The City of Cedar Key sits on a large spatter of an island, surrounded by more islands and kissed by the Gulf of Mexico. Get there by going west on State Road 24, a straight shot through the woods. Take the two-lane road to the very end and voila, you’ve arrived.

Could Cedar Key be the funkiest Florida town/city ever? Yep. Could be.

Where else will you find one resident curmudgeon, the best clam chowder in the world and dogs in every block straining on their leashes?

Walking the dog is a popular Cedar Key activity. Photo by Lucy Tobias

Plus Cedar Key has Second Street, just a few blocks long with more art galleries than parking places.

Sign on Second Street. Photo by Lucy Tobias

Mosaic art at Cedar Key Art Center. Photo by Barbara Fitos

Add on the Island Hotel & Restaurant, with rooms rumored to be haunted, some of them anyway, and a restaurant that serves great dinners. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, this building anchors the corner of Second and B Street and has since 1859.

ONE ZIP CODE COVERS EVERYTHING

All this and more located in one zip code – 32625.

Pelicans on Dock Street. Photo by Susan Peters

Cedar Key celebrates stunning sunsets over the Gulf of Mexico, has two fishing piers, hopeful fishermen, more birds than people, two history museums on an island with a census showing 927 people on a good day, great shelling, snorkeling and finally smiling locals who stop visitors like us to ask hopefully “Are you here to stay a few days?”

We began our visit to funky 32625 with food, standing outside in line waiting to get into Tony’s Seafood.

Old doors, entrance to Tony's Seafood. Photo by Barbara Fitos

Hale was a busy guy. In 1880 Henry Hale built a house at the west end of Sixth Street that looked out over a bayou called Goose Cove. In the 1920s St. Clair Whitman bought the house, raised a family and stayed until his death in 1959.

The house stood empty for a long time and we all know what that means. Scheduled for demolition in 1991 the Whitman family offered it for free to anyone who would move it.

Local citizens and elected officials formed a partnership with the Florida Park Service. The small red house with a metal roof was moved to the grounds of Cedar Key Museum State Park.

Table in the Whitman Kitchen, circa 1920s. Photo by Susan Peters

The St.Clair Whitman House. Photo by Susan Peters

You can do a self-guided tour of the home as part of your $2 park visit admission fee. The park also has a sweet museum with displays of Cedar Key’s history timeline. With all the marshes and tidal flats it comes as no surprise that the Timucuan Indians liked this place a lot. Artifacts put them here as early as 1500.

EAT, SHOP AND SOAK UP HISTORY TOO

Back to the food. We waited. Unlike the Timucuans who scooped their seafood out of the water, we wanted ours already harvested and cooked by someone else. After soaking up some sunrays we were ushered inside Tony’s.
Two thumbs up. The clam chowder is seriously wonderful and well worth the wait. Plus I had steamed clams on the side and they were pretty amazing too.

Aquaculture is big here. The demise of mullet fishing (gill nets were banned in 1995) led to retraining fishermen for growing clams in beds in the Gulf of Mexico. In 1997 clam farming produced 100 million clams.
If you like seafood, keep the record numbers going by coming here to eat your share. One opportunity – attend the annual Clamerica Clelebration on the Fourth of July, named a Top 20 Event by the Southeast Tourism Society.

Tony’s sits on a busy intersection.

Colorful sign at 2nd and D streets. Photo by Barbara Fitos

Across the street is Curmudgeonalia with books (a good Florida selection), cards and gifts. The owner is a resident curmudgeon Dick Martens (I am not making this up). This is the only bookstore within 60 miles.

Curmudgeon sign, photo by Susan Peters

On the opposite corner is the Cedar Key Historical Museum housed in the Lutterlogh Building also built around 1880. Cedar Key recycles its buildings and treasures its history.

Just inside the museum door look left to see the arched doorway that once led to the Maddox Theater. The theater is gone but they saved the doors.

A self-guided walking tour has a new color booklet you can purchase with photos and descriptions. The price will be about $10 but the tour guides hadn’t arrived when we were there and the price was still iffy.

By the time we finished lunch and moved next door to plunder a truly eclectic consignment shop called Déjà Vu, we all agreed a day trip to Cedar Key was not enough. The locals are right – stay a few days.

STAY A FEW DAYS

Cedar Key is a small place. The pace is slow and yet you can’t drink it all up in four to five hours. Why would you want to? The laid back atmosphere aches for slowing down, for quality time with friends and family, for long conversations and good browsing through the art galleries, then sitting at the beach or renting a kayak and exploring the islands.

View of the Gulf of Mexico at City Park. Photo by Barbara Fitos

Consider this – if you are going to stay for the sunset show, why not spend the night? Beats the long drive back in the dark on SR 24.

