Attractions

Mosaics floors and stained glass decorated stairways make this gallery especially fun to wander

Miami’s South Beach may be famous for its retro art deco architecture, but where art and culture are concerned, contemporary takes center stage. Planted firmly in the center of this movement is the ArtCenter/South Florida, which works to advance contemporary visual arts and culture in South Florida through education, exhibition and public outreach programming and provides affordable work-space for outstanding artists.

Wandering through on a recent trip to South Beach, I was impressed by the sheer variety of creative work in the gallery. In one studio the artist had stuffed hand-blown glass balls into multi-colored sheer pantyhose and suspended them from the ceiling by their reinforced toes.

Further along, I discovered the paintings of Willard Andre Allen, which are painted on the ‘opposite’ side of clear glass, resulting in a melange of color that incorporates and reflects light when turned over to its rightful side.

Another resident, Adriana Carvalho, began sculpting with the only materials available in her native town of Taquaritinga, Brazil: tin, wire, wood, mango seeds, sugar cane sticks and corn. Her organic sculptures now incorporate recycled materials and merge the spirituality of her native country with the two U.S. cities where she has lived, Chicago and Miami Beach. Read More »

Everyone smiles at Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Clearwater Beach, Florida! Trainers who hand-feed the otters smile. People attending the dolphin shows smile. Kids running their fingers along the back of sting rays in the touch tank smile. But of all the smiles, the most memorable and inspiring is from the aquarium’s most famous resident, Winter the Dolphin.

One of the happy dolphins at Clearwater Marine Aquarium

Featured on the NBC Today Show, CNN, and hundreds of newspapers around the world, Winter has a lot to smile about these days. In December 0f 2005, at only three months of age, Winter became inextricably entangled in a crab trap line in Mosquito Lagoon near Cape Canaveral, Florida. Although the odds of her survival were very low, the dolphin was transported to Clearwater Marine Aquarium for rehabilitation. As a result of her injuries, Winter lost her entire tail and two vertebrae. Read More »

To the right of the entrance gate at Peace River Wildlife Center in Punta Gorda is a small wooden box where injured animals can be dropped off any hour of the day or night. Sometimes local residents find distressed animals on the roads or in the water; sometimes they drop off pets that have worn out their welcome. Whatever the reason for their appearance, the wildlife center takes them all in, nurses them back to health, and, if possible, reintroduces the animals back into their natural habitat.

Most are successfully rehabilitated and released, but for various reasons, others live out their remaining days at the center. Among the current permanent residents are a pair of bald eagles with amputated wings and a fish crow named Spirit who “quacks” like a duck -  the eagles cannot fly and would soon perish in the Read More »

Every afternoon, as if pulled by some invisible magnet, residents and visitors are drawn to Mallory Square at the northern terminus of Key West’s famous Duval Street to pay homage to the setting sun. It has been so for decades; Tennessee Williams is said to have been the first to toast the sunset at Mallory Square, with gin and tonic firmly in hand. Ernest Hemingway and John Audubon both expounded upon the island’s spectacular sunsets.

Unicyclist ends his act by juggling flaming torches

Today the sunsets are just as gorgeous as ever but the celebration is no longer the soul-soothing, spiritual event it once was. In the late 1960’s, hippies in search of paradise descended upon Key West. They too flocked to Mallory Square to witness the sunset, usually high on LSD or some other mind altering drug. Read More »

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Trail of Florida's Indian Heritage

When the Spanish arrived in the early 1500’s, it is estimated that up to 300,000 indigenous people occupied Florida. These Indian cultures were powerful chiefdom societies that built villages characterized by temple mounds, burial mounds, and middens (trash heaps). After contact by Ponce de Leon, Hernando de Soto, and other explorers, the natives endured decades of stress from warfare, starvation, and diseases such as smallpox and measles. With no natural immunity, disease initially wiped out up to 95% of the native population; within 150 years, virtually all indigenous people were gone from Florida. The few remaining Native Americans eventually merged to become the present day Seminole and Miccosukee Tribes.

Although long gone, the original natives left behind a wealth of evidence that their civilizations flourished. Today, the non-profit Trail of Florida’s Indian Heritage has created a network of archaeological sites, museums and heritage interpreters committed to responsible site visitation and public education of Florida’s Indian heritage. This network encompasses 28 sites across the State, including the following:

The Museum of Florida History, Tallahassee (panhandle)

Collections include 19th century lithographic prints of Native America leaders in Florida, Seminole and Miccosukee patchwork clothing, traditional arts and crafts such as dolls and wood carvings, and 20th century ceremonial artifacts.

