The Oldest permanent european sttlement in the U.S. is un the
state of Florida. Spanish colonists established the town of
St. Augustine in 1565 and never left. And who could blame them? The found a tropical
paradise where the warm, soft, sandy beaches stretched for 4.000 moles and winter was only
a rumor.
Since 1565, the world has gotten out. Every year, the promise of war,
weather and lots of opportunities for fun draws waves of vacationers and new residents to
Florida.
St. Augustine is brimming with Spanish
historic sites (including an authentic 16th-century castle complete with moat and
drawbridge). And of course there's Orlando and the incoparable Disney World, an immense
entertainment complex that includes the Magic Kigdom, EPCOT Center and Disney-MGM Studios.
Sunset in Everglades National Park
The view from a canoe is the best way
to see the Everglades, the habitat of alligators, manatees and panthers. You can explore
"the river of grass" formed by sawgrass spikes that grow up from shalloew water,
or thread your way fhrough the labyrinth of mangrove swamps.
The state's most important agricultural
crop is citrus fruit: oranges, lemons and grapefruit (Florida grows 70 percent of the
world's grapefruit crop) Spanish settlers brough the orange to Florida. The grapefruit
arrived from the Wast Indies in 1823, when a French aristocrat named Count Odatte Phillipe
planted the first trees near Tampa Bay.
Kennedy Space Center
Miamis is Florida's largest city, and
Latino resident -especially Cuban émigrés and their descendants- make up more than hald
the city's population. Tampa on the Gulf Coast is one of the fastest-growning cities in
the U.S., thanks in part to the economic boom created by its sizeble harbor. Twenty-two
miles across Tampa Bay is St. Petersburg, a laid-back community where the beautiful
braches are among Florida's best-kept secrets.
For an unforgettable Florida expeience,
drive the Overseas Highway 65 miles out to Key West, where the winters are warmer and the
summers cooler than on the mainland, and the sunsets are drop-dead gorgeous. Key West
loves visitors, so when a govenment roadblock in 1982 reduced tourism to a trickle,
residents renamed their island the Conch Republic and voted to secede from the Union. Once
Washintong lifted the roadblock, Key West returned to the Mother Country