Suggested excursion: a sunset cruise with Captain Doug’s Tidewater Tours, the cost is $25 per person.
The closest island is Atsena Otie Key and it is here that Cedar Key began as an army supply depot, 1836, and hospital, 1840. It is easy to see Atsena Otie Key from the new pier and dream of taking a day cruise over there to seek out the historical remains.

As we walked around we saw lots of rentals for condos, cottages, B&Bs, homes, hotels, apartments and rooms.

If it is view you want Harbour Master Suites on Dock Street all face west towards the Gulf of Mexico and that means splendid gulf views.

The Faraway Inn, a certified Green Lodging Florida, is pet friendly and sits on the site of the 19th Century Eagle Pencil Company Cedar Mill. We saw happy dogs outside when we went by.

There are 10 rooms at the Island Hotel. In keeping with historical ambiance there are no televisions or phones in the rooms of the main hotel.

THE AROMA OF CEDAR

The museums tell the story of all those pencil factories but not a whole lot of cedars to be seen today. They were chopped down before conservation policies. Backack in the 1800′s cedars were a hot item. In 1855 Eberhard Faber set off a timber boom when he bought large tracts of acreage in Levy County and started a pencil factory. You can buy a pencil smelling strongly of cedar at the Cedar Key Historical Museum.

Combine all the timber activity with Dave Yulee’s building of a cross-Florida railroad from Fernandina Beach to Cedar Key and it is easy to imagine Cedar Key as a booming port town. The population peaked at 1,887 in 1885.

Now that might not sound like much to someone from Chicago or Miami but Levy County in 1885 only had 5,000 people.

THE VENICE OF AMERICA

A newspaper clipping from the time called Cedar Key “the Venice of America”. Well, why not? When you are living the end of the line, literally, go for it.

Is the Venice of America a city or a town? It doesn’t matter. Cedar Key is a great place. We’re going back soon and stay a few days.

Speaking of small towns, Cedar Key is one of 20 American towns selected by Budget Travel Magazine as America’s coolest small towns. Until February 11 you can vote for Cedar Key by going to their Web site and casting a vote.

Mosaic fisherman at Cedar Key Arts Center. Photo by Susan Peters

Sat. Feb. 19 at 1 p.m. – Historical Society Auction to be held at the Island Hotel. Lively bidding on collectibles including china, art work, antiques and more.

Monday, Feb. 28 at 10:30 a.m. join Refuge Ranger at Cedar Key Library for a program on bats and bat houses. Did you know there is a giant bat house on the Suwannee River that holds 40,000 bats? Learn how to make your own bat house for natural mosquito control.

March 16-20, Levy County Railroad Days (150th anniversary of the completion of the Florida Railroad), events in Bronson, Otter Creek, Cedar Key, see Web site for days and times.

According to George Sresovich with the Historical Society this is going to be a really huge event. From 9-4 p.m. on March 18,19 & 20 the Cedar Key Community Center will have the Ocala Model Railroaders’ Historic Preservation Society Florida Railroad Display.

See the trains. Then go to Tony’s for chowder or get a bowl of crab bisque at the Island Hotel. Want more? You have lots of seafood choices at restaurants lining Dock Street, all with those famous Gulf views.

April 2-3, Cedar Key Arts Center presents the 47th Annual Old Florida Celebration of the Arts. Yes, it is true. Cedar Key is a very small town with limited parking. For festivals, people park their cars on outlying keys and shuttle buses bring them into town.

For an event calendar with contact information see the Cedar Key Chamber’s Web site.

Mosaic bird. Photo by Barbara Fitos

Obi, a Welsh Corgi, and I did just that, winding our way down A1A south of St. Augustine, looking for a dog-friendly beach recommended by Brenda Flynn and her Scottish Terrier Pearl.

“It is a well kept secret, not even the locals know it is here,” said Flynn who lives in Ormond Beach. So secret we passed right by the street sign in Palm Coast for the turn because, silly me, I thought that there would be a dog beach sign. Hey, then it wouldn’t be a secret.

The street is named Jungle Hut Road. About half way down you cross a parkway that goes to Ginn Hammock Beach and Hammock Beach Vacation Rentals. Just stay on Jungle Hut until it ends. Surprise! Here is a public entrance to the beach with a paved parking lot, restroom, showers and a dune walkover. Very nice.

Dog signs at Ginn Hammock Beach, Palm Coast Florida

Leashed dogs are welcome. Clean up after your dog. Brenda is a regular here. She tells me low tide is the best time and in the evening, you are likely to see a dog coming down the steps from a waterfront home – carrying his leash in his mouth, his master trotting faithfully behind him.

