Pictures: Florida getaways of the day

On the north side of Longboat Key is Joan M. Durante Park, which looks to be a simple city park wedged between restaurants along Gulf of Mexico Drive. But it’s much, much more. Read more.

Ochopee in Collier County is home to the Skunk-Ape Research Headquarters, the premier (read: only) location to learn all the “facts” about this malodorous monkey man of lore. If you do find evidence of a skunk ape, get your picture developed and mail it from the smallest post office in the United States right there in Ochopee. Read more.

The Mad Hatter restaurant on Sanibel Island serves new American cuisine amid the whimsy of Lewis Carroll and fantastic views of the Gulf of Mexico. Read more.

The Linger Lodge Restaurant and Campground offers road kill alongside mainstream fare, along with a quiet riverside location in Bradenton, in a slice of Old Florida whose days may be numbered. Read more.

A tourist attraction since 1935, Sunken Gardens is so named because it was originally formed by draining a sinkhole. It’s one of the nation’s oldest roadside attractions and was named a historic landmark in 1998. Read more.

In St. Petersburg, you can now experience museum yoga: a 10:30 a.m. class nearly every Sunday at The Dali Museum. Read more.

The historic Tampa Theatre has spent the past several decades offering crowd-pleasing fare — including first-run and classic movies of all types, concerts, comedians and community events. Read more.

St. Petersburg has a reputation as a laid-back beach town with a hipster flair. Few know it’s also the home of one of the largest Holocaust museums in the country, The Florida Holocaust Museum. Read more.

Gibsonton in Hillsborough County is the traditional wintering home for circus folk since the heyday of nomadic entertainment during the Great Depression. Gibtown, as locals call it, was once a haven for human oddities, as the performers often called themselves. Read more.

Used until 1979, the site features 22 buildings, including three missile barns. Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004, the site was opened to tours in 2009. Read more.

Formerly a Ritz-Carlton property, this is the spa for those who don’t take themselves so seriously. The spa touts itself as a 42,000-square-foot playground. Read more.

Right across State Road A1A in Delray Beach is a quaint looking two-story house with a wraparound porch and pool out back. It could be any beachside house, except there are sharks in the pool, turtles on the porch and the house is crawling with snakes, frogs and even an owl. Read more.

There’s music in the ocean in the Florida Keys. At least scuba divers do their best to pretend to play music during the annual Underwater Music Festival, held in July at Looe Key Reef. Read more.

With 88 pinball machines as well as two dozen arcade games, the attraction has been attracting the flipper-obsessed since it opened in 2016. Read more.

Trailing off the end of the Florida Keys sit the Dry Tortugas, seven small keys named by Juan Ponce de Leon in 1513, all chock full of history and natural wonders. Read more.

For those looking for some elevation in flat Florida, just north of Jupiter is some unusually hilly terrain and Jonathan Dickinson State Park, which locals refer to as “JD Park.” Read more.

Farms abound in the Redlands, and there are several farm and fruit stands throughout the area, but two stand out for their tasty offerings: Knaus Berry Farm and Robert Is Here. Read more.

Along South Patrick Drive in Indian Harbour Beach, Too Cool Cafe is a great option for breakfast, lunch or dinner that you can fit into a beach day visit to the quiet stretches of sand in the cities between Cocoa Beach and Melbourne. Read more.

This two-story oasis was built in 1925 to provide lonely, thirsty lumberjacks and cowboys a haven from the dangers of the palmetto wilderness. Today, the Desert Inn operates as a restaurant, roadside attraction and iconic tribute to the heyday of Florida exploration and industry. Read more.

This park in Volusia County has nature trails through scrub forests that connect to a 1.5-mile-long raised boardwalk loop, allowing you to easily access all the habitats. Read more.

Juan Ponce de León Landing in Melbourne Beach is where the famous Spanish explorer made his first step on Florida’s shore. Perhaps. Read more.

The Ormond Scenic Loop and Trail in Volusia County includes 30 miles of roads that go deep into the natural no-man’s land between Ormond Beach and Flagler Beach. Read more.

Turtles and a Disney treat on the cheap can be found at a small ice cream spot across from the beach in Brevard County. Read more.

Cousteau’s Waffle and Milkshake Bar in downtown St. Augustine serves up its two edible offerings seriously, and all with homage to the late Jacques Cousteau. Read more.

More than 200 fruit bats at the Lubee Bat Conservancy in Gainesville will be on display during the annual Bat Festival on Saturday, Oct. 21. Read more.

