visiting Florida

[the_siobhan]

So myself and friends will be road-tripping from Toronto to Florida to go to Convergence and hang out with our friends. We have a week to make a 24-hour drive. And on our travels, we'll be driving pretty much through the entire state of Florida.

Now I'll confess, I've never been a big fan of Florida. (Used to date a guy. It didn't work out. Long story.) Regardless we're going to be tooling around for a couple of days and I'm eager to give the place a second chance.

So where should we go?

We want wildlife. We want natural wonders. We want architecture and art and cheese of the world's biggest ball of twine persuasion. We want good food and fun clubs and rampant silliness. (To give you an idea of our itinerary, we have already scheduled the Creation Museum, Graceland, and the Kennedy Space Center.)

Recommendations! Warnings! Silly stories! Give 'em up, folks.

Comments

[etcet.livejournal.com]

twenty minutes east of Tampa is "Dino World." it's ridiculous, and i think it's promulgating some really bad young-earth creationist shit, but still - LIFE SIZE FUCKIN' DINOSAURS!

if you don't make the Lowry Park Zoo tour on sunday, it's still worth checking out.

[missjanette.livejournal.com]

are you coming through NYC?

I'm on vacation as of August 2, so I'm available as native guide/co-conspirator should you be headed my way.

Savannah, Georgia is pretty interesting, tho the last time I was there was in the early 80s. http://www.savcvb.com/ I remember there being a lot of really awesome seafood restaurants there as well.

Ringling Museum is awesome, or at least it was when I was there in 1990.
http://www.ringling.org/circus_museum.asp?id=145

will re-comment if i remember anything else of interest.

[megiddo-lj.livejournal.com]

Depending on how you drive it, you could visit Cassadega. It's an entire community full of psychics out in the middle of nowhere. I used to go there at least once a year because it's just full of new-age silliness.

http://www.cassadaga.com/

If you're on I-75 you'll pass "Big Daddy" Don Garlit's museum of Drag Racing AND the Risque Cafe! The latter being a nudie bar cum Denny's. All puns intentional.

http://www.garlits.com/
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3190/is_n37_v25/ai_11316057

[excess-and-oohs.livejournal.com]

i found the everglades hovercraft thing fairly anti-climactic.

[mercy-sands.livejournal.com]

St. Augustine's north and on the other coast, but you will find awesome swarming pits of alligators (http://www.alligatorfarm.us/) there.

[eciklb.livejournal.com]

The Creation Museum...yikes! But if you're going there, you'll be about 2 hours from me (I'm off I-75 about 45 minutes south of Lexington). I don't think we're going to make it to Convergence, as badly as we want to, because it overlaps with some of my beginning-new-job stuff. But if you want to stop by on the way down, we've got some monkey wallpaper, and some parrot wallpaper, that bear examination. Depending on how many of you there are and which day you're in the area, we might even be able to provide crash space complete with air mattresses.

[xandraius.livejournal.com]

Text or message your old AG cohort (moi) when you are close to Tampa

[candlelight1228.livejournal.com]

If you are doing in Graceland in Memphis it would probably be out of your way to head to Nashville and do the Grand Old Opry or any other Nashville based tourist attraction but having been there several times to visit family it's a cool "little" city.

[valatina.livejournal.com]

In Fl. there is the Japanese Gardens. We went there a couple of years ago.

[the_axel]

Sadly not - we're going via Cincinatti and Memphis.

[the_axel]

ig Daddy" Don Garlit's museum of Drag Racing

That sounds like a big pile of awesome.

[the_axel]

Sad to say our itinerary for the way down is pretty tight - the day we go to the Creation Musuem we're booked in to Elvis Presley's Heartbreak Hotel & RV Park in Graceland so while coming through Lexington is only a minor detour we wouldn't be able to stay long.

We'd be passing through on Friday, August 1.

[sloot.livejournal.com]

I did a tram ride through the everglades and it was pretty damn cool.

[emzebel.livejournal.com]

I was just going to suggest Dino World!

We went there on our way to Ft. Myers from Disney - I definitely did not get a fundie/creationist vibe from it - just a bunch of swampland filled with gigantic life size dinos. The kidlet loved it. But, it is also nicely not crowded.

[hel_ana]

Less cheese and more (semi-)natural wonders and architecture: http://boksanctuary.org/

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

Not enough alligators?

[redcountess]

Oh, you have to do Disneyworld, Sea World et al! :)

[eciklb.livejournal.com]

Ah, that's a shame. Well, you'd be most welcome if you wanted to pop in for a few and it fit your schedule. We'll be just moved in, so there will be lots of boxes. I'll email you with my phone numbers.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

If I had your number I've lost track of it - email it to me? siobhan AT virulent DOT org

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

What town? We'll be all over.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

You know, I'm actually not all that interested in Disney. I don't like crowds, lines or kids.

I could be persuaded if there are a lot of my friends going, but I'm more interested in the Dali Museum.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Ooo, that looks really pretty.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Nashville is definitely on our short list if we have time. I'm not sure if we'll have time to hang out there at all, but I figure we can stop for lunch or something.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Vising you while traveling to or from a Convergence only has to happen one more time and it becomes a tradition!

[candlelight1228.livejournal.com]

That being the case you may want to consider the Cracker Barrel. It's a chain so it may be in Memphis but it's quite good for real southern cooking.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Some other people have mentioned that as well. I think the Kennedy Space Center is on the east coast, so we might be able to swing it.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

A few people have mentioned it. It sounds pretty hilarious.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately not - we're heading west through Detroit.

We might be able to swing through Savannah on our way home.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Oh, I just checked that Ringling Brother's link - I really want to check this out.

[inulro.livejournal.com]

I am currently in St Augustine and it is beautiful!

I also heartily endorse the Keys, particularly the John Pennecamp Coral Reef State Park on Key Largo.