Obi at the top of the walkover stairs to the beach

Obi, urban dog that he is, quickly decided walking on hot sand was not his thing so naturally I carried him to the dune walkover. It is so nice have a dog small enough to pick up and sit in my lap. The sand by the water was much cooler.

Pearl thought the waves were wonderful and she liked Obi a lot, charging at him in the dog version of “let’s play!” He gave me that shocked look “Mom, the women are chasing me” and ran the other way. He got his feet wet at my encouragement but water wasn’t his thing.

We moved on to the Golden Lion Café in Flagler Beach. Dogs can sit outside the rail. Brenda, Per Hans and I sat at a table right next to the rail.

Lunch with dogs at Golden Lion Cafe, Flager Beach. Photo by Per Hans

The fish taco was excellent, so were the onion rings. How sweet to smell salt air and look across the street to blue sky, white clouds and an ocean still clean, not yet spoiled by the oil spill.

Finding dog friendly beaches and dog parks in Florida is a challenge. Some are, some are not. Best to know ahead of time before venturing out. One good source is Florida Pets. Get on their E-mail list for regular updates on everything from places to play, restaurants that accept dogs and places to stay. Their motto: “They’re part of the family, so take them along!”

Waiting for lunch at Golden Lion Cafe in Flagler Beach. Photo by Per Hans

Another good resource is the Dog Lover’s Companion Guide to Florida by Sally Deneen and Robert McClure. This book is in its fourth edition.

Some towns get two paws up for being dog friendly. Apalachicola comes to mind; here people even bring their dogs to work. Sanford puts out the welcome mat, or at least the water bowls. We found several water bowls at the Farmer’s Market on Saturday.

Dog water bowl at Farmer's Market in Sanford, Florida

Do you know of more dog friendly places? Let me know in the “comment” section and we’ll post the places. Your best four-legged friend will be happy with new places to explore.

Lucy Beebe Tobias is the author ‘of “50 Great Walks in Florida” and a freelance Florida environmental writer.

Perfect ripe juicy blueberries

For my family and friends the taste of blueberries becomes extra sweet because we have a yearly ritual of gathering together to go on an adventure and pick blueberries. Somehow when you pick them yourself it improves the flavor.

To find a blueberry farm near you check out http://www.pickyourown.org This Web site lists all kinds of produce places to go in a number of states. Especially across Central Florida the list of blueberry farms is long. The ones that are organic have the word “organic” highlighted in green. We’ve picked organic blueberries at farms in both Marion and Alachua counties.

Picking blueberries is a prime time family affair and so is growing them. B&G Blueberries off County Road 315 past Silver Springs is a perfect example. “B” stands for Bill Hall and “G” stands for Gail Hall.

Here is what Bill said about how it all began:
“I started u-picking Rabbit Eye blueberries in 1983. At that time my two sons Danny and Jason were 12 and 7 and they assisted my mother Margaret Hall keeping the patch open Mon-Friday and Gail, Danny, Jason and I worked it on Saturday. My mother required the boys to pick 10 lbs. per day during the season.
Today their wives and six children are paid helpers on days we U-Pick. This year we spent a lot of time cross training the four older ones. There are six different jobs they do when we are open for u-pick. The six grand kids are ages 8 to 15. I always list them and their parents on the card we send to our customers.”

And here are their names – The Halls, Bill, Gail, Danny, Dorothy, Justin Micah, Rebekah, Ben, Jason, Robin, Savannah and EmmaLee. To get directions call (352) 236-4410 or Email: WDH47@embarqmail.com

Their picking dates in June are June 12, 18, 19, 25,26 and t hen July 3,5,10. Price is $2.50 per pound.

Close to Fort McCoy is the Bay Lake Blueberry Farm owned by Mike & Gail Waldron. This is a certified organic U pick and that means no pesticides! Good for your tummy, good for Mother Earth. The day we were there the Waldron’s daughters were helping customers carry their blueberries to the car and Gail’s mother in law was in charge of the cash register. Truly a family affair. Phone: 352-546-3834. Address: 20525 Highway 315, Ft. McCoy, Fl. and E mail: gwaldron1219@aol.com

In addition to picking blueberries Bay Lake has blueberry plants for sale along with local produce. We like to do this U pick early in the morning, then all go out for breakfast together. It is the food, fellowship and fun thing in action.

Live in Marion County? For more on picking blueberries in Marion County see the blog by Lucy Beebe Tobias and Sandra Friend entitled Ocala Adventures.

Now let’s get down to some specifics. Be an early riser for blueberry picking, so much easier in the cool of the day. Call ahead and find out when they open. Have the address and a map or use a GPS. Many farms are off the beaten path.

