For my fiancé's birthday this year I surprised him with a week-end trip to Lake Wales, FL to visit Bok Sanctuary. If you're visiting Central Florida, try to make a stop here.
I don't know exactly how large the property is, but it's huge! We were there most of the day and didn't quite see everything. There's a narrated walking tour (optional, but included with the price of admission) that starts at the gift shop, makes its way up "Iron Mountain" (better known to everyone outside FL as a large hill), and ends at the carillon tower (there actually is a person playing; it's not a recording -- how cool is that?). You can't enter the tower, but the view from the garden behind it is amazing -- you can see for miles.
Both amateur and professional photographers alike will delight in all the photo opportunities. There's the Gardens, the Window by the Pond (literally a window at the edge of the pond so you can see the wildlife up close), Pinewood Estate (for an additional admission, but you can walk around for free), and of course the Tower.
I wish I could post photos, but here's the official http://www.boksanctuary.org/index.html to check it out yourself. My avatar is actually a photo I took in the gardens at Bok Sanctuary.
Another cool thing about visiting Bok Sanctuary is that from the entrance, where you pay the admission, to the actual tower, you have to drive a couple miles along an orange grove.
And by the way, apparently it's against the law to pick the oranges in the grove. We stopped the car to take some up close photos near the trees and while I was busy trying to take photos of myself (using the timer feature) with the Tower behind me in the distance, a park official (at least I think) caught my fiancé plucking a couple oranges off a tree. He let us keep the oranges but told us we weren't allowed to do that. We quickly got into the car and drove to the Tower. Those were the best tasting oranges I've ever had! LOL
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