Follow along, It'll be fun!!

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Come to Florida, It's fun!!

I have decided to recycle this post, from July of last year, for "My story in photos,Places I Love", I heart faces challenge this week, 2/1/2010.
I am in love with Florida! I'm a transplant from NY (born and raised).
This post was written during a very stressful time for my family. I think if I lived anywhere else it would have been much more difficult to get through this tough time. Florida offers so much to us. This post gives a picture tour of this beautiful state (mostly Central Florida.)

Here are two pictures I took yesterday. The rest were taken throughout the year. ENJOY Florida through my eyes!
Blue Springs
Blue Springs State Park 1/31/2010
bluespringsJan3120103
Manatees 1/31/2010


This is the original post Written 7/22/09 (scroll down to see more places I love)
I don't know where to begin or how to put it...

I've developed a nervous laugh that is bordering on hysteria. It's somewhere between a laugh and a cry and starts down deep in the pit of my stomach and transforms my face into that scary expression of worry, fear, sadness and disbelief all rolled into one. I try not to cry, to go with the laugh, but it's not easy sometimes. I try to stay positive because where is negative going to get you? But you also have to be realistic, in order to make wise decisions. I don't think I can get into much more of it right now but...(
sorry if this doesn't make much sense). It's kinda hard to explain what we're going through but I'm sure many of you are going through a similar situation right now. We're all in this together.

Onto happier thoughts...


I say, Come to Florida!! It is an amazing place to visit. There is so much to see and do. Below are pictures of many of the wonderful things you can do and see in our great state!

On another note, yesterday while at one of our beautiful beaches, visiting friends, something not so great happened. My camera, that I love so much, got caught in a wave. It was one of those, "where did that tide come from?!" moments. As it washed away our campsite, immediately, I said, "My camera!!" My son's friend quickly rescued it for me. Sadly the camera didn't survive. I depended on this camera for so much; family memories, mural pictures, chalkboard pictures etc... It won't be easy to replace, as we don't have the money for it right now.
Here are the last pictures taken with my camera:











The very last picture taken...Good-Bye my friend...

In the meantime, I will post pictures from the past in order to keep my blog going.

Enjoy the pictures below. I hope you will visit Florida:)


Hit the road!
History(Deleon Springs-The old water mill)
Canoeing(Many many places to do this, rivers, lakes, canals, waterways,)

Nature Trails(an endless supply)

Beaches(many many great ones, east coast for sunrises and west coast for sunsets)
Seaside Dining(Just look at the color of that water-Clearwater)

Attractions (Gaylord Palms-ICE)
Who says it's always hot in Florida?- It's 9 degrees at ICE
ICE
Wildlife
More Beaches. This one is Ft Lauderdale( I could post dozens of these)
Boats-Yachts-Ft Lauderdale a view from our room at the Bahia Mar
Zoos-Plenty of these plus great aquariums

Splash Parks
Zoos
Space shuttle launches

Natural Springs

Fairs and Food!



History and Art(Tarpon Springs the sea sponge capital. wonder if this is where Spongebob was born?)
Amazing Sunsets(This is in St Pete)
Magic Kingdoms
Characters
Fireworks
Fishing
FUN!
Beautiful Gardens-Leu Gardens in Orlando-free entry before noon on Mondays

Citrus!

Groves(This is the view from Bok Sanctuary by the Singing Tower)
More History(The fort at St Augustines- They lit the canon every fifteen minutes on this day. I forget what the occasion was but the kids loved it!)
Awesome Amusement Parks!(This one is Islands of Adventure-Univeral Studios)
R&R

Nature in our own backyard
A piece of the American Dream


Working hard to hold onto it...

After putting this post together, I realized how blessed we are to live in such an incredible place. This list is just the tip of the iceberg. Most of the places shown above were done on a very tight budget. If you need help with your itinerary when you come to visit, contact me. I'll point you in the right direction:)

If I were visiting your great state what would you recommend to do or see?


See more places people love at

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

love the pictures, they're wonderful!!!! I'm so sorry about your camera :-( but, this could be an opportunity to get something even better, right? :-)

Unknown said...

I sooo envy you for being in Florida. Who cares about a nervous laugh when you are in such paradise! Sorry to hear about you camera. I accidently dropped my phone in a toilet of all things and it too did not survive. I was crushed. But I think I would be ok with it if I were in FL!!! Those pics are amazing. The canoe pic, the parks, the waves and DISNEY!!!! Holy cow!

Steph said...

Wow, we just recently went to Florida on vacation, but I did not know about most of the fun things you posted about, we are planning on going back next summer, so I might need to get ahold of you to learn about all the fun things to do!!! We just went to the beach. Thanks for the ideas!!

Steph

Amy said...

I am so sorry to hear that. I hope you get a new one or find one that is not to high in price. I dropped mine a few weeks ago...

Sara JB said...

Great pictures. I'm actually going to Florida with my family in November. So it was nice to see pictures from different places there! :)

Krissy Lynnae said...

I LOVE Florida, I lived in Cape Coral for 5 years. That picture of the nature trail looks like a place I've been by Veterans Memorial Bridge. I used to run there because it was pretty, and it's exactly a mile.

The Redhead Riter said...

Wow, all the pics were so beautiful. I've been to Florida twice and I loved it!

I live in Richmond, VA, so if you cam to my neck of the woods, there are a million historic places to go. One of my favorites is the Hollywood Cemetary where a US President was buried, etc. I posted pics on my blog. Another of my favs is the Ashcroft house. They took the house apart, brought it across the ocean and then put it back together. Really cool.

Anonymous said...

Oh what fun shots. Looks like tons of fun. Especially the beach and that ice place. I bet you were wanting to Ice after a day in the sun.

McKay Family said...

I live and Florida...and I too love these places [well most of them]. But, I can't wait to get out of here. It's all perspective I guess! Been here all my life...looking for a different landscape! BTW - Love the springs photos!

Unknown said...

Hey, I recognize those first two pics, at least the place LOL. My first thought was "That looks like Blue Spring!" We camped there a couple of years ago. Love the pics :) East coast FL here. They look so familiar.

Lena said...

Ah Florida. We almost moved there, but chickened out at the last moment since both of our families are in NY.
Beautiful shots!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing! Love that first picture - great colors.