Planning for a trip to Florida

Dear Friend,
I am all smiles today and happily anticipating a great trip with gorgeous landscapes, quiet beaches, a bustling Miami, Key Lime Pie, and seafood bisque. We are enthusiastically researching and planning to fly to Jacksonville, Florida for an antique car concours (show). Those cars are shiny, gorgeous pieces of mechanical history from the early 1900's. My husband is going to have a wonderful time and so am I !
After 3 nights in Jacksonville, with daily trips to Amelia Island for the concours, we will drive the 500 plus miles over several days south to Key West on the southern tip of Florida with a stop in Clearwater, Florida for a few days. Then after a day or two in the Keys, on to Miami for a few days more. I find alot of enjoyment in gardens and from watching birds and Florida has ospreys, bald eagles, rosette spoonbills (big pink birds) and many other lovely feathered creatures to enjoy. We will browse in an a flea market and an antique store or two, walk on the beach, watch some beautiful sunsets, visit lush gardens and make sure that we eat some authentic Cuban and Spanish food along the way. I bet we find excellent fresh fish and creamy chowder too.
The part of this that is so interesting to me right now is the actual planning – how different it is for me than it was even a dozen years ago when I was planning a trip. Yesterday I spent time reading online the Miami Herald, Tampa Bay Online, and other Forida newspapers and found a great article about restaurants with authentic Cuban and Spanish food and several other very current articles about dining. I can read on websites about less commonly pursued activities like bird watching, or antiquing for things specifically from the early 1900's. The information on these websites appears to be in depth and current. Surely the birders’ comments on www.floridaconservation.org
is unique to that site. The internet is a great tool for planning a trip. I just had to give this a little thought to figure out where to look for information and “viola!” What a wonderful time I live in – communications are just fabulous and improving daily. Of course I still use the guide books - for many things and reasons. When we return I will post pictures and text over a couple of days so that you can see some what we saw and enjoyed.

Guess communication improvements are what I am grateful for today. I'm also grateful for the folks who posted these two photographs on the Merritt Island birding site. I remember a long driving trip I took as a child with my parents and sister and I loved it. We went to California.

Thanks for stopping by,

Maggiegladyoucame