A place for tropical recreation, Riviera Beach is a coastal city just north of West Palm Beach. Right on the Lake Worth Lagoon, the Riviera Beach here is a launchpad for endless water activities. There are outfitters and charter companies here for anything from paddleboarding to angling. You can also catch a shuttle to Peanut …
Before the 1990s there were just a few dozen people living in Estero. At that time this was a rural village about halfway between Naples and Fort Myers. Some three decades later there are almost 40,000 people here. So I don’t need to tell you that a lot of the local attractions are modern. That …
The motto of this town in Greater Miami is “Growing Beautifully.” On land owned by the storied Graham family, Miami Lakes was begun in the early 1960s. Although it was scheduled to be completed by the early ‘90s, the town continues to expand and develop today. The Grahams still own a lot of the town, …
Between Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale, Dania Beach is a seaside city with a more natural shoreline than its near neighbors. The Anne Kolb Nature Center and Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park protect thousands of acres of mangroves on the Intracoastal Waterway. Meanwhile the municipal beach park is my idea of paradise, and has …
West of Orlando, the city of Clermont is in a hilly and water-rich part of Central Florida. Conditions around the city are just right for growing fruit, and for much of the 20th century the countryside was covered in citrus groves. Since the 1950s, the city’s symbol has been the Citrus Tower, a skyscraper celebrating …
The baking soda manufacturer, Henry Addison DeLand (1834-1908) founded this beautiful city in 1882. He also established Stetson University here, and his intention was for DeLand to become the Athens of Florida. That nickname has made it into the 21st century, and I don’t think it’s a bad description. Stetson University has a picture-perfect campus, …
This small town west of Hartford has an impossibly beautiful location, embedded in the Farmington River Valley up against the Metacomet Ridge. The ample woodland and majestic overlooks combine to make Simsbury one of my favorite places to experience Connecticut’s foliage in fall. Heublein Tower, constructed for a wealthy businessman more than a century ago, …
Windham in Northeastern Connecticut contains the city of Willimantic, which developed around a textile industry in the late 19th century. There’s a fantastic little museum dedicated to the cotton mill that was once so central to the city’s fortunes. The hundreds of dainty 19th-century properties on Prospect Hill indicate the sort of wealth that the …
A cultural beacon for Greater Orlando, the picture-perfect city of Winter Park originated as a winter resort for the wealthy in the 1880s. With its canals, lakes, moss-draped live oaks, and Mediterranean Revival architecture, I will never tire of exploring Winter Park. You can do this on foot, wandering among cypress trees at lakeside parks, …
In the southern end of Seminole County, Casselberry is just ten miles north of downtown Orlando. Highway 17 and State Road 436 intersect here, connecting the city with communities across Central Florida. One thing that strikes me about Casselberry is how much there is going on at Lake Concord Park. There are dozens of public …