Page 10 - 2024-2025 Travel Guide to Florida

WELCOME TO FLORIDA
EMBARK ON YOUR FLORIDA JOURNEY
GETTING AROUND
Florida is easy to explore by vehicle. Bring your own or rent one. Visitors ages 16 and older with a valid license from other states or countries may drive in Florida. Cash is no longer accepted on some Florida toll roads. Purchase a SunPass Mini Trans- ponder online or at retail locations such as Walgreens, Publix or CVS pharmacy for $4.99 plus tax. A minimum opening prepaid balance of $10 is required. Most rental cars offer the use of a SunPass.
Drivers and front-seat passen- gers must wear seat belts. Children under 18 must wear seat belts, regardless of where they are sitting. Children, ages 3 and younger, must be secured in a federally approved separate or integrated car seat in the back seat; children, ages four and five, must be in the back seat and secured by a booster seat or a full or integrated car seat.
Florida has strict drunk driving laws and texting while driving is illegal. Pedestrians always have the right of way at crosswalks. And remember, hot pavement acts like ice when rain first hits it, so be cautious driving during rain showers.
SURF TIME, JACKSONVILLE BEACH • VISIT JACKSONVILLE/RYAN KETTERMAN
8 2024-25 TRAVEL GUIDE TO FLORIDA
T he Sunshine State has attracted visitors to its sandy shores for the past 500 years. But go back earlier.
Records indicate people first reached Florida at least 12,000 years ago. The coastline was very different then because the sea level was much lower than it is today. As a result, the Florida peninsula was more than twice its current size. Florida has exerted a magnetic pull on a number of visitors for centuries—beginning with the Spanish explorer and adventurer, Juan Ponce de León who landed on this sunny shoreline in 1513.
Although many Native American peoples already lived here, Ponce de León named what he saw “La Florida,” or “place of flowers,” because of the lush landscape. Indeed, Florida has 300 native plants, ranging from the thorny sweet acacia to the wild azalea.
The state also hosts an additional 1,300- plus introduced exotics, including some that were naturally brought into the environment and are considered harmless and others that are invasive. Botanical gardens, such as the renowned Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden and the Central Florida Zoo and Botanical Gardens, are excellent places to learn about the state’s oft-bizarre vegetative life.
A BOUNTIFUL LAND
The state flower is the orange blossom, which is considered an exotic, albeit one that became extremely important to the region’s economy. Native to Southeast Asia, the orange tree is an evergreen shrub brought to the colony of St. Augustine in 1565. The orange and its aromatic blossom, which represents fertility and good fortune, quickly became representative of the area.