Exploring central Florida

   We’re trying to explore central Florida more this year. This week we visited Winter Park, a suburb of Orlando, and Juniper Springs, one of many natural springs in the area.

   Winter Park was delightful. Juniper Springs was fundamentally frightening.

   Winter Park’s city website says the 28,486-resident city was created in 1887 as a “winter resort for wealthy Northerners seeking refuge from the harsh winters.”  We checked out the Park Avenue neighborhood which featured a narrow park along the western side of the brick street and a nice mixture of shops and restaurants on the other side.

   Barnie’s Coffee Kitchen was a real find. There is a small courtyard with a handful of tables and a fountain, but more importantly, they have micro-roasted coffee. We picked up a bag of Tanzanian coffee beans, which is by far the best coffee we’ve found in our travels.

   We had lunch at Ethos, a vegan restaurant just off Park Avenue. The “chicken” Marsala was best vegan meal I’ve ever had at a restaurant.

   Rollins College is at the southern end of Park Avenue. We strolled the lake front, but didn’t take time to explore the Cornell Fine Arts Museum or the sinkhole that swallowed up a city block in 1981. So we’re planning another trip. Hate to miss a Florida sinkhole.

   Which brings us to Juniper Springs.

   Central Florida is home to a good number of natural springs, many of which are used as swimming areas. The water is cool and, because the head of the springs, where the water bubbles up from beneath the ground, can be somewhat enclosed to keep alligators at bay, it sounds good, right?

   Except for the “bubbles up from the ground part.”

   Now, I’m no geologist, but my understanding of sinkholes – gathered from reading the information plaques at the several sinkholes we’ve visited - is that they are created by water dissolving the underlying limestone enough that the ground above sinks into the newly created hole. So swimming above a limestone area that is so full of water that it ‘boils’ up to the surface sounds to me like swimming in a soon-to-be sinkhole.

   Anyhow, the folks we saw at Juniper Springs seemed to be having a great time. And the only alligator we saw was a good fifteen minutes’ walk away.