Orlando - Off The Beaten Path: Discovering Central Florida Without Visiting Any Theme Parks... Can It Be Done?

One of my husband's favourite places is Florida, sincewe enjoyed a wonderful picnic by the waterfront in
he is an avid golfer and likes to get away from thesunny downtown Kissimmee. Then, on a beautiful
cold Canadian winter for his birthday in earlySunday morning we drove about an hour outside of
December.Orlando to reach the quaint town of Mt. Dora, where I
For a while now we had planned to visit Orlando, buthopped on the "Herbie Express", part of the Mt. Dora -
neither one of us are into theme parks. So there wasLake Eustis Scenic Railway.
the challenge for me: would we be able to visitFrom midweek in the second week onwards the
Orlando without setting foot into Disney or Universalweather took a turn for the worse. While planes were
Studios? For someone as curious as me this was asliding off runways in Chicago and record
suitable challenge and I had been doing weeks oftemperatures were registered in the mid-western
searches on the Internet and communicating with thestates, we were freezing in Florida where the mercury
Orlando Convention and Visitors Bureau to find outhovered around 68 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit (around
about interesting destinations off the beaten path.+20 degrees Celsius). So I bought a rain jacket, and
Well, I am happy to say, we arrived back safelydetermined not to let the freezing cold interfere with
yesterday from our trip, and the trip itself was quite anour plans, we headed out to continue our explorations.
adventure since we decided to drive from Toronto toOn a day that was forecast to be rainy, but just
Orlando, about 2100 km each way! Actually, the driveended up being a bit grey and clammy, we went out
was not as painful as I expected. The drive throughto discover Loch Haven Park, Orlando's center of
Pennsylvania and West Virginia was nice and hilly, and Iscience, art and culture. We then continued our
particularly enjoyed coming over the ridge of theexplorations further south to discover some of
Appalachians, right where Virginia and North CarolinaOrlando's historic neighbourhoods and parks such as
meet, where you get a beautiful view of the piedmontLake Cherokee and Lake Lucerne.
area around Winston-Salem that spreads out towardsAs the drizzly weather continued, we went on to visit
the Atlantic in front of the mountain chain.Florida's Natural Visitor Center in Lake Wales, about an
And I am even happier to say that in the 14 or so dayshours drive south of Orlando, where I got a really good
that we spent in Orlando, not only did we get to play aunderstanding of Central Florida's citrus industry. I spent
lot of golf (to make my husband really happy...;) -the afternoon in another famous attraction in Lake
including Mystic Dunes, Champions Gate, Royal St.Wales which holds two National Historic Landmarks:
Cloud Links, Hawk's Landing and Timacuan Golf andthe Historic Bok Sanctuary, where I got to see the
Country Club, not to mention the Walking Hall of Famebeauty of the Bok estate and its historic carillon tower,
experience of the PGA Father Son Challenge atcombined with a tour through the historic Pinewood
Champions Gate, but I also got to explore some reallyEstate, which was decked out in full Christmas
interesting places, destinations I would not havedecorations.
expected in Orlando and its surrounding region. I alsoDuring these 2 weeks in Florida, we got exposed to a
had a chance to do an interview with GolfOrlando tolot of its plants, flowers and wildlife, much of which you
get a much better idea of why Orlando is called "Therun into casually even while playing golf or picknicking
Ultimate Golf Theme Park".by the waterfront. Florida has a surprising amount of
We started off our first week with a visit to thenatural diversity and I enjoyed watching the various
Orange Country Regional History Center, which gavetypes of birds, lizards, and squirrels. The only thing we
us a suitable historic background of Orlando anddidn't get to see was a live alligator (with the exception
Central Florida. Then, for some sociological and culturalof the well-hidden rear end of a small alligator during
insights, we visited the Well's Built Museum for Africanour swamp buggy tour - unfortunately I couldn't even
American History and Culture in Orlando. To top offget a good picture of that one..). Apparently winter time
our first day of exploration we enjoyed a walk aroundis too cold for these creatures to come out of the
picturesque Lake Eola in downtown Orlando.water...
The next item on my off-the-beaten path agenda wasOn our drive home, on a bright sunny day (of course...),
a discovery of the City of Winter Park, a beautifulwe stopped off in St. Augustine, a historic town
suburb of Orlando, reminiscent of Old European towns.founded by the Spaniards in the 1500s, and the oldest
I also went on the Winter Park Scenic Boat Tour,continuously inhabited town in the United States - a
which was an entertaining, informative and visuallymighty photogenic place, I should add.
appealing excursion.So, you ask, is it possible to spend 2 weeks in Orlando
The adrenaline revved up significantly on our nextwithout even setting foot inside a theme park and still
outing: a very high-speed airboat ride at Boggy Creek,have a good time? Well, based on the above itinerary
that was followed up by a much lower speed swampI'd say that my plans to explore Orlando off the
buggy ride in a custom-built monster truck that took usbeaten path came to full fruition.
through authentic Florida landscape.Mission accomplished.
After our golf outing at the Royal St. Cloud Golf Links