World Hum | Travel | Thomas Swick’s Seven Wonders of South Florida

Travel dispatches from a shrinking planet

The Perils of Traveling by Private Jet

Los Angeles Native Jonny Olsen: Huge in Laos

Saving Chekhov’s Yalta ‘White Dacha’ Home

How Can I Save on Transportation During a Round-the-World Trip?

Vagabonding traveler Rolf Potts answers your questions about travel

The Hollywood horror archives are filled with tales of bad trips. To celebrate Halloween, Eva Holland and Eli Ellison sift through the carnage to pick their favorites—and lose a little sleep doing so.

Q&A

Matt Weiland: Through 50 States With 50 Writers

The coeditor of “State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America” talks to Frank Bures about the book, the WPA and how the United States hasn’t been “bulldozed for speed”

HOW TO

Love Herring in Sweden

From artery-clogging casseroles to a fermented concoction that smells alarmingly like vinegary flatulence, Lola Akinmade digs in to a smörgåsbord of herring and explains how to best appreciate Scandinavia’s favorite fish.

BOOKS

The Water Is Wide

Bronwen Dickey considers Tim Butcher’s “Blood River: A Journey to Africa’s Broken Heart,” which takes readers deep into the Congo

SPEAKER'S CORNER

Vagrant Ruminations of a Compulsive Traveler

Where does the urge to hunt for that “fleeting fix of elsewhere” come from? Peter Wortsman recalls a life of travel inspiration.

AUDIO SLIDESHOW

Notes From an Unofficial Tourist Greeter

Summer is over, and so is Julia Ross‘ season as an ambassador to travelers in Washington, D.C.’s Woodley Park neighborhood. She’s happy to be off duty.

TRAVEL BLOG

8.27.07

Thomas Swick’s Seven Wonders of South Florida

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel recently named its readers’ picks for the seven wonders of the region. They included, predictably, the Florida Everglades, Walt Disney World and the Florida Keys. On Sunday, travel editor Thomas Swick named seven other wonders, and his was just the kind of quirky list we like.

Among the wonders making his top seven: I-95 ("a geographical and socioeconomic divide, separating beaches from flatlands, downtowns from suburbs, main streets from strip malls, celebrity chefs from cheap ethnic restaurants"); the absence of a symphony orchestra; and, my favorite, the light.

Writes Swick of that final pick: “Everybody raves about it in the south of France, while hardly anybody talks about it in the South of Florida. True, Van Gogh and Cezanne never captured it, but Clyde Butcher has. You awake in the morning and open your eyes to a startling clarity. In midafternoon of the hottest, stickiest summer day the sky is still blue, the clouds obese (more overlooked wonders). And then in the evening, as the sun dips low, the world is reborn in high definition.”

Related on World Hum:
* Seven Wonders of the Shrinking Planet

Photo by minds-eye via Flickr, (Creative Commons).

Posted by Jim Benning • 8.27.07
Categories: Weblog • Florida

Permalink • Comments (3)

COMMENTS

Yes, Florida’s “light”, in my opinion, is its #1 feature. Once I moved here, it took 4 or 5 months to get used to the incredible clarity and brightness. It’s just beautiful.

I kind of take it for granted now after 15 years, but I can’t help but be almost overwhelmed with it again as soon as I get off a plane here after visiting the northeast.

It it is true also that nobody seems to talk about it.

By wholesale car josh on 3.5.08 at 11:36 AM

Florida is indeed a beauty that takes so many words to describe it. The one thing that always comes to my mind whenever I think of Florida is the everglades and then there is the hurricane season which would be there soon enough, Florida is unique in so many aspects, and let us not forget teh ever present alligators,

By karthik cmouli on 4.13.08 at 02:29 AM

Florida is a wonderful place to go. The beaches, the sun, the people. I would rec. it to anybody who hasn’t come up and I would agree with the sun-sentinel it is one of those wonders that not everyone talks about.

Good article!

By on 11.3.08 at 07:28 AM