Every Day Is Special: March 3 – Statehood Day for Florida

Posted on March 3, 2017

The land of sunshine and oranges...

The land of alligator- and manatee-rich Everglades...

The land of retired folks, Cuban expats, and vacationing families, with its amusement parks and Keys and Caribbean cruises...

All of this and so much more is Florida, which became the 27th U.S. state on this date in 1845.

Did you know...?

Florida was named "Land of Flowers" (La Florida) by Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon.

Of the 48 contiguous states, Florida has the longest coastline and is the only state that borders on the Gulf of Mexico AND the Atlantic Ocean.

Due to all that sunshine, Florida is known for golf, tennis, auto racing, and water sports.

Florida is also known for its role in space exploration. Thousands of workers moved to Cape Canaveral, and it became the center of aeronautics, engineering, and other Space Age sciences and manufacturing.

Tourism, tourism, tourism!

Tourism is a big part of the Florida economy.

My absolute favorite spot to visit in Florida is the Kennedy Space Center, at Cape Canaveral. The exhibits there are thrilling. And it's not all about the past -- SpaceX is still using Cape Canaveral! Did you hear that SpaceX is planning to send two tourists around the moon next year? They will launch right there, at Cape Canaveral!

My second favorite spot was Everglades National Park. The alligators were amazing! The mangrove forests were cool, and we were thrilled to spot manatees in the wild.

I went to Florida for more than a week and managed not to go to even one amusement park! But millions go there every year and enjoy Disney World, Sea World, Universal Studios (including the Wizarding World of Harry Potter), and many other amusement parks.

(In my defense, I live in Southern California and have gone to the originals of most of these amusement parks many, many times.)

Here are some of my other favorites tourist spots in Florida: