Florida Gulf Coast

Our first stop after leaving the Everglades was Koreshan State Park near Fort Myers, FL.  Koreshan State Park includes buildings built by the Koreshan Unity when they settled in this area in the late 1890’s.  For some interesting reading, look up the Koreshan Unity.  For one thing, they believed in a hollow earth where the continents were on the inside of the crust and the sky was inside the earth.

Photos from Koreshan State Park

This is the globe they used to demonstrate their belief of a hollow earth.

We made it out to Captiva Island late one afternoon.

Next stop was Lake Manatee State Park near St. Petersburg.  We spent a day at The Dali, a museum dedicated to the works of Salvitore Dali.

When you view the painting above from several hundred feet away you see the image of the head of Abraham Lincoln similar to the smaller image in the lower left of the painting, only it’s the entire painting, which, by the way, is roughly 20’ wide and 30’ tall.  If you look closely at the sunlit clouds at the top of the painting you can see a downward view of the crucifixion.

There are multiple images in the painting above, which is another 20’ wide by 30’ high painting.  At the bottom center you can see the left side of a dalmatian which is facing away and has its head down.  The painting is called The Toreador.  It took me forever to find the toreador, but once I did I now see it all the time.  The green vertical is his tie and the red to the right of the green is his cape.

Then we went to The Ringling, which was the winter residence of John Ringling when the circus wasn’t traveling.  

The next set of pictures is a scale model of the Ringling Brothers Circus.  To give you an idea of the scale, the people in the model are approximately 3” high.

And now some photos of actual circus wagons and costumes:

And now some photos of Ca’ d’Zan, John Ringling’s home.  Ca’ d’Zan means House of John in the Venetian dialect.

Our next stop was St. George Island State Park.

Then to Shell Island at St. Andrews State Park.


Our stop in Florida was Falling Waters State Park, home of the tallest waterfall in Florida which drops some 80’ into a giant sinkhole.

Two stops on the way from Florida to Louisiana.  One in Alabama and one in Mississippi.  The photo below is Davis Bayou in the Gulf Islands National Seashore in Mississippi.

We are currently in a state park south of New Orleans.  Happy Mardi Gras!

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