Palms and dinosaurs at McKee Botanical Garden

Palms and dinosaurs at McKee Botanical Garden

April 06, 2016 Two weeks ago, in mid-March, the family and I drove to Orlando for spring break. Before heading home, we stopped in Vero Beach, Florida, for a day at the shore and to visit McKee Botanical Garden. Yes, those are dinosaurs in the garden. Roar of the Dinosaur, ...
Mischief managed: Wizarding World of Harry Potter and Orlando blooms

Mischief managed: Wizarding World of Harry Potter and Orlando blooms

March 21, 2016 Diagon Alley shops and the escaping Gringotts dragon, which belches fire periodically with a coughing roar and a furnace-blast of heat you can feel in the street below Last week for spring break, we packed up the car, dropped off the dog at Grandma’s, and set off ...
Everglades National Park: A beautiful, mysterious waterworld

Everglades National Park: A beautiful, mysterious waterworld

March 23, 2010 Anhingas and flowering bromeliads in the Everglades, Florida On telling friends that we were planning to visit Everglades National Park, my husband and I found that raised eyebrows and wrinkled noses were the most common responses. Why visit a bug-infested swamp, they asked. We have a thing ...
Naples Botanical Garden: Gardens with Latitude

Naples Botanical Garden: Gardens with Latitude

March 22, 2010 Over spring break we drove 3,200 miles (5,149 km) round-trip to Florida, with stops in Orlando, Miami, Everglades National Park, the Keys (all the way to Key West), and finally Naples to see the brand-new botanical garden there. Planted last August and opened to the public in ...
Florida Keys, a subtropical paradise

Florida Keys, a subtropical paradise

March 19, 2010 Midway in our recent road trip through the Sunshine State, we spontaneously decided to visit the Florida Keys, a series of islands extending into the Gulf of Mexico for 127 miles, traversable via the Overseas Highway and ending in Key West, the southernmost point in the continental ...