by When we mentioned we were going to Gainesville, Florida, we were met with “Why are you going there?” But it turns out that our friends are Florida State University alumni who considered the city to be “enemy territory” as it is home to the University of Florida and the Gators.
However, we had a nice time, seeing the butterfly exhibit, awed by the amazing bats, and enjoying the art museum. But that wasn’t all we found of interest in the city — check out the additional items featured in this post.
Sonny’s BBQ was founded in Gainesville in 1968. Today there are 113 restaurants across eight states in the Southeastern portion of the United States. It looks like a fast food place from the outside, and when we’ve seen them they’ve been nestled in amongst other fast food restaurants. But it offers table seating and service inside.
You know you’re in for a good time when the tables each contain a full roll of paper towels. The menu features Southern-style barbecue, including pulled and sliced pork, baby back and St. Louis-style ribs, beef brisket, and more.
Doug declared his meal to be delicious, especially enjoying the pulled pork, so that’s a rousing endorsement. I got a salad which was also outstanding.
We walked the grounds at the Tu Vien A Nan Buddhist temple to see the much-larger-than-life Buddha statues. The statues and quiet grounds provide areas for reflection and prayer.
The temple was built in 2010, with the statues being installed several years later. Three of the large statues were made in Vietnam and weighed 85 tons. What do you imagine the shipping costs on that to be?
A sign at the entrance welcomes everyone, but invites picnics consisting only of vegetarian food.
The Baughman Center on the University of Florida campus came on my radar as an architecturally interesting building to see. It’s a 1,500 square foot pavilion that serves as a nondenominational chapel. It has seating for 96, but is also open for silent meditation or contemplation.
The exterior walls are made of Florida cypress with lots of windows to let in light. It is oriented so that the dominant axis aligns with sunrise and sunset during summer solstice.
It is named for George and Hazel Baughman, who were the benefactors of the project with a $1 million donation. It was completed in 2000.
Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park is a 21,000-acre park just south of Gainesville. We stayed at a lovely campground inside the Preserve while in the area. The are herds of wild Florida Cracker horses roaming the grounds, as well as up to ten plains bison that were reintroduced to the park in 1975.
We went to a 50-foot tall observation tower to see if we could spot anything exciting, and at first it just seemed that all we could see was a grassy plain with several varieties of birds flitting around (there are nearly 300 species of birds in the park). Then suddenly there they were, a herd of eight or so horses that seemed to just materialize on the horizon (we had both done a sweep of the area with binoculars).
Eventually we decided to head along a trail to see if we could get closer to an owl we heard hooting. Suddenly we were right upon three wild horses, who were completely unfazed by our presence.
We continued along the trail and came upon a congregation of alligators, who were unfazed by our presence, though I cannot say I felt the same about them. It’s very creepy to just amble up to some alligators, all sitting like they are doing a Mannequin Challenge, some with their jaws ajar.
No bison were to be found, even though I specifically told Doug it was his job to locate some since I found the horses.
