a huge wrap-around porch.    The BAPTIST CHURCH was moved here from across town in 1910.

Church Avenue is filled with notable houses: JAMES KNOX WARD HOUSE (1892), at 37805 Church, on the southside. is a classic Victorian house, home of a blacksmith who became Mayor from 1903-1904. His wife took in boarders at the house..  The ROBERT ROSS-LARKIN HOUSE (1882), 37603 Church, was once a three room cottage. Cattleman William Larkin, who introduced the Santa Gertrudis strain to Florida once  at 37604 is the JOHN W. PLATT HOUSE, used as the district Methodist parsonage from 1894 to 1905.lived here.  The Dutch Colonial style of the KNIGHT HOUSE (1900), at 37508 Church, is unusual for the area.

The entire block has older homes but on your right at the end of the block is the 1888 JASPER CARTER HOUSE.  As you travel toward downtown Dade City, you will be impressed with the homes.  Note the  Gothic FIRST METHODIST CHURCH (1889), built of heart pone and cypress by James E. Lee, is the GRAY MOSS INN (1910), 37641 Church, a Mediterranean Revival house when President Calvin Coolidge lunched here in 1923.

TURN RIGHT ON MERIDIAN AND LEFT ON 9TH STREET to see the EDWINOLA INN (1912), once a two-story concrete inn, now a large retirement center. RETURN TO MERIDIAN and TURN LEFT. As you CROSS 8TH STREET, on the left is the 1924 COLEMAN-FERGUSON DEPARTMENT STORE, Meridian Street. In 1884 Henry Coleman and William Ferguson started a store which promoted the tiny town. Next door is the BANK OF DADE CITY (1917), a financial institution that did not survive the Florida Land Bust and became a store.

The stores on Meridian downtown are the oldest in town; the TREIBER BUILDING at 37846 was built in 1900 as a hardware shop.   More interesting is the  OLD  HALL, now a store, past the courthouse toward the OLD RAILROAD DEPOT. It is a classic structure.

Lunch on Limoges Is Behind The Store

You have reached 7th Avenue (US301) and should park to tour the downtown antique shops and visit the ) PASCO COUNTY COURTHOUSE (1909), a two-story brick Beaux-Arts classic by Artemus Roberts. The 1921 bandshell is a landmark.

Going to Dade City not only antiquing but also having lunch and most famous is   (20) LUNCH ON LIMOGES , 14139 South Seventh Street, a wonderful bistro located in the middle of the 1908 O. N. WILLIAMS DEPARTMENT STORE. People travel for miles to eat here.

If you can’t get into Limoges or want a bigger menu, there is KAFE KOKOPELLI at 37940 Live Oak, located in a converted Ford motor building.  Beware: it has a huge stuffed wild animal collection, including a tiger and a black panther.

If all of this is not enough, after downtown visit PIONEER FLORIDA MUSEUM (567-0262), four miles north on US301. You’ll love the 1864 Trilby Depot, the 1864 Overstreet House, the Lacoochee School, and the Enterprise Methodist Church. There is a complete packing plant and a collection of some of the finest Victorian carriages and a unique oil carriage which supplied area farmers.

It is one of Florida’s best heritage museums.  ADMISSION is charged.  #mcbobleonard #florida  #dadecity

Florida has l.5 million American alligators and as saltwater intrusion continues in the Everglades, the activity of transporting wandering gators from South Floridians’ swimming pools and backyards has increased as gators move northward.

There are so many gators that there is a hunting season (with limited licenses) – you hunt with spears since a shot reptile might sink into the swamp’s muck.  Most professional hunters use the hides and sell the meat to seafood restaurants.

There is another prehistoric creature that is slowly moving northward and most Floridians have never seen one.

Florida’s saltwater crocodiles, most living until recently on the tip of the Everglades away from populations, are rare sights.  Crocs are Federally and state protected and only number around two to three thousand in numbers in Florida.

It May Seem Strange to See An Oceanside Croc Capture

It should also be noted that the American crocodile, unlike alligators, tries hard to avoid people and is less aggressive.  Most research on crocs have taken place in the Cape York Peninsula of Northern Australia where the saltwater crocs number 100,000, but reside far from large populated areas and are studied under more natural habitat.

In recent years, however, the Florida crocodile is moving into the Florida Keys, killing small pets and scaring people.  Part of the problem is the reality that the canals in the Keys are saltwater and people often swim in the canals – and they even swim at night when crocs and gators (who can tolerate salt water for a few days) are hunting.

Nile crocs are very imposing …

At present, Florida authorities will remove the crocs and move them back into the Everglades, but there are more limited locations to place them since throwing crocs in with gators is not a good idea.

Even of more concern to some Floridians is the discovery of some Nile crocodiles in Florida. These are large reptiles whose behavior in Florida’s animal population is not researched.  Florida is not Africa.

As climates change slowly around the globe, there is reason for Florida scientists to be on the look out for more exotic species from the Caribbean, South America, and even Africa.   #mcbobleonard