Some Unique Places to Be Married or Have Your Event

On the Top Shelf  ENTERTAINMENT  Talent & Booking Agency Lic # TA 852 &       Event Coordinators  Tampa (813) 908-0600 Brooksville (352) 277-3451 Serving Florida State Wide from the Panhandle to the Keys.  Maggie Valley, Surrounding Towns, Waynesville, North Carolina  foxevents@tampabay.rr.com       North Carolina informatio           Tropical Rock, Jimmy Buffet, Steel Drums, Island Music             Interactive Rock and Beach Music Variety Band Fun and Entertaining.  Great for Corporate & Private Parties and Outdoor Events.

You tell us when and where and we'll make it happen

The River Boat Ride on Weeki Wachee River.

Silver Springs River Cruises

Glass Bottom Boats offer passengers an unparalleled view of underwater life in the 99.8% pure waters of the Silver River. Our boats, with U.S. Coast Guard licensed captains, will take you on an enchanting tour of the seven major spring formations at the headwaters. One spring, Fish Reception Hall, is home to dozens of species of fish as well as alligators, clams, crawfish, shrimp, snails and six different kinds of turtles, all amidst the backdrop of tiny fossilized shells from 70 million years ago. Peer through the glass and crystal clear water for views that only a scuba diver could have. You’ll be comfortably seated, and covered from the sun and weather. Fort King River Cruise carries you through Silver Springs’ 10,000 year history. Interactive exhibits and displays include a working archaeological dig site, Seminole Indian village, the 1830s Fort King Army stockade, a late 1880s riverboat dock and train depot, and an authentic Florida pioneer “Cracker” homestead.    Lost River Voyage transports guests back in time to wild Florida as it was thousands of years ago—untouched and untamed. Riverbanks are lined with towering bald cypress trees, some more than 500 years old. See alligators, turtles, heron, osprey, and other wildlife basking and feeding in their natural habitat.

  The Beresford Lady is an authentic side wheel paddle boat that will take you back in time on one of its tours along the historic St. Johns River!

  St Johns River Boat Tours

The (Said to Be) Haunted Island Hotel in Cedar Key

Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, Florida
 

Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida
 

Fort Matanzas National Monument, Florida
 

Southernmost Point Marker - Key West, Florida

Statue of Christ in the Abyss
This 30-foot tall replica of a Mediterranean Sea statue is located in John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, just off Key Largo.

Gazebo at Edna Pierce Lockett Estate in Florida

Archer Historical Society Railroad Museum

 Old Haulover Canal.

Saint Stanislaus Catholic Church

LaGrange Church and Cemetery

Built: 1893
Location: Old Dixie Highway near Mims

St. Gabriel's Episcopal Church

St. Luke's Episcopal Church of Courtenay

Built: 1888
Location: 5555 N. Tropical Trail, Merritt Island

Cape Canaveral Lighthouse

Heritage Village

More than 28 historic structures and features, some dating back to the 19th century, include a school, church, sponge warehouse, railroad depot and store as well as a variety of historic homes.

Anclote Key is the largest of a collection of small islands, known as the Anclote Keys, found three miles offshore from Tarpon Springs and the mouth of the Anclote River. The islands were named Anclote, Spanish for anchor, due to the method Spanish sailing vessels would use to navigate the shallow channels in the area. The navigation was accomplished by attaching a line to a kedge anchor, dropping the anchor at a distance in the desired direction of travel, and then using the line to pull the boat to the anchor. Although the name Anclote appears on maps dating as far back as 1715, it wasn’t until the mid 1860’s that the area was permanently settled.

Cape Florida Lighthouse was once the site of violence, treachery, and bloodshed galore. However, the 18th century found the beaches of Key Biscayne the happy hunting grounds of marauding pirates, wreckers, and bands of Indians. One especially notorious pirate, Black Caesar, terrorized this coast until he was caught and hanged in 1718. Over these precarious shores the rays from the 17 lanterns in the Cape Florida Lighthouse first shone on Dec. 17, 1825, but not without difficulties that foreshadowed the drama to come.

