FLORIDA Fun! – Daytona, NASA, Disney, Universal, Key West, Everglades, Panacea, Wakulla Springs, Pensacola

DAYTONA

The Tour tickets included a visit to the Hall of Fame Museum which was also very interesting!

The next day we went down to visit the famous Daytona Beach where all the action was until 1959

In our opinion, Dayton Beach was it was WAY more cool in the 1950’s than it is today

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER – Leaving Daytona, we didn’t think we had enough time for a stop at the Kennedy Space Center so didn’t even have tickets, but since we were pretty much driving right by it, we decided to stop in. Wow what an incredible place! Good thing we didn’t miss this!

DISNEY WORLD & UNIVERSAL STUIDOS

The Harry Potter section was fantastic!! We were very impressed and it was so fun!

MIAMI – Next we spent 4 nights in a lovely church parking lot just outside of Miami. We took one day and drove down to Key West to the Southernmost point of Continental USA. Another day we did a bike ride through the Everglades National Park and saw probably more than 50 ‘very docile’ alligators laying all along the sides of the bike trail. We even saw two crocodiles that apparently aren’t really supposed to be there.

EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK – Took our bikes this day and rode past probably more than 50 ‘very docile’ alligators laying all along the sides of the bike trail. And two crocodiles that apparently aren’t really supposed to be there

SAINT PETERSBURG – Moved up the Gulf of Mexico coast a bit and spent 3 days relaxing here

A little further along the coast for a quick one night stay in a cute little campground enroute to Panacea (near Pensacola). There didn’t seem to be anyone around when we arrived at the campground, but then finally a very friendly long-haired, heavily tattooed, hippy looking, guy sauntered up and directed us where to park, then mentioned that most of the campground guests were at the live music just a 10 minute walk down the street. We set up, then decided to go see what was going on down the street since the campsite was pretty much deserted. Here’s what we found … Haha

PANACEA – stayed a few days at this beautiful campground just 40 minutes below Tallahassee, literally right on the coast! So beautiful! We certainly wouldn’t have minded spending more time here!

Somebody mentioned to us that the ‘Jungle Cruise’ at Wakulla Springs was a must see. So during our stay in Panacea we drove out to see it … and yup totally a must see! The beautiful lodge here opened in 1937 and served as a place for training and relaxation for WWII soldiers in the 1940’s. Many actors also stayed at this lodge throughout the 1950’s to 1970’s. The jungle-like swamp was a perfect setting for many Tarzan movie scenes and also for The Creature from the Black Lagoon! Quite interesting history here. Fascinating facts about the Spring that feeds this swamp – one of the largest and deepest springs in the world! The spring comes up through a cave under the viewing platform (that Tarzan is diving off in the picture below), and our tour guide told us it’s 350’ deep and as wide as a 4-lane highway! We didn’t even realize it before we came but apparently the swamp stays at 70° year round so the timing of our visit here was perfect as we got see many manatees that had migrated here for the winter months! Video of a mama and baby below.

Driving through Milton, FL on Saturday I noticed a church – Victory Baptist Church – which was only 7 minutes down the road from our campsite! We ended up attending both the morning and evening services. It was a special Sunday where they had invited evangelist, Chris Simpson to preach. The Doucette Family were also there for this special Sunday so we were blessed by their amazing, god-given musical talent in both the morning and evening services! What a special treat this whole day was for us!

PENSACOLA – Beautiful white sand beaches!