Ponce De Lake County

I went to the Extravaganza at Renningers Antique Market in Lake County this past weekend and one of my favorite purchases was a vintage brochure from the Fountain of Youth in St. Augustine. My best guess is that its from the 1940s or 5os; the design and illustrations are wonderful.


The inside back cover has a great map of the "Colorful Florida's Most Colorful Spots." In addition to having familiar favorites like Cypress Gardens and Bok Tower, it has some that are new to me like St. Anne's Shrine in Hesperides, FL and the Cactus Garden in Avon Park, FL. St. Anne's has been added to my list for future exploration, while I'll have to do more research on the Cactus Garden. Also on the map is the Japanese Gardens in Clearwater. Fellow blogger Electrospark did a couple wonderful posts on that roadside attraction, also called Eagle's Nest Gardens, here and here.

(Click on map to enlarge)

Florida News

Rollins College Archives

Big news in Central Florida has been the failure of the state legislature to approve SunRail, the commuter rail designed to alleviate Central Florida's traffic gridlock. My wife pointed out that Central Florida actually had commuter railroad in the past, the Orlando-Winter Park Railroad that ran the entire six miles between the adjacent communities. Today it is difficult to know where one town stops and the other begins, but in 1889 the only alternative to the half hour train ride was a trip on horseback. According to the Winter Park Public Library website, Rollins College students living in Orlando took the train to school, making it Central Florida's first commuter rail.

Kilby Photo

In other Winter Park news, I noticed one of my favorite neon signs is gone, Holler Chevrolet. The car dealership moved quite awhile ago, so it was just matter of time before new tenants came in and took down the sign. I wonder where it is....

Also coming out of this year's legislative session was the decision not to fund the 2010 Forever Florida program designed to buy environmentally sensitive land to save it from development. Combined with new laws allowing for less regulations for developers, it is likely that the sprawl devouring our state will continue.

One person who is very committed to Florida, however, is former University of Florida basketball player Udonis Haslem. Haslem, a current member of the NBA's Miami Heat, took off his jersey and threw it up into the stands revealing a large map of the state tattooed on his back. Now that's state pride!