I took a 5-day road trip to Florida in January of 2018, making just a few stops on the way down, spending time with an old high school friend on Sanibel Island, and then high-tailing it back to Virginia in one day when my wife got sick.
On the way down, my first stop was at Raleigh, NC, where I visited the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences (map link) and a few historic homes (map link) in the neighborhood
That same day, I drove to Willmington, NC, just in time to shoot some sunset photos of the Battleship North Carolina (map link).
The next day, I stopped at Charleston, SC, where I visited several US Navy vessels (map link). I also saw the South Carolina Aquarium and the Fort Sumter Visitors Center (map link).
From Charleston, I Headed straight to Florida. I only stopped briefly at the University of North Florida, in Jacksonville (map link) during the sunset for some photos there.
I spent the second night near Cape Canaveral, the so that I could rise before dawn to photograph the sunrise and birds at the Blackpoint Wildlife Drive bird sanctuary (map link),
After the early morning bird-shoot, I got to the Kennedy Space Center shortly after opening at 9:00 am (map link).
Then I drove across the state and down to Sanibel Island (map link), where my friend lives. My friend, Bob, and I woke early to get some photos, of the Sanibel sunrise, which was beautiful.
Bob and I spent most of the rest of the day at Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge, which was quite impressive.
The next morning, I drove straight through (16 hours) to Virginia, with just stops for food and a 4 hour nap.