When you are there the farm supplies buckets for picking usually with rope so it can go around your waist and you have two hands free. Bring your own buckets in case you need them to put the berries in for the trip home.

filling a bucket with blueberries

Wear closed toed shoes for walking down the rows. A hat highly advised and bring water. Carry cash, this is not a credit card transaction. Most farms will have other things too – blueberry plants for sale, local produce and more.

Weighing in U-pick organic blueberries at Sugar Hill Blueberries in Belleview

This is a great inter-generational adventure. Various sizes of children work well with finding blueberries at different parts of the bushes (that can grow five six feet tall). Little ones pick the bottom, taller ones get the middle and adults find the ones on top.

Go for the fully ripe deep purple berries. Taste one before you start on a bush. If you like the flavor, that bush is for you. Pick them off one at a time. Don’t strip off unripe berries. It doesn’t take long to fill up a gallon bucket.

At home lay out paper towels and spread out the berries. Pick out any unripe ones. DO NOT wash them as they become mushy.

Drying blueberries on paper towels. Do not wash them, this is getting rid of natural moisture.

When any natural moisture has dried, bag them up a cup or two at a time and freeze. Set aside a good amount for yummy eating right now – straight, on cereal, in muffins, pie and even ice cream.

Here is Bill Hall’s favorite recipe for blueberry ice cream (one gallon)
2 pints blueberries
1 cup sugar
1 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 tablespoon vanilla
About ½ gallon whole milk
Take two pints blueberries, place in saucepan and cover with water. Add one cup of sugar and boil for five minutes. Let stand on stove until completely cooled. Strain directly into the churn cylinder. Pour remaining peels and liquid into blender. Blend then pour into churn cylinder. Add condensed milk and one tablespoon vanilla flavoring. Finish filling churn cylinder with whole milk. Sir and churn.

Ah, going to pick blueberries satisfies the prime ingredients for a good time – food, fellowship and fun. Grab your buckets and go!

Lucy Beebe Tobias is an author and writer. Her Web site is: http:www.LucyTobias.com

April 24-25 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. is the Forgotten Coast Lighthouse Challenge. Visit Cape San Blas Lighthouse, Cape St. George Light, Crooked River Lighthouse and St. Mark’s Lighthouse. Tickets are $10 per person (over the age of 10) or $25 per family up to five people. All the lighthouses have tickets available. Receive a souvenir at each location and a special something if you climb or visit all four lighthouses.

Crooked River Lighthouse, Forgotten Coast

Can’t remember where the Forgotten Coast is? Easy. Drop straight down south from Tallahassee until you run into the Gulf of Mexico. The coastline from Mexico Beach to Carrabelle is Florida’s Forgotten Coast.

St. Marks Lighthouse, Forgotten Coast

Lighthouses are welcome sights for mariners, beacons in the night and day that make the difference between traveling safely or meeting an untimely demise. Did you know every lighthouse has its own color code pattern? By day a mariner can see the colors, look on his chart and know that location. The St. Augustine Lighthouse for example is painted in curving black and white stripes.

St. Augustine Lighthouse

These tall structures, with spiraling stairs that make a gym Stairmaster look tame, are just plain cool. Climbing them is a challenge. Puff, take a break at landings, keep going, make it to the top and see an amazing 360 view.

Climbing Ponce de Leon Lighthouse stairs

Here is a link to a Visit Florida video I did on climbing Ponce de Leon Lighthouse, Florida’s tallest lighthouse with 203 steps (one way). Make it back down and you are ready to buy the t-shirt!

The lights that pierce the darkness are creations of beauty. The Ponce de Leon Lighthouse has a museum with lighthouse keeper lore and examples of these Fresnel lights.

Fresnel lens

Many lighthouses are still active but now they are automated. The lighthouse keepers and their families are gone. When you visit a lighthouse gift shop look for a map you can buy called “Florida Lighthouses Illustrated Map & Guide. It is also available online at Bella Terra Maps. Price is $6.95 folded and $12.95 laminated. Keep this as a guide to your lighthouse adventures.

With three sides of Florida surrounded by water we have an abundance of lighthouses. There is even one inland. Mt. Dora has a working lighthouse. Built in 1988 standing 35 feet tall the blue pulsing light guides boaters on Lake Dora after dark.

The Florida Lighthouse Association helps preserve the historic lighthouses along Florida’s 1200-mile coastline and keep the magic of these tall towers alive. There is a state license plate available for purchase to help generate funds for restoring our lighthouses.

This group is gearing up for a change of ownership at one lighthouse. On April 21 at a 1 p.m. ceremony the Sanibel Lighthouse will pass hands from the Bureau of Land Management into ownership by the City of Sanibel.

Whether answering the lighthouse challenge or going to the lighthouse nearest you – Combine visiting lighthouses with sampling local seafood and you have the perfect recipe for a day trip.

