Wednesday, November 30, 2005
The Winter Park Scenic Boat Tour - Entertaining,
Informative and a Visual Delight
The Winter
Park Scenic Boat Tour, founded in 1938 and located just 15 minutes
north of downtown Orlando, is
one of these lovely side trips that combine beautiful scenery, a
bit of local history, some close-up exposure to local wildlife and
vegetation with a relaxing outing in a slow-moving 18-passenger
pontoon boat, all complete with expert (and sometimes humorous)
narration provided by the boat's captain.
The tour takes you through 3 lakes: Lake Osceola, Lage Virginia
and Lake Maitland. On this gorgeous day, with brilliantly blue skies,
the boat whisked us past hundreds of beautiful water-front estates,
many of which were originally built in the 1920s and originally
sold for $20,000, while fetching between $500,000 and several million
in today's booming Central Florida real estate market. Even boathouses
are worth between $30,000 and $40,000.
In Lake Virginia we came up close to the grounds of Rollins College,
one of the top rated private liberal arts colleges in the South
Eastern United States, founded in 1885 by New England Congregationalists.
Rollins College is the oldest recognized college in the state of
Florida with a small student body of 1,700 students, housed on a
beautiful 70 acre Mediterraean Revival Campus. Our expert captain
/ tour guide mentioned that tuition at the college is $38,000 and
the ratio of students to professors is 12:1.
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Rollins College's Spanish Revival
Campus |
Condos are located right next to the college, selling today for
between $450,000 to $1 million. As we approached the narrow Venetian
Canal that would take us from Lake Virginia to Lake Maitland, our
captain made us aware of all the interesting vegetation growing
alongside the canal: Egyptian papyrus, Spanish moss (an airplant
and not a parasite), the Princess flower, colourful bougainvilleas
and resurrection fern. We saw a variety of birds, including an Osprey
eagle, a snake bird, a great blue heron and a white egret, which
used to be the good luck bird of the Seminole Indians.
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Some of Winter Park's beautiful
mansions |
On Lake Maitland we learned that there was an alligator cave from
which 150 alligators were removed into the Florida Everglades to
prevent a rather dangerous collision between local wildlife and
civilization.
Along the Venetian Canal we also saw variegated ginger and banana
trees, as we slowly passed under the arched Palmer Avenue Bridge.
Philodendrons, palmgrass, bamboo, a plant called firespikes and
an interesting arrangement of "air potatoes", round tubers
hanging down from a tree branch, adorned our journey through the
canal.
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The Venetian Canal |
The arched Palmer Avenue Bridge |
At 450 acres and 30 feet deep, Lake Maitland is the largest of
the 3 lakes covered by the boat tour. A dam controls the water level
and interestingly, the lakes all drain northwards into the St. John's
River which flows into the Atlantic near Jacksonville. The Kraft
Azalea Gardens, located on Lake Maitland on Alabama Drive off Palmer
Avenue, feature thousands of azaleas, tropical shrubs and trees.
Azaleas are in full bloom January through March.
Our expert captain also pointed out various mansions that have
been used as backdrops in various movies and commercials. Lake Maitland
also features several small islands with rather naked looking trees
that house colonies of cormorants, fishing birds that consume up
to a pound of fish a day.
Cormorants, resting for another round of fishing
We slowly made our way back from Lake Maitland to Lake Osceola
where our relaxing and scenic boat tour came to an end. On this
gorgeous day it was a fabulous outing that provided an appropriate
historical context for a further
exploration of the beautiful city of Winter Park.
The Scenic Boat Tour, a Winter Park institution for almost 70 years
now, is located at the end of Morse Avenue on the shores of Lake
Osceola. It is a very affordable outing at $8 for adults and $4
for children (children under 2 ride free). Boat tours run every
day from 10 am to 4 pm (except Christmas). For further information
contact the Winter
Park Scenic Boat Tour.
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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