Experience The Real Florida
Experience The Real Florida
Every year around 40 million visitors come to Florida for the sun, sea and attractions. Most visit the world famous theme parks or enjoy the fabulous palm-fringed sandy beaches.However, while Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse is known the world ever, Florida is host to another mouse that is just as special and the key to exploring the real Florida.The tiny Florida mouse - only found within the State - is one of the hundreds of species of animals, birds and other creatures that live in Florida's magnificent state parks.The chain of 159 state parks is one of Florida's best kept secrets yet they offer a great day out for all the family ? and for a tiny fraction of the cost of spending a day at one of the theme parks.
Just a few miles from Walt Disney World, Sea World and Universal Studios is Wekiwa Springs State Park, an 8,000 acre natural oasis surrounded by urban build up.If you stand on the deck outside the park's nature center and look out at the spring and the lush tropical vegetation beyond, you can enjoy a landscape that is much the same as when the first Spanish explorers ventured inland almost 500 years ago and even when the first Indians arrived almost 12,000 years ago.Wekiwa is a Creek Indian word meaning 'spring of water' and today, the crystal clear spring discharges a staggering 43 million gallons of water every day into a lagoon that has a year round temperature of about 72 degrees.Wekiwa Springs State Park is one of three parks in the area that make up the Wekiva River Basin State Parks, an area covering over 40,000 acres. Wekiva is the Creek Indian word for "running water" so the spring is Wekiwa and the river is Wekiva ? just to confuse you!Admission to the park is just $5 for a car and all passengers so you can spend all day sunbathing, swimming in the lagoon, walking the trails, exploring the wildlife or renting a canoe and paddling up the quiet, winding river.Visit the nature center at the start of your visit which will give you some idea of the wealth of wildlife to be seen within the park's boundaries. You can also learn about the park's rich history.When dinosaurs roamed the rest of North America, Florida was still submerged several hundred feet below the sea. Instead of massive land animals, the warm waters above what was to become Florida were home to giant sharks ? more than 55 feet long. You can still find shark teeth and other fossils in the park although you shouldn't take them.Around 10,000 years ago mammoth, mastodon, saber tooth tiger, camel, rhinoceros, giant ground sloth and glyptodonts ? a 1,000lb ancestor of the armadillo ? roamed the Florida countryside, having been driven south by advancing Ice Age glaciers.Timucuan Indians were the first to settle the area and they established settlements throughout Florida. The Spanish arrived in the 1500s introducing horses and oranges as well as European diseases that killed most of the Indians. In the 18th century settlers began colonizing Central Florida and at the end of the Civil War a hotel was built at the springs and the first tourists arrived.Today, the tourists continue to come and many of them are visitors from outside the U.S. in search of the other Florida. There are picnic areas with grills for barbecuing, family and RV camp sites with hooks up for power and water and primitive camp sites if you want to trek into the backwoods. There are mountain bike trails, hiking trails and horse raiding trails as well as nature walks.Maps are provided free and all trails are clearly signposted so you can move from one trail to another depending on how far you want to walk or how keen you are to get back to the spring and jump in the water.If you are out on the trails, you may see black bear, white tailed deer, raccoon, bobcat, gopher, armadillo and fox squirrel, the largest member of the squirrel family. Many people mistake fox squirrels for monkeys because of their size and the way they sit in the trees. However, there are monkeys in the state park ? descendants of "extras' in a Tarzan movie that escaped during filming many years ago.The park's most famous critter is the alligator which can grow up to 14 feet and there are hundreds in the Wekiva Basin. You can usually spot them while out canoeing.Gators are fascinating creatures. Their teeth grew continuously throughout their lifetime and they exert 2-3,000 lbs of pressure per square inch when biting down ? compared to humans who exert only 5 lbs of pressure when biting down with all their force.Gators can also outswim you in the water and outrun you on land, achieving speeds of 35mph over short distances. Large gators can also jump vertically four to five feet out of the water ? a good reason not to mess with them!There are many other interesting any interesting and unusual animals, birds, reptiles and insects to see in the park.So, the next time you are planning a visit to Central Florida, say hi to Mickey and then enjoy a great and affordable family day out with Florida's other mouse and experience the delights of the real Florida.Wekiwa State Springs Park is off Wekiwa Springs Road in Apopka, about 10 miles from all the main attractions. Visit their website at www.floridastateparks.org/wekiwaspringsDon Philpott spent 20 years as a senior correspondent with Reuters/Press Association wire service traveling the world on assignments. He has had more than 5,000 articles and 56 books published on travel, security, wine, food, and diet and health.He recently completed a five year project writing a series of 22 travel guidebooks on Florida and the Caribbean. His latest book The Trailside Cookbook, was co-authoried with his wife Pam and was published by Firefly in March 05. He is host of http://www.wineinfo101.com, a wine and food appreciation website and senior editor of Florida Features which specializes in articles on Florida and the Caribbean. He is a member of the International Food, Wine and Travel Writers Association and the North American Travel Journalists Association.