©2010 Lucy Beebe Tobias, all rights reserved.

I rolled down my window and pulled up to a woman dressed in the fashionable two-toned forest green uniform favored by Ocala National Forest personnel.

She leaned in and said: “Welcome to Disney World.”

I started laughing. It is 7:15 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 23, 2010. Mickey Mouse is nowhere in sight. We are in Ocala National Forest, two hours north of Disney.
She groaned and squeezed her eyes shut.

“I didn’t mean to say that,” she gasped, then handed me the form to fill out for picking up trash at the Ocala National Forest Clean-Up Day. On the form is a box to check if you are registered as a Disney volunteer. No wonder Disney was on her mind.

You see Disney has this really cool program that started January 1, 2010. They want to inspire one million people in a program called Give a Day, Get a Day. You give a day for community service and in return you get a free day at either Disney property – Florida or California.

The list of possibilities is long and diverse and included this cleanup day.

After checking in at Lake George, cars were directed to staging areas. I ended up at the Fore Lake Division with 407 other people. There were 10 divisions in all. Heather Frebe, pubic information officer for Ocala National Forest, said an estimated 2000 people came to clean up on Saturday morning, with 1322 people checking the Disney box. (you had to be preregistered with Disney to qualify the event).

essentials for trash picup

“We started out at 4 a.m. this morning,” said John Romig of Jacksonville, armed with his black garbage bag and walking the sides of a forest road with his wife Nicki, daughter Reagan and son Mitch. It is a good two-hour drive from Jacksonville to the forest.

The Romigs came well prepared with packages yellow latex kitchen gloves purchased from the dollar store. They gave me a pair and I was grateful. These gloves are a must for picking up trash.

“It is fun picking up trash,” said daughter Reagan then she gave me a look and made a pronouncement with a teenager’s grown-up wisdom: “Picking up trash is picking up trash.”

So true. And pick it up we did, at least two bags each. – beer cans were everywhere along with soda bottles, water bottles and the occasional finds of really big dump sites – sofas, household trash – time to call in the pickup trucks and serious muscle to haul that trash away.

“My daughter signed the whole family up, six of us,” said Lois Gibbons of Ocala. She was searching dirt road areas along with her husband Richard. It was the couple’s first time at a forest clean up.

“This is a beautiful place. It is land God gave us, we need to take care of it,” Lois said but she didn’t see much hope of changing behaviors that lead to throwing cans out car windows. “It is young people driving off the paved tracks throwing cans.”

Her husband asked if I know the difference between a good old boy and a redneck. Ummmm, no.
“A good old boy throws his cans in the back of his pickup truck,” said Richard. “A redneck throws them out the window.”

Now you know.

And the Disney angle? Huge. Being out in the forest in the sunshine, picking up trash, would be a Disney day for me, for the Romigs and the Gibbons and so many others. Who knew picking up trash could lead to such fun and such a savings?

“We couldn’t all afford to go to Disney as a family without doing this,” Gibbons said. “My daughter worked a night shift at Munroe and she is coming out for this today.”

It is one ticket per customer no matter how many times you volunteer. The program continues until one million tickets are distributed or until December 15, 2010. To search for an activity on the Disney site, type in your zip code and look at the all or narrow the categories down to say, animals and the environment, arts and culture, children and community. Personally I loved getting outdoors and doing something positive.

What are you waiting for? Sign up to give a day. This is, as management gurus like to say, a win-win situation.

And volunteering makes a difference. Forest officials say the six hour cleanup netted 46 tons of trash in the Marion County area and 30 tons of trash in the Lake County area. Yes, it was worth it.

Lucy Beebe Tobias is your expert for finding authentic Florida. She is a former New York Times Regional Group reporter and columnist and the author of “50 Great Walks in Florida”, University Press of Florida. Her Website is: www.Lucytobias.com

As the griddle warmed, she brought coffee, big pitchers of home-milled pancake batters and the sides we’d chosen – blueberries and eggs. We began pouring batter, laughing, enjoying the moment, watching for the telltale bubbles that mean it is time to flip those pancakes.

Barbara Fitos flipping pancakes

Our table faced the windows. We looked out at DeLeon Springs headspring with its walled off swimming area and a waterfall spilling over boulders into Spring Garden Lake. This tranquil scene, with 19 million gallons of water a day coming from an underground cavern, empties its crystal clear water into Spring Garden Creek, then onto Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge, the St. Johns River and eventually this water flows into the Atlantic Ocean. What a journey! And it begins here.

sugar mill and waterfall

Tours leave at 10 a.m., 11 a.m., noon and 1 p.m. Tickets are $12. The narrated boat ride lasts 50 minutes, going down Spring Garden Creek and into Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge. Reservations can be made at Sugar Mill or call the boat tour (386)-837-5537. To know more, visit the eco-tour’s Website.

