This trip served these purposes:

• Photograph one more state capitol building -- #33 Florida -- towards my goal of photographing all 50
• Visit one more national park -- Castillo de San Marcos -- towards my goal of visiting 100
• Visit two major universities -- Florida State and Univ. of Florida -- towards my goal of visiting most all major ones
• See St. Augustine, the oldest continuous city in the U.S.
• See a friend-slash-former-co-worker and see a former Tennessee high school classmate whom I have not seen since high school, we reconnected via email a few years ago. Interestingly, this was the first time I had done any activity with either of these people outside of work or school. So, to me, that officially makes them a "friend".

FLORIDA: I have been to Florida three other times in the past. After this fourth one I still have at least one more trip, that time to southern Florida since I have yet to visit Miami, Key West and Ft. Myers.

MISSED VISITING:
--Nothing really, it was intended to be a short fast trip and I covered all I expected to see

OBSERVATIONS: Some observations made while traveling in this area:

• The northernmost part of Florida (e.g. the part between Tallahassee and Jacksonville) has different trees than the rest of the state (which has countless palm trees)
• For most of the 48 states, the east-west interstates are the ones most heavily traveled, particularly for semi-trucks. But Florida, mostly being tall and skinny, has most of its traffic running north and south. Guess that is the same along the two coasts. I-75 was very busy even on a Saturday.
• Florida has lots of white sand, good roads, no "deer crossing" signs, and leaves that were of fall color (at least in the northern parts).
• I had always assumed that the biggest money maker for the state is tourism. Now I know that tourism is #2. The biggest seems to be the cops pulling people over to write them tickets. Supposedly the tourists are getting the tickets too so maybe tourism IS #1!
• Like Southern California, the lifestyle in Florida is different from the South, New England, Midwest and West. Florida seems a slower pace than Los Angeles.
• I knew that those Snow Birds go to Florida during the winter months. However, I also learned that traffic lights go there too. I listened to my GPS for the shortest route (it was WRONG!) which took me from I-75 towards Altamonte Springs across highway 436 (and others). There had to have been, and I am NOT exaggerating, at least 200 traffic lights along that route. So my expected one hour route took almost two hours to drive.

The Bests:

1. Visiting my Tennessee classmate and a former co-worker who both now live in Florida
2. Walking along the beaches in St. Augustione
3. Boat tour of the lakes and canals in Winter Park
4. Climbing to the top of the St. Augustine lighthouse and seeing the views from there
5. Seeing Ft. Castillo de San Marcos

The Worsts:

1. After being on the Florida white sandy beach at 3:00 pm then being in snow-covered Kansas City a few hours later where the temperature was zero and wind chill of minus ten -- and me without a winter coat which was in my car at the KC airport so getting from the terminal to the car was Brrrrr!
2. Being concerned the whole time in Florida if I would be able to make my scheduled flight home due to it being cancelled because of the Kansas City forecast for 6 - 8 inches of snow after getting ice. Fortunately, I eventually learned that the snow was much less than expected. Hurray for inaccurate meteorologists!
3. Having two very nice hotel rooms but was hardly in them due to my busy schedule
4. Traffic lights near Orlando and GPS's that do not really know the "fastest routes"

The Totals:

• Miles Driven: 664
• Driving: 10 hours (plus time touring around both Winter Park on Saturday afternoon and St. Augustine on Sunday)
• States: 1 -- Florida
• National Parks: 1 -- Castillo de San Marcos (which is national park #71 to visit towards to goal of visiting 100)
• Pictures Taken: 101 (and deleted 6 of them)