One of my husband's favorite places is Florida, because he is an avid golfer and likes to get away from the cold Canadian winter for his birthday in early December.
, and now we are planning to visit Orlando, but none of us are in theme parks. So the challenge for me: to be able to visit Orlando without setting foot into Disney or Universal Studios? For someone as curious as me, it was a suitable challenge and I was doing a week Search on the internet and communicate with the Orlando Convention and Visitors Bureau to find out about interesting destinations off the beaten path.
Well, I'm happy to say, we arrived back safely yesterday from our trip and the trip itself was quite an adventure since we decided to drive from Toronto to Orlando, about 2100 km in one direction! In fact, the drive was not as painful as I expected. drive through Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and was nice and hilly, and I particularly enjoyed coming reef Appalachians, right where Virginia and North Carolina meet, where you get a wonderful view of the piedmont area around Winston-Salem that spreads out towards Atlantic in front of the mountain chain.
and I'm even happier to say that in 14 days or so we spent in Orlando, not only do we get to play lots of golf (to make my husband very happy ...;) - including Mystic Dunes, Champions Gate, Royal St. Cloud Links, Hawk's Landing and Timacuan Golf and Country Club, not to mention walking Hall of Fame experience PGA Father Son Challenge at Champions Gate, but I also got to explore some really interesting places, destinations I would not expect in Orlando and the surrounding region. I also had the opportunity to do an interview with GolfOrlando to get a much better idea of why Orlando is titled "The Ultimate Golf Theme Park ".
We have started our first week in a visit to the Orange Country Regional History Center, who gave us the proper historical background of Orlando and Central Florida. Then, for some sociological and cultural insights, we visited a well-built museum and for African American History and Culture in Orlando. On top off our first day of research, we enjoyed a walk around picturesque Lake Eola in downtown Orlando.
the next item on my off-the-beaten path agenda was a discovery of the town of Winter Park, a suburb of Orlando's beautiful, reminiscent of old European cities. I also went to the Winter Park Scenic Boat Tour, which is fun, informative and visually appealing excursion.
adrenaline revved up significantly on our next trip: a high-speed airboat ride on muddy Creek, which was followed by a much lower speed swamp buggy ride in a custom-built monster truck that lead us through authentic Florida landscape.
After our golf outing at Royal St. Cloud Golf Links we enjoyed a wonderful picnic along the waterfront in sunny downtown Kissimmee. Then, on a beautiful Sunday morning we drove about an hour outside of Orlando to the quaint town of Mt. Dora, where I jumped on the "Herbie Express", part of the Mt. Dora - Lake Eustis Scenic Railway
.Since midweek in the second week onwards it is time to turn for the worse. While planes were sliding off runways in Chicago and record temperatures were recorded in mid-western states, which were freezing in Florida where the mercury hovered around 68-70 degrees Fahrenheit (around 20 degrees Celsius). So I bought a rain jacket, and determined not to let the freezing cold interferes with our plans, we headed for the continuation of our research.
on the day that is forecast to be rainy, but only ended up being a little red and sweaty, we went out to discover Loch Haven Park, Orlando Science Center, art and culture. Then we continued our research further south to discover some of Orlando's historic neighborhoods and parks, such as Lake Cherokee and Lake Lucerne.
As the drizzly weather continued, we went to Florida to visit the Natural Visitor Center in Lake Wales, about an hour's drive south of Orlando, where I got a really good understanding of Central Florida's citrus industry. I spent the afternoon in another famous attraction in Lake Wales, where there are two National Historic Landmarks: Historic Bok Sanctuary, where I got to see the beauty of Bok estate and its historic Carillon Tower, combined with a tour through the historic Pinewood Estate, which was decked full of Christmas decorations.
During the 2 weeks in Florida, we got exposed to a lot of their plants, flowers and wildlife, from which you run into casually even while playing golf or picknicking the waterfront. Florida has a surprising amount of natural diversity and I enjoyed watching various species of birds, lizards and squirrels. The only thing we get to see a live alligator (with the exception of well-hidden rear end of a small alligator during our swamp buggy tour - unfortunately I could not even get a good picture of that one .. ).
On our drive home, on a bright sunny day (of course ...), we stopped off in St. Augustine, a historic town founded by Spaniards in the 1500s, the oldest continuously inhabited city in the United States - mighty photogenic place, I should add
.So, you ask, is it possible to spend 2 weeks in Orlando without even setting foot inside a theme park and still have a good time? Well, based on the above itinerary I'd say that my plans to explore Orlando off the beaten path came to full fruition.
mission accomplished.
