Some Fun Facts about Florida

I decided to research things about Florida when I realized that I moved to a state that I didn’t know much about. I didn’t even know what I snowbird was when I moved here. I actually thought it was a real bird, and it was months of living in Florida before I realized that a snowbird is just a person that spends the winter months in Florida, to get away from the northern weather where their main home may be.

I’ll just start with the simple things that many people probably already know, which is that the capital of Florida is Tallahassee, the state flower is the Orange Blossom, and the state tree is the Sabal Palm.

Even though Florida is the 2nd most southern state in the U.S. (Hawaii being the first), the state bird is the “Northern” Mockingbird. I always thought it was the Scrub Jay because they are protected in Florida.

Florida’s state animal, is the Florida Panther. I thought the state animal was a the Bob Cat, so I was wrong there, as well.

Florida attracts more amusement park enthusiasts, than any other state in the U.S., which is because of Orlando, obviously, which is the home of Disney World, SeaWorld, and the two Universal Studio parks.

It’s the state that has more lightning strikes, than any other place in the U.S.

Gatorade was first developed in Florida, and named after the University of Florida Gators

The first suntan lotion was invented here, by Benjamin Green, a pharmacist from Miami.

A few other fun facts is that Florida has the highest average temperature than in other state, the American Alligator is the state’s reptile (imagine that, eh?), and Florida is the only state that has two rivers that have the same name, yet they have nothing to do with one another, which is the Withlacoochee River.

And my all time favorite is, Florida has 663 miles of beaches.

Photo Credit – mine (Debbie G. – lovelights)