BUT, and it is a big “but”, there must be a minimum of eight passengers for a tour to leave the dock. We were just two people ready for the 11 a.m. Apparently no one else wanted to leave the griddles.

So off we went to nearby DeLand, walking around downtown, visiting galleries, shops and museums. Captain Frank assured us he had 12 signed up for the 1 p.m. We returned (your park entrance receipt gets you back in all day) and boarded the M/V Acuera.

Captain Frank tells us Native Americans used to visit the springs 6,000 years ago. That was long before pancakes. In the early 1800′s Major Joseph Woodruff and his wife Jan bought 2,000 acres, grew sugar cane and indigo.

“He was the first to bring slaves to Florida,” Frank says.

There on the right – an anhinga and a great blue heron. On the left, snowy egrets and moor hens. An osprey sits high in a tree.

osprey in a tree

It is late fall, some color on the trees, most are bare.
“Come earlier in the fall for a brilliant change of color in the fall bright sunshine,” says Frank.

We see white ibis, lots of them, they were the sacred bird of Egypt.

Colonel Orlando Rees bought it in 1831 and made the earthen dam to power a sugar mill. Naturalist John James Audubon visited Rees in 1832 and Rees took him on a boat trip along the waterways, just like we are doing now. This is a great way to see birds. As we smoothly glide along, bird sighting are frequent. We also ask about plants.

Captain Frank points out smooth beggar tick – an unusual name – for yellow flowers blossoming by the water’s edge.

“This is old Florida, the way it looked for centuries, this is what the Spanish saw, what the Indians saw,” Frank says.

River views

In the reeds an immature lack-crowned night heron and a female cormorant. We see an immature little blue heron – they are born white then turn blue in one to two years.

Alligators, big ones, sun themselves on the banks. Capt. Frank says they have 3,000 pounds of pressure in their jaws. We take his word for it.

A tri-colored heron is spotted in the shallows. Overhead a red-shouldered hawk flies by. A cooter turtle suns itself on a log.

We are floating in the Refuge now, some 20,000 acres of preserved land and water.

In the 1800s no highways existed. “The only roads were waterways, product was shipped by water, the only way to get to market,” says Captain Frank. He waves his hand outward. “It is 126 miles by water to Jacksonville. Steamboats came in the late 1820s, that is what really settled Florida from the center out, steam boat traffic, towns developed along the rivers and people came.”

And we come today to float in history’s wake, catch a glimpse of immature yellow crowned night herons and watch a kingfisher fly by. There are moments when you just have to say: “it doesn’t get any better than this.”

Short, narrated boat trips are a great way to see authentic Florida. We loved doing breakfast and a boat trip at DeLeon Springs and we’ll be back with family and friends.

Here are more possibilities:

A boat tour on the Wakulla River at Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park located southwest of Tallahassee. Upcoming tours include a photo tour on the Wakulla River on Saturday, Feb. 6 and a Valentine’s Cruise & Dinner on Saturday, Feb. 13.

A tour boat at Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Hobe Sound goes up the Loxahatchee River to Trapper Nelson’s homestead and a ranger-guided tour of the homestead.

A little more adventuresome – From Fort Myers, it is a three-hour (or more) catamaran ride to Key West on the Key West Boat Shuttle. Spend the day or two, return by boat.

Since seeing birds is such a big part of a river boat trip, I recommend a good field guide, particularly the Sibley Guide to Birds.

Pretty amazing that he illustrated every bird. I like the different views. A bird will fly overhead and all you see is the underside. Well, Sibley have those undersides.

©2009 Lucy Beebe Tobias, author of “50 Great Walks in Florida”.. All rights reserved.

These areas pulse with dense green foliage not unlike well, wild Florida.

Narrow paths make passing through possible. Seemingly random growth turns out to have specific lures for wildlife – a red bay, for example, has tiny flowers that bees love and the tree is a good shelter for birds.

“I wanted to see birds, snakes, owls, butterflies,” says the Delray Beach resident. And he does. In addition he wanted to conserve water. That too is happening.

A back fence has completely disappeared, hidden under flourishing firebush.

“This is a huge butterfly attractor,” Jeff comments. “Firebush is the number one native plant. This is the first plant to start with.”

I’m startled and surprised by what it means to go native. It means forget neat and manicured. This was once a conventional yard with grass underfoot and fence to mark the property line. Now it vibrates with exuberance and yes, a touch of chaos, all for a good cause – there is only so much space and so many natives to plant and so little time.

You see our wildlife is in trouble.

“So many landscapes are loaded with exotics,” notes Jeff. “They are beautiful but they are dead zones for wildlife. They have color and texture but where are the bees, the birds, the lizards?”

