A fellow journalist and I were sent to the Florida Keys to report on how the islands are bracing for the effects of the Deepwater Horizon blowout that is still spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico. It was a week of hard work, hot sun and interesting interviews — and now that I’m home, [...]
Florida has a reputation for beaches lined by high-rise condos. Ugh.
Not this beach.
Though there are high rises to the south, Delnor-Wiggins Pass State Park is a mile-long bit of preserved beach, no buildings behind you. It’s one of my favorite places to run on the beach, and you’re also pretty much guaranteed to see all [...]
It’s a park, and also a natural filtering system.
A new park opened last fall in Naples, and it’s unique because along with being a place to enjoy being outside, it’s also a water filtering area. Storm water passes through the park and gets filtered before it dumps into the Gordon River and then into Naples [...]
Endangered panthers are Florida’s state animal, and March is panther month.
There are only about 100 panthers left in Florida, but at one time their situation was much worse. In the late 1980s, just 20 to 30 remained. They’ve been brought by through conservation and breeding efforts, but still are at huge risk of extinction.
You can [...]
A twisting, winding boardwalk rises above the inland waters and leads you to an island, where you can lay on the beach.
Sounds like fun, right? Best of all, it’s handicap accessible and there’s even a golf cart to transport you there (or back) if unable to walk (or too sunburnt).
Clam Pass park is a 35-acre [...]
People move south to Florida for many reasons, but the story of the Koreshans might be one of the most unique.
In 1894, a religious man from New York arrived in Estero to found a new religion called Koreshanity and a settlement he called “New Jerusalem.” The dream lasted awhile, and about 250 followers of Cyrus [...]
There are many places I have yet to visit in South Florida, so I thought I’d make a to-do list so you can see places I plan to visit (and write about) in the next year.
Here goes:
Shark Valley: This is a place in Everglades National Park that’s about halfway between Miami and Naples. You rent [...]
Many Florida islands don’t feel like islands at all — they’re covered in homes, shopping centers and carefully-made canals.
Not Sanibel. It has quite a bit of development, too, but nearly half of the island is a national wildlife refuge, named after J.N. Darling, a Pulitzer-prize winning editorial cartoonist. It’s worth a visit.
The 6,400-acre refuge includes [...]
If you absolutely have to see an alligator, want to reach out and touch one — or even hold one! — there are lots of places in South Florida. Personally, I think there’s something more exciting about seeing them in the wild (and I wrote about good places to do that here), but there are [...]
I’d never seen an alligator before.
So when the volunteer guide at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary told my parents and I that there was one up ahead on the edge of one of the lettuce lakes, we set out on our alligator hunt. In the three years since then, I’ve seen dozens and dozens — in captivity [...]