Dry Tortugas

The St. Johns River

Amelia Island Lighthouse    Amelia Island is the northernmost barrier island on Florida’s Atlantic coast. The St. Mary’s River slowly empties into the Atlantic between Amelia Island and Georgia’s Cumberland Island to the north and serves as the curvaceous portion of the border between the neighboring states. Fernandina Beach is Amelia Island’s largest town, and it still seems locked in the enchantment and charm of the Victorian era. The island’s acres of marshlands add to the tranquil setting, but if you ask around a little you can quickly learn about the island’s scandalous past and just perhaps the unique origin of the Amelia Island Lighthouse

The banners of five nations, Spain, France, England, the Confederate States of America, and the United States, have flown over the city of Pensacola, giving rise to its nickname, The City of Five Flags. Pensacola is Florida’s second oldest city, and has the deepest bay on the Gulf Coast. The mouth of the bay is bounded by Santa Rosa Island to the east and Perdido Key to the west. To guard the entrance, Spain established Fort Barrancas atop a 60-foot bluff on the mainland opposite the bay’s mouth. Soon after the United States took control of Florida from Spain in 1821, the federal government, recognizing the importance of Pensacola’s harbor, moved to establish both a naval yard and lighthouse there.

St. Augustine, the oldest permanent European settlement on the North American continent, is affectionately called the Old City. Don Juan Ponce de Leon discovered La Florida, the “Land of Flowers," in 1513 for Spain. Roughly fifty years later, Spain made a serious attempt at colonizing Florida, when Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles was dispatched to the area. Menendez arrived off the Florida coast on August 28, 1565, the Feast Day of St. Augustine, and soon the fledgling colony of St. Augustine was established.

In the 1830s, Apalachicola was Florida’s largest port, and cotton was the reason why. From the city, the Apalachicola river winds inland for over three hundred miles to Columbus, Georgia. Some fifteen steamboats once plied the river, transporting the fluffy white gold grown in eastern Alabama and western Georgia to the Gulf. Once it reached Apalachicola, the cotton was compressed into bales and then lightered across shallow Apalachicola Bay to West Pass, located between St. Vincent and St. George Islands. The cotton bales were then transferred to three-masted ships, which transported the crop to mills located in New England and Europe. In 1836, 50,000 bales were shipped from Apalachicola, which by that time was the third largest cotton port on the Gulf Coast, behind New Orleans and Mobile.

Author Stephen Crane published his masterpiece The Red Badge of Courage in 1895, three decades after the conclusion of the divisive conflict centerpieced in his book. In 1896, an editor provided Crane an opportunity to experience battle firsthand by covering the budding rebellion in Cuba. While en route to the island aboard the 123-foot S. S. Commodore, which was carrying load of firearms, Crane was shipwrecked off the Floridian Coast near Daytona Beach during a gale. Abandoning the sinking vessel, Crane, the captain, and two sailors, set out in a small lifeboat. Providently, the lighthouse at Mosquito Inlet marked the distant coast for the hapless quartet. Still, the group had to endure twenty-seven hours of frantic rowing and frequent bailing before they were able to bring their craft safely to shore. Crane’s story on the Cuban conflict would have to wait, but the harrowing hours spent in the lifeboat provided an alternate firsthand experience that would develop into his most successful short story “The Open Boat”. Roughly twenty-five miles south of Tallahassee is found Florida’s Big Bend region where the state’s Gulf coastline changes from a north-south direction to an east-west direction. A river empties into the Gulf at this point, and it was here that an early settlement was established by the Spanish. The founding date of the settlement likely occurred on the feast day of St. Marks, as that name was applied to both the town and the river. In 1818, Andrew Jackson captured St. Marks from the Spanish, and three years later control of Florida was officially transferred from Spain to the United States.