Really Florida!

Today’s photos are of the beaches in the Panhandle. These beaches are quite different from what I’ve showed so far in North Florida and in South Florida.

The biggest difference is the quality of the beach sand — the texture and the color. In the Florida Panhandle, the beach has what is called “sugar sand”. It’s just like it sounds — the color and granularity of table sugar (just don’t try to eat it, whatever you do).

You can see in this first photo of Panama City Beach that the distance from the dune area to the water is quite large — a lot of sand to stretch out in! However, you won’t often find it quite so deserted as shown in the photo. Sorry about that!

Well, aside from the sand, is there anything else different about these places in the sun? Now that you mention it, there is:

The water.

First is the color. This part of the Panhandle is called the Emerald Coast, for a good reason — the water is often a green color, ranging from minty to a turquoise green. These pictures, unfortunately, didn’t capture that glorious color very well.

Next is the surf. While the beaches in the Panhandle tend to see more wave action than, say, the Keys, it’s still not what you would call prime surfing territory — for that, mosey on over to the North Florida beaches.

Instead, the surf is active, but rather mild — you won’t find towering waves, unless there’s a hurricane or tropical storm somewhere in the Gulf.

This second photo is showing a Destin, Florida beach, and gives you an idea of the average seas you could expect. Even so, isn’t it gorgeous?

Yesterday was South Florida, and today is Central and North Florida beach pictures.

These are the beaches that I grew up with. New Smyrna, Daytona, Cocoa and Crescent. Cocoa is the only one from Central Florida in this group, the rest are in North Florida.

The picture you see here is of St. Augustine Beach. As you can tell, the beach is much wider than the South Florida Beach photo I showed yesterday.

The Central and North Florida beaches tend to be rougher, surf-wise, than most of the rest of Florida. Cocoa, New Smyrna and Daytona tend to have the best wave action, and are where the surfers congregate.

Daytona and New Smyrna beaches are located in Volusia County, which is one of only two in the state that allow you to drive your car directly onto the beach. This is quite convenient, if you are the type to bring lots of items to the beach (which may or may not include children). Of course, it also involves having a lot of sand in the vehicle! When I was growing up we often went to New Smyrna Beach and drove right onto it, so I can attest to the “sand in the car” part.

St. Augustine is the stretch of sand in North Florida that I’m more used to now. St. John’s County, where St. Augustine is located, also allows driving directly onto the beach — but in far more restricted areas — I get the feeling that they are trying to stop it from happening altogether.

The second photo is of Crescent Beach, where I went when I was in school at the University of Florida. As you can see in this photo, the beach is somewhat rocky in spots (the whole beach isn’t like this by any means). The beach is fairly crowded in the summertime, but pretty calm after August. If I remember right, this photo was taken in late August and there were few people on the beach that day.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this set of pictures of Florida beaches. Next stop — the Panhandle.

Seeing pictures of Florida beaches is the next best thing to being there, don’t you agree? While I don’t get to the beach as often as I’d like, it is a glorious experience — the water, the wind, the sound of the ocean and the sun relax you in some primeval way.

Beaches in the Sunshine State come in all shapes, sizes and colors — kind of like people! The waters are different in the various parts of the state, and even the sand has different hues and textures, depending where you are. Some beaches are crowded and lively; some are quiet and peaceful.

I grew up with the Central and North Florida beaches, but I’ve come to know and love the beaches in South Florida.

In South Florida and the Keys in particular, the waters are so clear and warm. I’m one of those people who generally doesn’t dip a toe into the ocean unless the water temperature is at least 78 degrees, and in the Keys, that’s most of the year.

One thing about South Florida and Keys beaches — they tend to be smaller than those in the Panhandle and farther north in the state. Most aren’t nearly as wide, and some are less than a mile in length (that would be the Keys).

I tend to like the quieter stretches of sand, because I love the sounds of the wind and the waves. Beach combing is also more interesting; less people trash to sift through.

Still, a more active beach has its merits, especially when you can rent beach toys — not to mention all the people-watching!

