Travels in the 2nd half

    If you visit the town of Mt. Dora, in Florida, there is one activity I highly recommend doing. Take a boat tour of Lake Dora and the Dora Canal. Premier Boat Tours offers and excellent choice of tours. Lake Dora covers over 4000 acres in central Florida and it is a great boating and fishing site, although the alligators make swimming a bit iffy. Premier Boat tours offers three excursions every day, two full tours of the lake and canal, and one sunset cruise. Their base is on the grounds of The Lakeside Inn, and from there you will head off across Lake Dora. Our guide and captain were very knowledgable about the local history and wildlife.  The area is home to many kinds of birds, and also sits on the migration path of many more. On our trip, in early September, we encountered three species of heron, ibis, egrets, limpkin, and anhingas.  Blue Heron White Egrets Tri-Color Heron We also watched as a bald eagle flew from its perch on a lakeside tree, caught and fish,...

  The town of Sanford, Florida is in the middle of the state, about 21 miles north of Orlando. For many travelers, it is best known as the southern terminal of Amtrak’s AutoTrain, a place where you wait for an hour or two for your car to be unloaded, and then hit the road on your way somewhere else. But there is more to Sanford’s history, and it worth taking the time to visit. The area where Sanford is today was settled by European-Americans in 1836, at the start of the first war with the Seminole people. It was part of a chain of forts created by General Zackary Taylor across the territory. While the three wars with the Seminoles were mainly over control of land, another large issue was that the Seminole people took in enslaved people who sought their freedom in the Florida Territory. By 1858, when the third war had ended, the area had already been planted with orange groves, and in 1868, the first fruit packing plant in the area was built.  Sanford was founded in 1869 on th...

Lake Dora   One advantage of being married to a writer is that, when she travels for workshops, retreats, or appearances, I get to tag along, enjoy new places, and take photographs. So, in September, when The Amazin’ Ms. D attended a workshop, I joined her in Mt. Dora , Florida. American settlers moved into the area alongside a beautiful lake in the center of the Florida peninsula in 1874, and by 1880, the first post office was established by Ross C. Tremain, the area’s first real estate developer. The Lake was named Dora, named after Dora Ann Drawdy, one of the first homesteaders in the area. The town was originally named Royellou, after Tremain’s three children - Roy, Ella, and Louis. In 1883, it was renamed Mount Dora, after the lake, and the fact that it is on a plateau 184 feet above sea level, one of Florida’s highest points. In 1883, The Alexander House was built on the shore of Lake Dora, and it quickly became a tourism magnet. Over the decades it has expanded into a much l...