Florida

Summary.   Knowledge of Florida was developed through two extended stays; less extensive than seasoned Cleveland snowbirds, but grounded in immersive, long-term visits.    

Trip to Florida #2 in the 1990s:  

My first visit to the Sunshine State was a classic road trip from Cleveland, Ohio to St. Augustine, Florida.   My driver and I taking turns driving a Saturn SL1 coupe.  We would see every state along the way. 

From St. Augustine, we headed down through Daytona and Orlando.  We spent a day or two at Disney.  

Then, it was back to The Cape.  There, we noticed there was a countdown happening for the Space Shuttle.   We found some aluminum lawn chairs.  We set up those chairs across the water from where we got to see the Space Shuttle sitting right on the launch pad—though the launch itself was unfortunately scrubbed.   We did see the shuttle sitting on the launch pad and the countdown clock was running.   All that jazz must have been at least a dozen miles away?  Nevertheless, this was a real thrill to see because as a kid I'd read the National Geographic about Apollo 11 where I'd seen the pictures of everyone lookup upward as that thing took off from planet earth and  shooting for the moon.   

Anyhow, we thought that surely those boosters would light up and that thing was going to launch in a few minutes.  To this day, I've never seen a rocket launch take place in real life, except for my Estes Model rockets in the front yard back in the 70s and 80s.     Yes, I'm a bit of a space nerd.  Huge fan of all of that.

Trip to Florida #2:  Trip to Miami, Florida for a med sales convention.   I flew out and back on a jetliner — which is a much easier mode of travel than the road trip method from Ohio to Florida.   

I didn't rent a car.  Therefore, I saw only Miami and Miami Beach.   However, on final approach to Miami we turned final with the plane banking over the Everglades — which was amazing and memorable.