Interesting Places to Visit in Florida

Jupiter is our favorite spot to stay in Florida. It has wonderful beaches, beautiful flowers and some great parks. The scene above shows one of the many board walks that lead to the ocean and public beaches. Many of these boardwalks are covered with Sea Grape plants.

Jupiter is home to Roger Dean Stadium the winter home of the St. Louis Cardinals and Florida Marlins. So if you are a baseball fan it is a great place to see some spring training games.

Jupiter is also home to film star Burt Reynolds. You can spend an hour or two going through the Burt Reynolds museum and reminiscing over all the film memorabilia that is found there. There is also a Burt Reynolds park that goes along the river.

I enjoy spending time walking at the Jupiter Beach Park and the Dubois park. Both parks have great walking paths along the river and the inlet and Jupiter Beach Park also has access to the ocean. From these parks you can get some great views of the lighthouse.

Hillsboro Inlet is a small community by Pompano Beach. It is the inlet from the Atlantic that connects the ocean to the intracoastal waterway.

Just before you cross the bridge at the inlet there is a wonderful small park. This park has picnic facilities, a playground, restroom facilities and a great view of the Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse.

I love the way you can photograph the lighthouse framed in palms. This lighthouse was actually first created for the 1904 World Exhibition in St. Louis and then was shipped down to Hillsboro Inlet in parts.

St. Augustine is a city full of history. It was first founded in 1565 and is known as the oldest continuously occupied Europeon established city. The city is a medium size with just over 12,000 at the 2004 census.

Some of the sites that I really enjoyed visiting were the Castillo de San Marcos, Flagler College and the Lighthouse and Museum. It is wonderful just to walk down the downtown streets and see the old buildings and the great architecture.

The community of Destin can trace its' recent history to Captain Leonard Destin, a fisherman who moved to the area around 1845. He pioneered the fishing industry in Florida and fishing remains a big part of the Destin lifestyle.

Destin is known as a wonderful beach and fishing resort community. The full time population of the community was listed as 11,119 at the last census, but it swells to much more than that with all of the part timers who come to enjoy the beautiful beaches and the great fishing.

Along with the beaches and fishing the area is full of recreational activities...golf, tennis, diving and snorkeling are all popular sports in Destin.

We have enjoyed the beaches of Destin on several different occasions. I love the white sand beaches and the beautiful sunsets that can be seen on the horizon.

I took hundreds of photos of the sun setting over the ocean the last time we were in Destin. I love this photo of the sun melting into the ocean taken through the sea oats.

Key BisCayne is a world class resort community that is just 6 miles off the coast of Miami. It offers a wide range of recreatioinal activities and is seen as a popular vacation destination.

The island is 7 miles long and 2 miles wide. At the southern tip is Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park. You will find this stately white lighthouse at the end of the park.

Stuart is a great little coastal town( population 14,633) on the Atlantic coast of Florida in what is know as Florida's Treasure Coast.. It is about 20 miles north of Jupiter.

A friend and I had heard about the nice shops in Stuart and decided to take a drive up there one day. We were wonderfully surprised by this great little town. Yes, it had some fabulous little boutiques in the downtown area, but it also had a lot of great places to eat, and a wonderful riverwalk that stretched along the downtown area at the river.

In this photo you can see a couple enjoying a stroll on the riverwalk.

Florida is home to 15 MLB teams for spring training. I really enjoy watching baseball at this level. You are in a smaller stadium where you can really get a feel of the game. The players are working hard to find their place on the team for the upcoming season and fans enjoy sitting back and watching the spring training games. The scouts are in the stands pulling out the speed guns whenever a newer pitcher comes to the mounds. The atmosphere is friendly and the weather is certainly better than at home in St. Louis.

Here is a list of the teams that call Florida home for spring training and the towns where they play their home games.
West Coast of Florida
>Tigers.........Lakeland
>Blue Jays....Dunedin
>Phillies........Clearwater
>Yankees.....Tampa
>Pirates........Bradenton
>Orioles.......Sarasota
>Rays..........Port Charlote
>Red Sox......Fort Myers
>Twins.........Fort Myers

East Coast of Florida
>Braves.......Lake Buena Vista
>Astros........Kissimmee
>Nationals...Viera
>Mets..........Port St Lucie
>Cardinals..Jupiter
>Marlins......Jupiter

The town of Ponce Inlet is on the southern tip of a beach peninsula on the Atlantic south of Daytona Beach. The area has several marinas and is considered to be the premier fishing spot of the area.

At the southern tip of the town you will find the Ponce Inlet lightstation. This light was completed in 1887 and is now open to the public. You can walk around the lighthouse grounds and climb the lighthouse for a wonderful view of the coast.

The island of Jupiter is home to some of the wealthiest people in the US. On a boat tour around the island you get glimpses of some of the beautiful homes that are on the island.

If you drive onto the island you find that the island is a wonderful mix of beautiful homes surrounded by great landscaping and fantastic natural beauty found on this island paradise. The island is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian River, the St. Lucie inlet and the Jupiter inlet. The early founders of the island made sure that the beauty would always be surrounding the island by setting aside large amounts of land preserves. You find the Hobe National Wildlife Preserve, the Blowing Rocks preserve and Coral Cove Park all on the island.