Social Distancing at the Florida Botanical Gardens

After working from home for a month and barely leaving the house except to buy groceries or to take a short walk around the neighborhood, I badly needed a change of scenery. I decided to visit the Florida Botanical Gardens in Largo. Although the Welcome Center and indoor facilities at the gardens are currently closed because of COVID-19, the grounds are open.

Christmas at Pinewood Estate

Since Mama was in town for Thanksgiving weekend, we decided to take a drive out to Lake Wales to visit Bok Tower Gardens and take the Holiday Home Tour at Pinewood Estate. Each year the estate, a 1932 Mediterranean-style mansion built by Charles Austin Buck as a winter retreat, is beautifully decorated for Christmas. Mama had never been to the Pinewood Estate before and even though Ron and I were there a couple of years ago, I was excited to see it again. A historic home plus Christmas decorations – two of my favorite things put together. :-)

Old Florida Christmas

Sometimes it’s hard to get into the Christmas Spirit when you live in Florida and it’s 80 degrees outside. Instead of sitting around and dreaming of snow, I decided to spend an afternoon at Heritage Village in Largo to find out how Floridians celebrated Christmas in years past.

Heritage Village is a 21-acre living history museum with over two dozen of Pinellas County’s oldest structures, dating from the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s. The historic homes range from the 1852 McMullen-Coachman log cabin, to the tiny one-room Boyer Cottage, to the grand Victorian-style House of Seven Gables. There is also a train depot, a fire engine from 1919, a general store and even a couple of Depression-era outhouses! One of my favorite buildings was the little Safety Harbor Church, which survived two hurricanes and still has its original pulpit.

Philippe Park

July is National Parks and Recreation Month, and here in Florida we are lucky to have lots of beautiful parks. One of my favorites is Philippe Park in Safety Harbor. The park, located at the top of Tampa Bay, has a mile of shoreline, picnic shelters, a boat ramp and parking area for boat trailers, and a canopy of oak trees draped in Spanish moss (I love those trees). Another interesting feature of the park is the large Tocobaga Indian mound, listed in the National Register of Historic Landmarks.

Philippe Park was named after Count Odet Philippe, who is credited for introducing grapefruit and other citrus trees to the area. Count Philippe is buried on the grounds of the park, the site of his former plantation.

Zoominations at Lowry Park Zoo

This weekend, Ron and I went to see Zoominations, a Chinese lantern festival at Lowry Park Zoo. The art of lantern-making has been part of Chinese culture for thousands of years, dating back to the Han Dynasty (206 BC to 220 AD). Lowry Park’s exhibit, created by a team of 40 craftsmen from the Sichuan Province, was a fantastical mix of traditional Chinese symbols for peace, wealth and happiness and larger-than-life zoo animals. Most of the lanterns were made from colorful silk fabric over steel frames and lit with LED lights. But there was also a 60-foot high replica of the Manfeilong Pagoda constructed entirely out of porcelain plates and cups. My favorite display was the koi pond and garden of pearl flowers – just stunning.

"The Gate to China"

The Holiday Home Tour at Bok Tower Gardens

Bok Tower Gardens is one of Florida’s hidden gems. It sounds funny calling a 205-foot tower on top of the highest point on the Florida peninsula “hidden”, but somehow it is. Close to the busy theme parks of Orlando, it feels a million miles away.

We’d been to Bok Tower Gardens once before, but this weekend’s visit had a different purpose – to take the Holiday Home Tour at Pinewood Estate. Pinewood Estate is a Spanish-style home built in the early 1930’s as a winter retreat for Charles Austin Buck, the vice president of Bethlehem Steel. It was acquired by Bok Tower Gardens in 1970 and is now open to the public with admission to the gardens.

Christmas in the Gardens

While most of the country is shivering, we’re warm and toasty here in Florida. It’s great for the tourists going to the beach, but it doesn’t exactly feel “Christmas-y”. To get into the Christmas spirit, last night Ron and I went to see the Holiday Lights display at the Florida Botanical Gardens in Largo.

The paths and trees of the park were beautifully decorated with over 750,000 lights. In keeping with the tropical gardens, many of the lights were in the shape of flowers and birds. In the wedding garden, there was a giant Christmas tree and a lighted gazebo. Who needs cold?

Caladesi Island State Park

Since July is National Parks and Recreation Month, it seemed like a good time to visit one of our favorite local parks. So on Sunday, Ron and I took the boat out to Caladesi Island.  There is something for almost everyone at Caladesi. In addition to the beach (voted America’s Best Beach by Dr. Beach in 2008), there are picnic shelters, a 3-mile nature trail, kayak rentals, and lots of wildlife. You can spot all kinds of sea birds – herons, egrets, skimmers, osprey - as well as gopher tortoises, dolphins and an occasional manatee. The beach is also an important habitat for nesting loggerhead turtles. Three nests have been built on the island this year.

Bok Tower Gardens

"Make you the world a bit better or more beautiful because you have lived in it."
Edward W. Bok, 1929

When you think about Florida, you probably don’t think about history. At least I didn’t until I started visiting the Florida lighthouses a few years ago. Then I discovered that there is so much more to Florida than beaches and Mickey Mouse. And not just lighthouses but forts and railroads, shipwrecks and grand Victorian hotels.

The weather on Saturday was sunny and clear but way too chilly for going out on the boat. So we decided to use the opportunity to visit one of Florida’s historic landmarks – the Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales. The Gardens were established in 1929 by Pulitzer Prize winning author and Dutch immigrant Edward W. Bok, as a gift of gratitude to the American people.