Sarasota County is gaining popularity as a winter destination with Northeast Ohio residents. Once there entertainment options range from beaches and museums to a vibrant food and arts scene. In fact, 13 theaters and countless restaurants are within a mile of downtown Sarasota. With all the sunshine, waterfront parks and preservation areas are abundant for hiking and biking.
As seen in The News-Herald By Paris Wolfe On a sunny 75-degree Tuesday in February, Clara Yoder, her adult daughter and the daughter’s four fidgety pre-teens sit together on white-plank benches in front of Big Olaf Creamery in Sarasota, Florida. A Pioneer Trails bus has just dropped Yoder’s family in the Amish/Mennonite snowbird village known as Pinecraft. That’s right, an Amish/Mennonite snowbird village. It’s hard to imagine the simple folk from quiet communities such as Middlefield, Ohio, doing winter break in Florida. But they do. Some visit for a week, and some stay the entire winter season — just like folks from other religions and cultures. The Yoders have traveled 20 or so hours from their home in Sugar Creek, Ohio, to the sunny…
If you’re trekking to central Florida for amusement parks, include at least one day to visit the nearby Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. And if you’re a space enthusiast, reserve an extra day because this place is full of things to discovery.
Tagged: Kennedy Space Center, NASA, Space Shuttle
The charm of Key West, the southernmost tourist point in the United States, is built on little things — gypsy chickens, polydactyl cats, happy hour, frozen Key lime pie on a stick, Mallory Square sunsets.ADVERTISING
My recent visit to St. Augustine exposed more of that 454-year heritage and dispelled some oft-repeated legends.
Tagged: Castillo de San Marcos, Florida, pirates, St. Augustine
If you loved the Emmy-award-winning PBS series Downton Abbey, get yourself to St. Augustine, Fla., before January 7, 2018. The historic coastal city is the last stop on a nine-city tour for the collection of elegant, vintage costumes billed as Dressing Downton: Changing Fashions for Changing Times. It runs now through the beginning of the new year and brings the Gilded Age – end of Civil War to Stock Market crash in 1929 – into sharp relief. Staged on the third floor Ballroom Gallery in the historic city’s Lightner Museum, 36 costumes drape mannequins staged in “rooms” decorated with vibrant Asian rugs, and turn-of-the-20th-century fine art and furniture from the museum’s collection. In a mockup of an early 1910s century room – one of…
Tagged: Downton Abbey, Flagler, Florida, St. Augustine, Travel
Our most recent trip to Florida started because Gary wanted to revisit the helicopter he worked on as an Army soldier in Vietnam.
Tagged: helicopter, Travel
Paris Wolfe - Writer + Editor