Archive for January, 2011

Maclay State Gardens

Thursday, January 27th, 2011
Potted Flowers near the Reflection Pool at Maclay Gardens

The reflecting pool at Maclay Gardens

While much of the country is blanketed in snow, flowers are blooming at the Maclay Gardens and State Park in Quincy, Florida. Expect lots of colorful blossoms through April, particularly in mid-to-late March. The Maclay home is also open for tours at this time.

Alfred B. Maclay was a successful New York financier. He and his wife kept a summer home in Quincy (today perhaps they would have simply stayed in a lovely Quincy Florida Bed and Breakfast). First planted in 1923 by the financier and his wife Louise, the gardens feature thousands of mature plantings on hundreds of acres. (more…)

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Jacksonville’s Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens

Wednesday, January 19th, 2011

A winter retreat to a Jacksonville Florida Bed and Breakfast should include at least one trip to the impressive Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens.

Visit The Cummer Museum in Jacksonville, Florida.

Ninah and Arthur Cummer were prominent Jacksonville citizens in the first half of the 20th century. Arthur Cummer was president of the Cummer Lumber Company and held many other positions of prominence in the community. His wife Ninah was an avid appreciator and collector of art. In 1961, three years after Nina’s death, The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens opened with the sixty works of art collected by the Cummers.

Today that modest collection has grown to approximately six thousand works of art spanning eight thousand years and many cultures. (more…)

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Tarpon Springs: Greeks and Sponges

Tuesday, January 11th, 2011

Tarpon Springs was settled by enterprising Greek immigrants at the end of the 19th century. Located at the mouth of the Anclote River in Central West Florida, Tarpon Springs was an ideal place for them to practice sponge diving, a trade their families had practiced for generations in Greece.

sponges

Sponge diving is alive and well in Tarpon Springs.

Indeed, sponges were abundant in the Gulf of Mexico at the turn of the 20th century, and Tarpon Springs thrived. Dodecanese Street, where shops and eateries face rows of docks, positively bustled with activity. So long as the sponges were healthy and numerous, so were the businesses of Tarpon Springs. (more…)

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Fantasy of Flight in Central East Florida

Monday, January 3rd, 2011

Flight museums hold an inexplicable allure for many people, perhaps because the fact that people can fly continues to be astonishing even now, more than 100 years after the Wright Brothers’ first flight.

Guests of Central East Florida Bed and Breakfasts will find Fantasy of Flight, in Polk City Florida, to be a unique aviation museum, and one well worth a visit. Visitors may examine more than 40 rare and vintage aircraft housed in a lovely Art Deco facility. In addition, guided tours of the working restoration and maintenance areas are offered – a rare treat, indeed. (more…)

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Posted in Central East Florida | No Comments »

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