Dead zones? Beauty that kills here in Florida? Sounds like a science fiction novel but no, this is the real deal.

“The bird population and butterflies are not finding the food they need – the migrating birds need to feed in Florida to migrate to South America. If they can’t find the right food, they don’t make it.”

In my back yard, a haven with water fountains and bird feeders, or so I thought, the bird numbers have been dwindling in recent years. I was hoping they got a better offer and are happy somewhere else. Now I wonder if they made it from one year to the next.

Going native turns out to be a call to action – do you want to save native wildlife? Then turn your dead zone into a native buffet and you can do it one plant at a time. Before visiting Jeff I thought my side yard would become a fruit orchard. Now it is going native.

I planted firebush along the fence line. You go, you native you. Do your thing. The butterflies will love you.

RESOURCES

• Jeff recommends several native plant nurseries in his area including Pan’s Garden in Palm Beach, Meadow Beauty Nursery and Indian Trails Native Nursery, both in Lake Worth.

• “A Gardener’s Guide to Florida’s Native Plants” (paperback) by Rufino Osorio, here is the Amazon link and it is in our bookstore on my Website.

• Jeff, who is also a Master Gardener, has turned his native passion into a consulting business. Visit his Website to know more.

• Master Gardeners, an outreach program by IFAS University of Florida, may have an office near you. They can be immensely helpful, especially with micro irrigation and drought resistant plant suggestions.

• Florida Native Plant Society has chapters throughout the state.

• Here is the link for University of Florida IFAS Extension section on native plants. IFAS means the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

• Native plant nurseries will only flourish if people vote with their wallets and buy native. Here is a listing of native plant sources from Florida Gardener.

While milkweed is not a native it is the necessary larval plant for monarch butterflies. Learn more at the Live Monarch Foundation.

©2009 Lucy Beebe Tobias, all rights reserved.

She joked about those kayaks with two people paddling had to sign a waiver they’d still be speaking to one another at the end. Laughter. No, seriously, once she had to separate a couple. Whoa. I wondered if one of them had to swim back. She didn’t say.

The sun went down. We were waiting on a last group to arrive for Florida’s Original Bioluminescent Kayak Tour (whew – long title!) but still, I felt she was lingering, eying the sunset while we were practically pawing the ground, ready to go. She had a reason and I’d soon find out why.

Leaving someone behind to wait for the latecomers, we snuggled our buns into kayaks, managed not to bump into one another and paddled over to Manatee Lagoon. Sure enough, cries and shouts were heard when manatee snouts appeared as the big, gentle mammals came up for air.

Then we activated luminescent tubes on lanyards. We hung them backwards so the light dangled on our backs. Ours were bluish; the guide had a green glowing light. When in doubt, follow the green light – the guides know where they are going.

Almost single file now we paddle out of Manatee Lagoon, a long line of blue lights, and we end up in Mosquito Lagoon. It lives up to its name. Even with yucky toxic bug repellent sprayed all over me I’d reach down and throw water on my face to get rid of mosquitoes.

We shelved our paddles and drifted. Deep night had arrived without a whisper, like a cat creeping silently. This is why our guide lingered at the launch. The tour is all about night moves. And the dark night was full of surprises.

She instructed us to push a paddle through the water and watch what happened. A beautiful silvery blue light appeared. Thousands, maybe millions, of single cell organisms in the water light up when agitated at night. They only do this in warm summer months of June, July and August and only in two places in the world – here and in Costa Rica.

I dipped my hand in the water and waved it back and forth. The fantastic light show followed me. No sc fi movie could duplicate this – it felt otherworldly and magical.

A mullet darted in the shallows, its trail streaked with silvery blue light. Nobody knows why the bioluminescence occurs. But does it matter? I often think there is too much information. Sometimes it is just a great blessing to be there, in fact you HAVE to be here for this experience – photos won’t work.

Rain had dominated the daylight hours. Thick clouds stayed in the night sky. And then they parted. I saw a shooting star. The clear sky looked like the inside of a big bowl painted midnight blue and speckled with stars twinkling, putting on their own light show. Look up. Look down. Wow. A big WOW.

A Day Away Kayak Tours in Titusville does the two to two and a half hour bioluminescent kayak tours in summer months. The skill level is beginner. Next tour is August 8 at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $32 adult, $32 young adult and $24 child. Phone (321) 268-2655.

Other night moves coming up – when the weather cools, say October, do a moonlight walk on a Clearwater Beach with Linda Taylor of It’s Our Nature This moonlight walk is Chapter 32 in “50 Great Walks with Lucy”, University Press of Florida, 2009.

Enjoy.

