Jacksonville, the largest city in Florida, sits near the top of the state like a Welcome Wagon for travelers from Georgia. Oral historians place Native Americans, the Ossachite, in the area as long ago as 6,000 years. Europeans arrived around 1562 and the race was on. One may say Jacksonville has seen it all, including Yellow Fever in the late 1880s.

But, today, the city proper covers more land than any other city in the lower-48. There are six major sections of the city that contain many neighborhoods and villages subsumed when the city consolidated the whole area. Jacksonville has a Museum of Contemporary Art , as well as the Museum of Science and History (MOSH). The Karpeles Manuscript Library contains a collection of original manuscripts and documents with many antique books. A number of movies were shot in Jacksonville including The Creature from the Black Lagoon and G. I. Jane. College and pro-sports teams are in abundance here. You can see the Jaguars, the Suns, the Barracudas, and the women’s football team, the Dixie Blues.

Visit Jacksonville Landing and Jacksonville Riverwalks as well as Shipwreck Island . The Jacksonville Arboretum and Gardens opens in 2008. For children, Adventure Landing is an indoor amusement park.