18 Things You Didn't Know About Florida

It’s true. The peninsula is home to over 1,300 green golf courses with popular destinations all over the state (…maybe that’s one reason Donald Trump loves it here). There’s even the World Golf Hall of Fame and Museum in St. Augustine, Florida.

Miami Beach’s winding sidewalks are a popular spot for rollerblading, so it’s no surprise that in 1996, Citibank on Washington Avenue installed the first skate-through ATM lane for rollerbladers. Because, why not?

Located in DeFuniak Springs, the Lake Defuniak is primarily spring fed, round and covers 40 acres of water.

Plan your holiday vacation here. Winter or summer, Key West boasts the hottest average temperatures all year-around.

Look again. Florida may be the southernmost state in the continental USA, but geographically, Hawaii is the southernmost. (Check your maps!)

South Florida is home to swampy marshlands and mangroves that stretch for thousands of miles. Visit the Everglades National Park for a look at these wild things.

Until an arsonist burned it down in 2012, Florida was home to one of the largest trees in the world. “The Senator” was the biggest and oldest bald cypress tree measuring 125 feet high and 3,500 years old. RIP, world record breaker.

Residents may not be happy to win at this game. Florida tops the list because it has the most cities prone to lightning strikes. These are Fort Myers, Tampa, Tallahassee, Orlando, Daytona Beach, Miami and Key West.

In an effort to conserve Florida’s only living barrier reef, the state made the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park in Key Largo. Since the 1960’s the park invites guests to swim, kayak and scuba dive and explore the variety of marine life and the famous Christ of the Abyss statue – a 4,ooo pound bronze statue of Jesus Christ at the bottom of the ocean.

The Great Florida Reef is the only living coral barrier reef in the USA, and the third largest in the world after the Great Barrier Reef and the Belize Barrier Reef.

In 1998, Florida passed the Beethoven’s Babies Bill which is based on a study of the “Mozart Effect”- the belief that classical music encourages a child’s intellect. So now babies and toddlers at childcare centers can jam to Beethoven’s Fifth.

The northernmost island of the Florida Keys archipelago is the diving capital for good reason. Home to the third largest coral reef in the world, the Christ of the Abyss statue and many shipwrecks, scuba divers are aching to explore what the Florida waters have to offer.

That sounds good anyway you put it. The sunshine state is brimming with pristine beaches coast to coast. From the magical sunsets on the Gold Coast by the Gulf of Mexico to the clear blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean, the sunshine state offers plenty of fun in the sea.

Ten million years ago, Florida was submerged underwater so it comes as no surprise you can find shark teeth from different species such as the prehistoric megalodon shark in Venice Beach! Shark tooth hunters will enjoy scavenging for fossilized teeth all over the rock formations along Venice Beach.

Founded in 1565 by Spanish explorers, St. Augustine in northern Florida is the oldest continuously occupied European-established settlement in the country.

The Ancient Spanish Monastery in Miami was built in 1133, and was home to Cisterian monks several hundred years ago.

Due to its winding canals and waterways, the South Florida city of Fort Lauderdale is known as as the Venice of America. But you can’t see the city from a gondola, you have to use a water taxi.

In 2012, a nude man chewed the face of a homeless man in the MacArthur Causeway in Miami. Refusing to stop preying on his meal, police fired and killed the assailant. In a turn of events, the victim Ronald Poppo who survived and was submitted to the hospital for surgical reconstruction, was later reconciled with his estranged family who had found his whereabouts on the news after many years searching for his traces. Who would have thought? A happy ending after all.