That said – here are some places to go in Florida were cultural heritage is alive and well worth a visit. Tarpon Springs, 33 miles north of Tampa, started out in 1848. The town made a name as a winter resort for folks from up north who didn’t want to shovel snow.

Then came the discovery in 1852 of sponges in the Gulf of Mexico. This was big news. Greece has sponge blight in its offshore waters and the industry was dying. Whole families came over to be spongers in America. They brought their culture and yes, their wonderful food.

The Sponge Docks still exist today. It is no accident that many restaurants line the sponge docks. When the boats came in, the crews were hungry. Pass the baklava please.
Take the shuttle bus that goes from the docks to downtown and be sure to tour the inside of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral.

Ybor City * used to be a swamp. Along came Martinez Ybor looking for a place to build a cigar factory. He thought his workers in Key West were getting too uppity and wanted to relocate. So he filled in the swamp and built his factory. Obviously those were the days before permits.

To keep his workers he built casitas, little attached houses, so cigar workers could sent for their families from Cuba. A casita cost $2500. The families came. Cuban culture still flourishes today. Have lunch at the original Columbia restaurant or try a Cuban at La Tropicana Café. Bueno. Other groups that came to work in the factories – Italians and Germans.

Speaking of Germans, Florida has a large German population in the southwest area but I’m not the only one who thinks the best German restaurant is up in Sanford, 23 miles northeast of Orlando.

Hollerback’s Willow Tree Café is a European style café and German restaurant that is family owned.. They know how to get to you. The day’s desserts are displayed in a case and you have to walk by . . .yum.
Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go! Enjoy

* Ybor City is Chapter 35: Celebrate the Cigars in 50 Great Walks in Florida., Lucy Beebe Tobias, published by University Press of Florida, 2008

©2009 Lucy Beebe Tobias, all rights reserved.

Located at the corner of Centre Street and 7th Street north, right in the heart of Fernandina Beach’s historic district, on June 6th the blueberry growers are expected to start showing up. Yes, it is blueberry season! One June 13, the Sweet Grass Cow & Goat Cheeses will be one of the booths.

Always there are landscape plants for sale, many native plants and beautiful blooming things that I want to take home with me. You’ll find prepared foods for lunch, Growers Alliance organic shade bean coffee (yes, they give sample coffee drinks!), honey vendors, craft persons and often live music.

Ah, what a great way to start a Saturday morning. In my book “50 Great Walks in Florida”, Chapter 11 is A Stroll Through History: The Historic Downtown Fernandina Beach Centre Street Stroll and Chapter 12 is Nature’s Classroom: Willow Pond Nature Trail, Fort Clinch State Park

Saturday mornings in Gainesville let’s visit the Alachua County Farmers’ Market, the only Grower’s Only Market in North-Central Florida (that is a lot of “only”). All the produce is grown within 50 miles of the market and you get the meet the farmer.

This is “buy local” taken seriously. The market is in an open-air metal pavilion. Hours are every Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. or until the produce is gone, whichever comes first. If you are going to GPS it, the address is 5920 N.W. 13th Street, Gainesville.

Then take a walk in Kanapaha Botanical Gardens (Chapter 16: Wander through a Garden of Eden) and take a gander at the historic buildings on the University of Florida campus (Chapter 15: A Walk on the Gothic Side)

Saturday Summer Market is a big attraction in downtown St. Petersburg, starting Saturday, June 6 and continuing every Saturday through September 16. Hours are 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Location is the Mahaffey Theater parking garage, 400 First St. S., St. Petersburg.

What you’ll find: regular and organic produce and fruit, baked goods, plants, flowers orchids, fresh herbs, prepared foods and hand-crafted wares. Fun!

St. Pete is a Bonus Point in Chapter 34: A Walk for Everyone: Fort DeSoto County Park, Tierra Verde.

Downtown Market happens in Tallahassee every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. March through November. This takes place on the chain of green parks in Park Avenue Historic District, just a few blocks from the capital.

This is a lively market. You’ll meet local artisans (I have a piece of fused glass all the more special because I met the artist), see lots of artwork alongside local produce and heaering live music is a given. Don’t have breakfast or lunch before you come – because you’ll find everything from muffins to soup and salad.

The chain of parks are covered in Chapter 2: Step into History: Park Avenue Historic District, Tallahassee.

For a list of community farmer’s markets all over Florida, check out this Web site.

When you go to farmer’s markets, you are supporting your local economy, getting an artistic eyeful and having an adventure.

Who said there was nothing to do in the summertime? Sure there is. Spend your morning at a farmer’s market then open up your copy of my book. Great walks are calling. Enjoy

Lucy Beebe Tobias is the author of “50 Great Walks in Florida”, University Press of Florida, 2008, and the Authentic Florida Expert for VISIT FLORIDA.