I’ll be posting more pictures of Florida beaches over the next few days — enjoy!

(Next up: North and Central Florida Beach photos.)

If you love golf and you love Florida (especially in the winter), then a South Florida golf vacation is probably on your list of things to do.

You’ve definitely got a choice here; there are more golf courses in Palm Beach County alone than in several states! Not to mention there are magnificent professional courses, like at the PGA National Resort and Spa in Palm Beach Gardens.

Now I’ll admit, the only golfing I’ve ever really done is on the putting green — never got the courage (or skill) to actually go out on the course. But you know what?

A Florida golf vacation can be for anyone — someone who lives and breathes the game, or for someone who just wants to enjoy the resort amenities. Or likes to hang out on the putting green.

So, what are a few other South Florida golfing resorts to check out? Well, there’s the Doral Golf Resort and Spa in Miami for one. If you prefer the South Florida Gulf Coast, how about the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort? All the luxury of the Ritz, in a tropical setting.

Let’s see, what else? Well, the Ft. Meyers area (including Sanibel, Captiva and points nearby) has some nice resorts. How about the Sundial Beach & Golf Resort in Sanibel? Right on one of the most beautiful beaches on the SW Florida Gulf coast.

The cool thing about all these resorts are the number of things to do while you’re on vacation. So if you love the game but someone else prefers the beach, or shopping or…well, you get the idea. So it wouldn’t be hard at all to talk someone else who doesn’t golf to agree to a golfing vacation.

Well, that’s about the extent of my knowledge of the major golf resorts around here, but there are even more, if you care to look. Here are a whole bunch more Florida golf vacation packages. Take a browse and see what might be on your agenda, come vacation time!

South Florida kayaking is usually though of in terms of the ocean. The intercoastal, while an option, can get plagued by jet skis and pleasure boats. A lot of the lakes are too small to do much. But we do have the Loxahatchee River here in South Florida and it’s great for canoing and kayaking.

(A friend of mine went out to Riverbend Park not too long ago and provided these pictures of the trip.)

I love this first picture. The Loxahatchee is one of Florida’s designated “national wild and scenic” rivers, and it can be breathtaking at times. The cypress lean towards the waters; epiphytes cling to the trees; the water carries you quietly back it time.

Float past alligators and turtles. See herons stalking their lunches in the shallows. Listen to the music of the birds in the trees, calling to each other.

The photo is a kayak-eye view of the river and some paddlers ahead. The sunlight streams between the trees, giving it a mysterious quality. To me, this photo almost seems to be a watercolor painting.

If you paddle the river, stop by Trapper Nelson’s.  Here’s the story; a man called (what else?) Trapper Nelson lived on the banks of the river back in the 1930’s or thereabout. He made his living trapping and fishing, and his homestead is preserved as a view of what it was like to live here before air conditioning, without electricity or plumbing…you get the idea. I find it amazing that he did it.

The Loxahatchee has small (okay, teeny-weeny) waterfalls in spots, but nothing in the way of white water. No, this is a slow, quiet river — great for experienced and beginning kayakers alike.

Now the full paddle, from Riverbend Park through to Jonathan Dickinson State Park, is a total of eight miles. It’s not as hard as it may seem, since you need do little more than drift with the river and avoid crashing into other kayakers or canoeists.

If you do paddle the distance (it’s 5 or 6 hours), you’ll likely want to take advantage of the pickup for your kayak/canoe for return to Riverbend. The price is included in your rental, and speaking of the rental, it’s from $30 (a single kayak) to $55 (three-person canoe).

Note: I just saw a notice on the canoe rental website and it says they are closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays, effective February 27, 2008.

If you’d like to do some South Florida kayaking, go on over to Riverbend Park; it’s located at 9060 Indiantown Road in Jupiter, about a mile west of the Turnpike.

The park is open seven days a week, from sunrise to one hour before sunset.

Hungryland Slough at J.W. Corbett Wildlife Management Area in South Florida is like going back in time. With all the water stealthily flowing around them, the cypress trees lift their eerie branches to the sky. Climbing vines clamber up pines, while all kinds of epiphytes hang tight to their branches. Or wherever.

