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Monday, December 12, 2005
Orlando - Off the Beaten Path:
Discovering Central Florida without visiting any theme parks...
Can it be done?
One of my husband's favourite places is Florida, since he is an
avid golfer and likes to get away from the cold Canadian winter
for his birthday in early December.
For a while now we had planned to visit Orlando, but neither one
of us are into theme parks. So there was the challenge for me: would
we be able to visit Orlando without setting foot into Disney or
Universal Studios? For someone as curious as me this was a suitable
challenge and I had been doing weeks of searches on the Internet
and communicating with the Orlando
Convention and Visitors Bureau to find out about interesting
destinations off the beaten path.
Carillon tower in the Historic Bok Sanctuary
Well, I am happy to say, we arrived back safely yesterday from
our trip, and the trip itself was quite an adventure since we decided
to drive from Toronto to Orlando, about 2100 km each way! Actually,
the drive was not as painful as I expected. The drive through Pennsylvania
and West Virginia was nice and hilly, and I particularly enjoyed
coming over the ridge of the Appalachians, right where Virginia
and North Carolina meet, where you get a beautiful view of the piedmont
area around Winston-Salem that spreads out towards the Atlantic
in front of the mountain chain.
And I am even happier to say that in the 14 or so days that we
spent in Orlando, not only did we get to play a lot of golf (to
make my husband really happy...;) - including Mystic Dunes, Champions
Gate, Royal St. Cloud
Links, Hawk's Landing and Timacuan
Golf and Country Club, not to mention the Walking Hall of Fame
experience of the PGA
Father Son Challenge at Champions Gate, but I also got to explore
some really interesting places, destinations I would not have expected
in Orlando and its surrounding region. I also had a chance to do
an interview with GolfOrlando to
get a much better idea of why Orlando is called "The Ultimate
Golf Theme Park".
We started off our first week with a visit to the Orange
Country Regional History Center, which gave us a suitable historic
background of Orlando and Central Florida. Then, for some sociological
and cultural insights, we visited the Well's
Built Museum for African American History and Culture in Orlando.
To top off our first day of exploration we enjoyed a walk around
picturesque Lake Eola in downtown Orlando.
Downtown Orlando's Lake Eola
The next item on my off-the-beaten path agenda was a discovery
of the City of Winter Park,
a beautiful suburb of Orlando, reminiscent of Old European towns.
I also went on the Winter
Park Scenic Boat Tour, which was an entertaining, informative
and visually appealing excursion.
The adrenaline revved up significantly on our next outing: a very
high-speed airboat ride at Boggy
Creek, that was followed up by a much lower speed swamp buggy
ride in a custom-built monster truck that took us through authentic
Florida landscape.
After our golf outing at the Royal
St. Cloud Golf Links we enjoyed a wonderful picnic by the waterfront
in sunny downtown Kissimmee.
Then, on a beautiful Sunday morning we drove about an hour outside
of Orlando to reach the quaint town of Mt.
Dora, where I hopped on the "Herbie Express", part
of the Mt. Dora - Lake Eustis Scenic Railway.
Scenic Mt. Dora
From midweek in the second week onwards the weather took a turn
for the worse. While planes were sliding off runways in Chicago
and record temperatures were registered in the mid-western states,
we were freezing in Florida where the mercury hovered around 68
to 70 degrees Fahrenheit (around +20 degrees Celsius). So I bought
a rain jacket, and determined not to let the freezing cold interfere
with our plans, we headed out to continue our explorations.
On a day that was forecast to be rainy, but just ended up being
a bit grey and clammy, we went out to discover Loch
Haven Park, Orlando's center of science, art and culture. We
then continued our explorations further south to discover some of
Orlando's historic neighbourhoods
and parks such as Lake Cherokee and Lake Lucerne.
As the drizzly weather continued, we went on to visit Florida's
Natural Visitor Center in Lake Wales, about an hours drive south
of Orlando, where I got a really good understanding of Central Florida's
citrus industry. I spent the afternoon in another famous attraction
in Lake Wales which holds two National Historic Landmarks: the Historic
Bok Sanctuary, where I got to see the beauty of the Bok estate
and its historic carillon tower, combined with a tour through the
historic Pinewood Estate, which was decked out in full Christmas
decorations.
Sandhill cranes on the Timacuan Golf Course
During these 2 weeks in Florida, we got exposed to a lot of its
plants, flowers and
wildlife, much of which
you run into casually even while playing golf or picknicking by
the waterfront. Florida has a surprising amount of natural diversity
and I enjoyed watching the various types of birds, lizards, and
squirrels. The only thing we didn't get to see was a live alligator
(with the exception of the well-hidden rear end of a small alligator
during our swamp buggy tour
- unfortunately I couldn't even get a good picture of that one..).
Apparently winter time is too cold for these creatures to come out
of the water...
On our drive home, on a bright sunny day (of course...), we stopped
off in St. Augustine, a historic
town founded by the Spaniards in the 1500s, and the oldest continuously
inhabited town in the United States - a mighty photogenic place,
I should add.
Cathedral of St. Augustine
So, you ask, is it possible to spend 2 weeks in Orlando without
even setting foot inside a theme park and still have a good time?
Well, based on the above itinerary I'd say that my plans to explore
Orlando off the beaten path came to full fruition.
Mission accomplished.
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Orlando mortgage broker, you can find a new home for well under its value and get a great mortgage rate.
Useful Books:
Orlando and Central Florida travel stories:
Orlando Off the Beaten
Path
A visit to the Orange
County Regional History Center
Exploring Orlando's African
American Heritage at the Well's Built Museum
A lovely evening walk around downtown
Orlando's Lake Eola
Visual delights served
up on the Winter Park Scenic Boat Tour
A walking tour through quaint
historic Winter Park
Our high-speed adrenaline adventure
at Boggy Creek Airboat Tours
Our picnic lunch by the Kissimmee
waterfront
Exploring picturesque Mount Dora
on the "Herbie Express"
Orlando's Loch Haven Park:
Center of culture and arts
Exploring downtown Orlando's
historic neighbourhoods and parks
Learning about citrus at
Florida's Natural Visitor Center
Architectural and natural
beauty at the Bok Historic Sanctuary
Central Florida: a haven
for naturalists and plant lovers
Central Florida's wildlife:
surprising ecological diversity..
Driving home through St. Augustine:
the oldest city in the US
Articles on Golf in Central Florida:
A first-hand
look at ChampionsGate
A first-hand look at the
Royal St. Cloud Links
A first-hand look at Timacuan
Golf and Country Club
Attending the Father
Son Challenge at ChampionsGate
An overview of golf in the Orlando area:
Orlando- Golf's Ultimate Theme Park
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