Our day began at 8:30 AM. We visited Florida’s first national park, Highlands Hammock State Park. The land was originally owned by a cattle baron, who then sold it to a farmer who was raising oranges.

A mother and son from the Robblings family decided the land was too beautiful to be used as a farm and wanted to preserve it as a park.

They were hoping to make it into a national park; however, because it’s only 500 acres, it was considered too small.

During the Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps came in and did a lot of work to make the state park beautiful. They created eight hiking trails, and two more have been added since their work.

They built the building that the museum is housed in and the building where the Rangers live.

We took a tram to tour the park for an hour and a half. We saw some of the orange trees that are now wild. There were three old oaks that they desperately tried to save, but unfortunately, they were not able to.

We saw wildlife such as alligators, turtles, and lots of birds. I really wanted to see the Florida panthers and wildcats that occupy the park.

We visited the museum of the Civilian Conservation Corps in a building built by the young men. They have lots of artifacts, clothing, tools, and I was able to watch part of the film from American Experience on the CCC — of those young men who came, some for the first time had shoes. For the first time, they were having three meals a day and as much food as they wanted.

Their day started at 7 AM with breakfast. They would go out in the fields and work until noon when lunch was brought to them. They worked until 4:30 PM when they came back to the campsite where they were living and then had free time to play baseball, volleyball, and other activities before their final meal of the day.

I highly recommend watching the film from American Experience on PBS about the Civilian Conservation Corps. You can probably get it from the library.

We then went for lunch at the Grand Buffet at the Hotel Jacaranda. It’s a lovely hotel from a bygone era. They had a piano player in the lobby, decorations, and photos from an earlier time in America.

The buffet was definitely grand. We had a lovely choice of food with salad and desserts.

We then went to an orange grove where they sold everything made with oranges — orange marmalade and orange syrup. Everything in the store was grown on the farm. I even had orange ice cream that tasted like a creamsicle. Thank you to the HANDSOME HUSBAND who treated me.

Our next stop was the longest-performing music and dance production. It has been performing for eight years without stopping. It is called Tamburitzans. Tamburitzan is a long-handled wooden instrument from Serbia.

The story of this performance began in 1937 when Dr. Lester Pierce met musicians who were playing the tamburitza, and he became intrigued with the folk instrument. That sparked an idea that became one of the world’s longest-running live shows of its kind. Dr. Pierce negotiated work scholarships for these young musicians who formed the St. Thomas Theresa Trio.

In 1937, they headed east with their musical variety show, stopping in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Impressed with the cultural diversity of the city, the group made a permanent home for the ensemble in the form of a work scholarship agreement with Duquesne University. This newly formed group would eventually be known as the Duquesne University Tamburitzans — coined by a university reporter during the 1940s.

The university announced that the Tamburitzans would become an independent nonprofit organization in an effort to expand recruitment efforts. The Tamburitzans now audition to accept new students from other Pittsburgh-based universities. They perform over 60 shows a year in the academic season. These talented student performers perpetuate the same mission that Dr. Pierce envisioned all those years ago. We saw dances from Croatia, Armenia, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Serbia, Mexico, and the Romani culture. Bobby and I have been to all of the countries except Bulgaria and Armenia. Both are on my bucket list. Hopefully, the HANDSOME HUSBAND will come with me.

Our final meal of the day was at Cherry Pockets, which is a campsite famous for their cherry pockets dessert. Bobby and I both enjoyed steak dinners. I’m supposed to be working on lowering my cholesterol. I am not doing a very good job this weekend.

The whole day was a surprise for us. We did not know what we were doing from one minute to the next.

I enjoyed the state park. I could see myself hiking there. I enjoyed watching the performers.

Before each dance, a student would give us an explanation of the country’s culture, their costumes, and then sing songs to accompany their dancing. My one regret was that they did not give us subtitles in English.

We arrived back at our hotel at about 10 PM.

Tomorrow is another surprise — stay tuned.