Almost makes you think “Jurrasic Park” and not “West Palm Beach”.

Fortunately Hungryland Slough has a boardwalk where you can safely wander back in the wilds. The boardwalk crosses over shallow waters and what appeared to be game trails. Trees, vines, air plants — they all crowd around, sometimes closer, sometimes farther away.

The boardwalk is about a mile long, in somewhat of a loop. It’s quiet, peaceful and there are all kinds of things to see. Whether you like birds, flowers, epiphytes or just plain taking a stroll on an unusual trail, you’re bound to find something interesting.

But there’s a catch (you knew there would be, right). And it’s this — to get to the boardwalk (where it’s high, dry and level), you have to cross some ground that isn’t high, dry or level. Not a lot, mind you, but it’s no place for anyone who is unsteady on their feet.

The trail leading up to the boardwalk was somewhat uneven, due to the antics of the feral hogs — they had dug up a lot of the area around and sometimes onto the trail. And since it had rained a few days before, that dug-up area was pretty muddy. Not to mention slippery.

We didn’t have to wade through any water, but it was also Winter — our dry season. I wouldn’t encourage you to visit during the rainy season — if the mosquitoes don’t fly off with you, it will only be because you’re stuck in the mud!

It may sound like these are reasons to not visit J.W. Corbett’s Hungryland Slough boardwalk — not so. It’s a piece of Florida wilderness that hasn’t been trampled by developers, and therefore is precious. It’s also a bit of a hike to get to the boardwalk. Then again, isn’t that why we go to the Florida State Parks? To leave civilization behind, even if only for an hour or two, and experience natural Florida.

I’ll leave you with another photo taken on the boardwalk, this time of some interesting-looking mosses. It just goes to show you that all kinds of plants live here. So don’t just gaze up into the greeny-blue of the cypress trees, or at the vines scaling the tallest pines; look down at your feet as well, for all kinds of other fascinating forms of life.

J.W. Corbett and Hungryland Slough. They aren’t your typical Florida, for sure. But they are naturally Florida.

There’s a wildlife preserve that’s unknown to most South Florida residents. In fact, I’d say that even most people living within 10 miles of it don’t know it’s there! Which one is it? The J.W. Corbett Wildlife Management Area in Loxahatchee.

Now I want to qualify my statement a little. Anyone who travels on Northlake Boulevard west of the Beeline has seen a sign for J.W. Corbett. However, that sign does not mark the entrance to J.W. Corbett (that would be too easy). The sign is just more-less stating, “oh by the way, there’s a wildlife management area around here”.

To get to the wildlife area’s entrance, you have to take a little trip into the back of beyond. Well, it feels like that at any rate, and I live around here! Take Northlake west until it dead-ends on Seminole Pratt-Whitney and turn right; you’ll end up on a dirt road.

A few miles down the road (and it’s thankfully graded fairly well) you’ll see a sign for the Everglades Youth Camp on the right, and J.W. Corbett on the left.

You need to pay an honor fee to get into the preserve, and there’s a little house/store on your left where you can buy a map…and a hunting permit (yikes!). Yes, there is hunting in J.W. Corbett in season, but you should be fine as long as you stay on the trail and boardwalk area.

When I was there last, there was not a soul around. No cars in the parking area. No (human) footprints anywhere. No voices, no nothing.

Just David, me and the wildlife.

There was definitely wildlife, although we didn’t see much aside from raccoons and hawks. However, there were tons of deer tracks and signs of feral hogs rooting around. I can see why they allow hunting — it looked like there had been a deer and hog convention out there!

A portion of the Florida Trail also cuts through J.W. Corbett, and the trail head is in the parking area.

I’ll write up more later, but for the time being I thought I’d leave you with a photo, taken at J.W. Corbett. More info and pictures from the trail and boardwalk to come!

You guessed it — more Lion Country Safari photos — this time of the giraffes.

(Click on any photo to enlarge it.)