Mount Royal Mound

Mount Royal Archaeological Site, Welaka (NE Florida)

Site of native American burial ground, earthworks, a village, and evidence of a Spanish mission. Excavations have turned up embossed copper breast plate, polished stone tools, pearl and shell beads, and decorated ceramic vessels. Read More »

Bok Carillon Bell Tower

The animals at Bok Tower Gardens are fearless. Squirrels chuckle and scold guests who stroll the park’s winding paths. Mockingbirds serenade from low branches. Gigantic weaver spiders tense in the center of low-strung webs, patiently awaiting prey. Even the resident swans swim right up, hoping to steal fish food pellets meant for giant carp thrashing in the pond. Somehow, the animals know they are protected here.

This exquisite garden was created by Edward W. Bok, a Dutch immigrant and humanitarian who came to the U.S. at the age of six. In 1889, Bok became the editor of the Ladies Home Journal, a position he would hold for the next 30 years. During visits to his Florida winter home in the 1920’s, Bok witnessed the beauty and dramatic sunsets of Iron Mountain, the highest point in peninsular Florida. Awed by the tranquility of the area, he purchased the land and commissioned renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead Jr. to create a stunning garden that would become a haven for native birds, plants and wildlife. Bok worked closely with Olmstead through the design process and after giving his final stamp of approval, left to tour Europe. Seeing the carillon towers in his native Netherlands, he was inspired to build a carillon atop Iron Mountain within the sanctuary already being constructed. Read More »

On the morning of May 25, 1539, Hernando de Soto sailed into what is now Tampa Bay, Florida. On the shore where the town of Safety Harbor now stands he discovered natural mineral springs that were revered by the local Indians, perhaps leading him to name the area Espiritu Santo (Holy Spirit). De Soto spent four years searching fruitlessly for gold and silver across the southeast, in the process spreading diseases like smallpox and typhoid fever that wiped out the indigenous tribes. Today, only shell middens – huge mounds composed of discarded oyster shells – remain to tell of civilizations that inhabited the area as far back as 20,000 BC.

Safety Harbor Museum

While de Soto may not have found the precious metals he so desperately sought, excavations of the mounds, as well as trenches dug to install utility lines and build home foundations, have yielded a modern day treasure trove. Prehistoric arrowheads, stone scrapers and knives, and partial skeletons of now extinct species like the woolly Read More »

With its plethora of lovely old restored homes and storefronts, historic Dearborn Street in Englewood, Florida is the site for dozens of special events throughout the year. One of the most popular, the Fine Arts Festival hosted by the Rotary Club of Englewood, features well-known local artists and exhibitors from all over the United States and Canada. Fine art available in all mediums is available, including: sculpture (metal, wood and glass), paintings (watercolor, acrylic, oil and pastel), jewelry (gold, silver, and gemstones), photography, pottery and ceramics, and mixed media.

Fine Arts Festival draws exhibitrs and attndees from all over the country

The theme of this year’s festival, “Colorful Mutton,” is drawn from the work of Captain Jim Roberts, a Florida native who combines his passion as an angler with his background in graphic arts to create sea life designs through Gyotaku, an art created by pressing rice paper onto fish. His “Colorful Mutton” artwork Read More »

Rick Treworgy purchased his first beat-up old car at the age of 16. Back then, it was all he could afford; at the time he had no idea that classic cars would become a lifelong obsession. He restored that first car and sold it for a profit, then repeated the process because he enjoyed the work and it provided him with good pocket money. But somewhere along the line, Treworgy stopped selling and began collecting the vehicles he restored, becoming especially enamored with mid-60’s to early 70’s General Motors muscle cars.

Gorgeous grillework on an old Chevy

For years, his successful real estate and development company subsidized the expensive hobby. Now 60, Treworgy still oversees operations in his firm, but these days he is more likely to be found in a small office at the rear of the old WalMart in Punta Gorda, Florida that he recently purchased and converted into Read More »

With eleven country pavilions surrounding World Showcase Lagoon, live music performances, and Disney character appearances, Epcot is fun any time of the year, but the best time to visit this theme park may be during the annual International Food and Wine Festival. For six weeks each fall, guests can sample the world’s tastiest regional foods and drinks at kiosks specially set up for the event.

International Food and Wine Festival at Walt Disney World's Epcot

Between visits to year-round pavilions (Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, United States, Japan, Morocco, France, United Kingdom, Canada) and stops to enjoy live musical performances, visitors eat their way around the world. At more than 25 kiosks, appetizer-sized entrees and desserts are offered for prices ranging from $2.75 to $7.25, with most in the $3-4.50 range. Wines, beers and specialty alcoholic Read More »