Southbound

Thirty miles east of Cinderella Castle, Winter Park, Florida, promises magic of a different kind.

The oysters are vanishing from Apalachicola. No one knows if they’ll come back. You won’t find them on most menus anymore, and oyster boats have all but abandoned the bay. There’s plenty of blame to go around, but that won’t help this charming village on the shores of the Florida Panhandle. As its claim to fame disappears, Apalachicola vows it won’t share the same fate.

With a harvest season that runs from late September through November, pecans are an essential element of fall spreads, from pecan pie to pecan-flecked sweet potato casserole.

You don't think inside the box. Why sleep in one? The South is full of unexpected accommodations, from a nineteenth-century castle to a Hobbit hut to the tree house of your dreams. Let us introduce you to sixteen offerings that are anything but ordinary.

While the city has mandatory tourist stops (the famed Bellingrath Gardens, the battleship USS Alabama, and the new-and-spectacular GulfQuest museum), to understand the city, you must visit its neighborhoods.

It would be easy for Vince Gill, to quote from his chart-topping 1995 ballad, to “rest high on the mountain” of his forty years of success. Instead, he takes pleasure in the everyday trappings of the life he shares with fellow singer-songwriter Amy Grant.

If you’ve ever had the midnight munchies, you’re probably a fan of this Southern mainstay.

Drive or walk down the town’s original brick roads, sit on its wrought-iron benches, and admire its preserved Victorian architecture.

Kenny Chesney doesn’t sing about the things most people chase, like big houses, shiny cars, and the heady rush of fame. He sings about the things most people actually have, like shift work, two-toned Chevys, and old blue chairs rocking in the wind.

I was nineteen the first time I ever drove over the drawbridge into Beaufort, North Carolina. Good Southern girl that I was, I had arrived for a debutante party. One look, and I was absolutely smitten.