This photo was from the drive-through safari section of the South Florida theme park. There was a group of mostly adult (or at least big) giraffes, plus a little one. Not sure how old it was, but it was pretty small compared to the adults, which can grow up to 17 feet tall.

In the amusement park section of Lion Country Safari, there is a giraffe feeding station. You walk up a ramp to a covered platform about 10 to 12 feet high. Once at the top, you can buy trinkets or the most popular purchase.

Sweet potato slices. Used to feed the giraffe. As in hold out the treat and the giraffe is happy to take it from your hand. And yes, I can report that this animal does have a blue tongue!

There were quite a few visitors who opted to buy some of the sweet potatoes and feed this very tall creature. But everyone was warned not to try and pet it. Guess it may look docile, but it’s still a wild animal. We decided to leave, however, when the giraffe got a little to excited about being fed — he was salivating and the wind was blowing it into the crowd! (Ick.)

Lion Country Safari in Loxahatchee is a rather interesting place. Part zoo, part theme park. In any case, it revolves around what fascinates us — the animals.

There were quite a few feathered friends at Lion Country Safari in Florida. Here are some that we saw on our trip to this South Florida attraction.

(You can click on any of the photos to enlarge them.)

The ostriches were the first we saw, just as we drove into the safari section. I thought this would make for an interesting photo, with both birds’ heads down, but in opposite directions. There were quite a few all around the safari section of the park.

While there were a few other birds in the safari tour section of the park, most were too far away or moving too fast to catch a good photo. That changed when we got to the amusement park part of Lion Country Safari.

There were quite a few birds that we could see quite close in the amusement park. This wood stork was perched right on the fence beside the walkway. There were two, but I decided to get the closeup of the one. He/she was remarkably unaffected by the passer-bys and just did his/her stork thing.

Next, and right near the wood stork was the marabou stork (at least that’s what I think it’s called). It’s a funny-looking bird with a pouch or bladder (or something) below its beak. I’m thinking an air bladder of some sort.

This is a pretty big bird — I’d say around 3 feet tall. Another bird who didn’t seem to notice the crowds.

We wandered around the Lion Country Safari amusement park for awhile when we saw the Lorikeet Feeding area. You could buy little containers of nectar, hold it in your hand and the ‘keet would sit on your hand and eagerly guzzle down the nectar.

The lorikeets are pretty birds, very brightly colored and sociable. In a way, they make me thing about beach-goers in Florida — wearing bright colors that you’d not normally wear any other place but at the beach. The lorys are farily small birds — bigger than a cockatiel but smaller than a small parrot.

The one bird found just about everywhere at Lion Country is the white ibis. I hear that this bird is endangered, but you’d never guess by the number you see roaming the park. For that matter, the number roaming all around South Florida! I didn’t get any pictures of the ibises — they were too busy searching the ground for bird food or other food scraps and didn’t stand still long enough for a photo.

Lion Country Safari in South Florida doesn’t have just lions, or zebras. There are rhinos on the safari drive, too. We got lucky, in that the rhinos decided to graze pretty close to the side of the road as we were driving by.

(By the way, you can click on the photos to see a larger image.)

Naturally, after my post about the zebras, I decided to hunt for ways that the rhino homeland is like South Florida. Do these big beasts find it sufficiently homey here? Or are they in a foreign environment where they aren’t comfortable? So it’s off to the internet to search!

As usual, Wikipedia gave me the most information. Based on the info, I’m guessing that the rhinos at Lion Country Safari are white rhinos (but they don’t exactly look white, do they?). First, they are the most plentiful species and second…the photo on this page most closely resembles the white rhino on Wikipedia.

So what about comparing South Florida to where these animals really come from? Savannas and scrubland seem to be the favored habitats of the white, and as I’ve mentioned before, here in South Florida (at least in Palm Beach County) we do have the scrub.

I’m guessing that we are more humid, not to mention wetter, than Africa where the white rhino calls home. Winters here are probably pretty nice for these creatures, though — less humid and milder temperatures, for the most part.

So there you are — the white rhinoceros, courtesy of Lion Country Safari!