Your chances of seeing a wild wolf in Florida are slim to none. Thanks to the Seacrest Wolf Preserve in Chipley, just north of Panama City, you can interact with packs of wolves in a natural environment. Read more.

Antique glassware is among the shopping attractions in Micanopy, a short drive south of Gainesville. Read more.

One of the mastodon skeletons at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville. Florida’s official state-sponsored and chartered natural history museum is located on the campus of the University of Florida. Read more.

Entrance to Black Hammock Adventures in Oviedo. The Black Hammock Adventures bar and restaurant, tucked on a southern shore of Lake Jesup, has been a popular watering hole for decades in rural east Seminole County. Read more.

If there is one destination in Florida that encompasses the rich tapestry of the Sunshine State’s 503 years, the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument --the iconic fortress in St. Augustine-- is it. Read more.

Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park is home to one of the largest and deepest freshwater springs in the world. Located 14 miles south of Tallahassee at the crossroads of State Road 61 and State Road 267, it’s a big draw for divers to its vast cave system that begins 180 feet down and is an exit point for the Floridan Aquifer. Read more.

The Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! museum os among the most well-known of the family-friendly attractions in St. Augustine. Read more.

The new Daytona International Speedway Motorsports Stadium is seen fully lighted on a rainy night, Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2016. The two-year, $400 million renovation of the speedway was completed in time for the 2016 Daytona 500. Read more.

Scenes from the first day of harvest of the Welder muscadine grapes at the Lakeridge Winery & Vineyards in Clermont, Fla., Tuesday, July 31, 2012. Lakeridge is the largest winery in the state, with 85 acres of planted vineyard. The winery’s annual Harvest Grape Stomp is in August. Read more.

A trio of storks at sunset at Sebastian Inlet State Park in Melbourne Beach. Established in 1970, the inlet is highly known for its abundance in saltwater fishing but there is also an excellent campground for RVs and tents along the a 3-mile stretch on the Indian River Lagoon. Read more.

The Christ of the Abyss is an 8 1/2-foot, 4000-pound bronze sculpture of Jesus Christ in 25 feet of water off of Key Largo, Florida. It was installed in 1965 as tourist attraction in John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. Read more.

There’s one animal attraction in Florida unlike the others, and that’s because you drive through it. Lion Country Safari in west Palm Beach County invites visitors to roll through a Safari from the comfort of your air conditioned car listening to a CD that narrates your self-guided tour through compounds that house all sorts of African animals. Read more.

C’mon. It’s Florida. How can you not visit the Everglades? It covers the southern half of the state, so it’s not hard to find them. The River of Grass is worth your time too, with one of the best opportunities to see Florida’s vast array of wildlife including alligators, the American crocodile and hundreds of bird species. Read more.

Rapids Water Park is the largest water park in South Florida. One of its signature rides is Big Thunder. Read more.

Miami is well known for its beaches, nightlife and now for its museums. The Perez Art Museum Miami, also known as PAMM, is a contemporary art museum located in Miami’s Museum Park. Read more.

St. Armands Circle offers a little bit of everything that brings visitors to Sarasota: shopping, dining, art, culture and, of course, a waterfront view. The island shopping center boasts more than 100 stores and is located just a short walk away from the sandy shores of the Gulf of Mexico. There’s also a touch of art with several marble white statues around the circle. Read more.

Rainbow Springs in Dunnellon is Florida’s fourth largest spring, but what sets it apart are its waterfalls. Three man-made waterfalls come from when the park was a privately owned attraction. Read more.

The Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg displays 20,000 works of art dating back 5,000 years to present day. Featured artists include Claude Monet, Georgia O’Keeffe and Pierre-Auguste. Read more.

What if you went to a swamp and there were no mosquitoes? That’s what you get at the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary near Naples. Even though it’s on the western edges of the Everglades, there’s rarely a mosquito problem. There is a serious plague of bird singing though. As you take the 2.5-mile walk along the boardwalk, birdsong is everywhere. Be sure to bring binoculars or rent a pair for $3 at the entrance. Read more.

Though the 2011 film “Dolphin Tale” put this place on the map, it has been rescuing, rehabilitating and releasing sick and injured animals since 1972 when it was known as Clearwater Marine Science Center. Winter, the tailless dolphin, rests on her mat in this 2007 file photo. Read more.

From its humble beginnings as a sandwich shop in 1905, Columbia Restaurant in Tampa’s Ybor City now boasts the honor of being the oldest eatery in the state and the largest Spanish restaurant in the world. Read more.