Aquarium Supplies Part 1 — My First Experience With Bettas
Aquarium Supplies Part 1 -- My First Experience With Bettas
Keeping fish as pets takes more than just feeding them and changing the water every once in a while. Sadly, many people aren't aware of that and they just buy aquarium fish because they're attractive. After a short while the fish start to get sick and die one after the other, and the newbie would lose interest in the hobby and give it up all together.Basic knowledge of fish keeping, together with the right aquarium supplies, is crucial to the livelihood and longevity of your fish. It's important to maintain the optimum living conditions for your fish and other living things you may have in your aquarium if you are to enjoy them for a long time.To illustrate this, I shall share with you my own experiences when I got started with this hobby for the very first time as a child. The first experience was with bettas and the second with goldfish; two different kinds of fish with different requirements.My first pet fish were a pair of bettas (a male and a female) which my mom bought me because she knew that I liked fish and felt sorry for me because a toy fish was all I had.We put the bettas in a small plastic jar with a floating live plant. The male was aggressive. He continuously chased after the female and attacked her until she was full of bruises. One night, running out of place to hide, the female desperately jumped out of the water onto the floor. Fortunately I was nearby and was able to save her.My mom then suggested that we separate the fish. So we put the female in a different jar. However, I felt that the female was lonely. So one day I asked my mom if I could buy another fish. There was a beautiful green male betta that I decided to buy.At that time I didn't know that bettas were fighting fish and that the males would fight with each other. So at first I decided to put the new male in the same container as the first male. I knew the first male was aggressive and I just wondered how he would react toward another male.To my amazement the two males fought with each other and there was no sign that they would stop. After a while I got worried. I didn't want any of them to die so I finally separated them and put the new male together with the female, and to my pleasant surprise they got along pretty well.However, that little jar was kind of small for a pair of fish although they got along. So, we decided to move the fish to a much larger plastic container. Later I added a couple more females so that it became sort of a betta community tank.Being fascinated by the beauty of the male bettas, I bought a couple more and put each in individual jars. I fed them dried food and occasionally bread. However, I fed them too much. The water would become cloudy fast from fish waste and uneaten food. So, I completely changed the water every other day. I would fill up the jar with new water right from the tap.As you might guess, the fish didn't last very long. After only a few months they started to get sick and eventually one after the other died.Dirty water, untreated new water, fluctuating water temperatures, and trauma from being moved frequently during water changes were some of the factors that contributed to the fish's low resistance to diseases.Although it's acceptable to keep bettas in relatively small containers without aeration, it would be much better to put them in a tank of at least 2 gallons, and you would still need to observe certain basic things such as not feeding them too much and setting aside new water to equilibrate the temperature and remove chorine prior to water changes.I was only about 10 years old at the time and didn't know anything about fish keeping. Neither did my mom. Also, back then there were very few books about aquarium fish and the aquarium supplies were not as sophisticated as they are today.Today, there are plenty of good books and magazines as well as web sites about fish aquariums. So, if you're serious about taking up this hobby, you should start by reading a few of them and gain the basic knowledge before you even buy your aquarium and fish.In the next article you will learn what happened when I tried to keep some goldfish, also with very little knowledge. In the mean time I invite you to visit my web site (see below) to learn more about aquarium fish keeping.About the author:Jonathan Wangsa is the webmaster of All About Aquarium Supplies. There you can find resources and information about aquarium supplies and other aquarium related topics. Whether you're an expert or a newbie, you can also share your own experiences.Get a Free Special Report when you sign up for a Free Monthly Newsletter.
How To Have A Life Changing Experience – Positive-Attitude
How To Have A Life Changing Experience
Can you really plan a life-changing experience, or do they just happen? Are they accident's of fate, inherited life forces, or can they be experiences the we choose?A brief story. Soon after graduating I left home for adventure and discovery, and perhaps a life-changing experience. My mind was virtually a blank canvas for experience to paint a path for my future. I travelled afar and engaged in different employments in different places. I met many interesting people, in interesting places on my journey to discover what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. A year passed. I'd had a fantastic time, but, I hadn't really discovered where my future lay. I returned home and took up employment related to my degree WITHOUT a passion. To cut a long story short, despite moving around the world I continued in unfulfiling employment and wondered how things could change.So many times have I heard reports of devastating experiences or holidays of a lifetime but are they really? Is a life-changing experience one that shapes a moment in time or is it an experience that we savour day in, day out, for the rest of our lives. Isn't the real experience the present and our thoughts we want to capture, and remember, and become a foundation for our existence.It was some years before I really manage to to grasp my life to make it a 'life-changing' experience that we all seek. You can explore the world in search of life's riches but until you're really appreciate that you can mould your existence, you may not find that life-changing experience. Take time to explore your mind and discover who you are, and who you want to be, before you leave home. You'll then be on a journey that you can savour with a passion.About The AuthorDave has a degree and has studied the sciences behind self improvement for many years. He has a passion for making the tools for self improvement widely available and operates the website: www.wingsofdestiny.com