Florida’s southwest coastal area has been my winter escape for many years. That’s not counting the short time I lived as a child in New Port Richey before the invention of air conditioning and jet planes made Florida a year-round destination.

Years later, when my sister and her husband bought a lot in the brand-new development called Cape Coral, a city near Fort Myers, all of us came to visit them. We watched the phenomenal growth of this planned city over 50 years as it became the busy place it is today. The property they bought was out on an undeveloped canal, but of course as the city grew, they were able to sell this at a modest profit.

As I spent many winters in a condo apartment in Cape Coral, I had time to explore much of Florida by car, from the tip of Key West north to the Panhandle, coast to coast, with visits to Orlando to watch the growth of Disney World. I visited this unique place when Disney first opened the area, and watched one of the first nighttime launches as it took off from Cape Canaveral.

I find I still enjoy spending part of the winter in Florida. The southwest coast of the state bordering the Gulf of Mexico is one of the most popular destinations for winter visitors, especially coming to the area from St. Petersburg south to the city of Fort Myers, where a huge international airport was one of the first to fill this need for the crowds who arrived by plane.

During my visit to Florida this year, I stayed at beautiful Anna Maria Island, a narrow, 7-mile-long barrier island on the Florida coast, with the Gulf of Mexico on its shore and Sarasota Bay on the other. Anna Maria is the northernmost of a string of barrier islands that hug this coast and extend south, eventually ending in the Florida Keys.

The history of Anna Maria Island is said to have begun in 1530, when Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto claimed the area for the Spanish crown, and it remained undeveloped for years, as the only way to reach the island was by boat. In 1920, a wooden bridge was built and Anna Maria Island began to grow. It now contains three cities: Anna Maria City at the northern end; Holmes Beach, where I was staying, in the middle of the island; and Bradenton Beach at the southern end, all easily accessed by three drawbridges.

This lovely island is becoming very popular and is working to preserve its “Old Florida” heritage by not allowing buildings taller than two stories to be built. The white, sandy beaches of the island range from private to public, where everyone comes to relax or picnic and at sunset to watch the display of colors over the water.

The streets of Anna Maria Island are lined with bungalows and shops and a number of galleries, as artists are attracted by the natural beauty of the place. Many people use bikes to get around and at the tip of the island a long pier stretches out into the bay, with fine restaurants nearby serving freshly caught fish. Anna Maria truly is an island escape.

The nearby city of Bradenton is connected to Anna Maria Island by bridges. This busy city recently went through a multimillion-dollar restoration to preserve some of its cobblestone streets and old homes. The wide Manatee River runs through the city and the De Soto National Memorial is located on the waterfront.

The South Florida Museum in Bradenton has a wonderful, first-class exhibit of Florida’s history from prehistoric times to the present, in a handsome building which is a replica of a Spanish 16th century house and courtyard. An indoor aquarium is the home of Snooty, the oldest manatee born in captivity, shown at feeding time to visitors who watch him eating expensive lettuce, the only kind Snooty will eat.

The city of Sarasota, just south of Bradenton, calls itself the cultural capital of Florida, a reputation it has earned with its own opera, ballet, jazz clubs and several professional theaters. It also has the spectacular Van Wezel Hall for performing arts, which brings many top-flight performers to the area. This hall is a landmark for Sarasota, designed in the shape of a huge purple shell by architect Frank Lloyd Wright, the color coming from a shell his wife found in Japan. This purple dome dominates the sky on the waterfront.

The city has tall, contemporary condos lining the streets near the shore as well as streets of smaller houses with trees hung with Spanish moss. The name of John Ringling, the circus owner, is part of the development of modern Sarasota, as he came to the city in the 1920s and built a magnificent home on the bay, and an art museum to house his art collection. Ringling built the first bridge from the mainland to St. Armand’s Key, and today the famous St. Armand’s Circle of shops and restaurants has earned its place as a major attraction in Sarasota over the last 75 years.

Another Sarasota landmark is the Sarasota Jungle Gardens, for 60 years a beautiful retreat with native plants and birds in a garden with nature trails to follow, much enjoyed by families with children. This year, for the first time, baby flamingoes are seen along with the brightly colored adult birds. Another beautiful Sarasota garden attraction is Marie Selby Botanical Gardens. For more than 25 years, people come to walk through displays of rare orchids and tropical plants in a setting on the bay.

One of Sarasota’s treasures in the Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium, which does world-class marine research. This year, it celebrated its success in rescuing a baby pygmy sperm whale, which is now a year old. Scientists were able to tool a sample of the whale’s dead mother’s milk to their laboratory and make a formula that matched it enough to save the baby whale, who now lives at the Mote Aquarium in a secure and private pool, only seen by visitors on occasion.

The elegant and well-known barrier islands of Longboat Key and Siesta Key run along the bay at Sarasota.

The large city of St. Petersburg is just a short hour’s drive from Sarasota over the beautiful Sunshine Skyway Bridge that leads to this city a bit north of Pinellas County. On a peninsula bordered by Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, St. Petersburg is famous for boasting 361 sunny days a year, more sunshine than in Honolulu. Winter visitors enjoy this climate and the 35 miles of white sand beaches that line the coast, one of which has won awards for being among the finest beaches in the United States.

The landmark building on the waterfront of St. Petersburg is the Pier, a long stretch out into the bay with an inverted pyramid at its end. This famous spot opened in 1973 and attracts 2 million visitors a year, with attractions such as the Columbia Restaurant, which serves Spanish food. The historic and fully restored Vinoy Hotel is near the Pier on the shore. St. Petersburg has several major museums, one about President John F. Kennedy and another showing the works of Spanish painter Salvador Dali.

A short drive from downtown St. Petersburg takes you along the beaches to Clearwater Beach and the barrier islands of Madeira Island and Treasure Island, with a stop at John’s Pass Village, popular with visitors who stop and eat fresh seafood, as it is the headquarters for the local fishing fleet. John’s Pass was formed when a hurricane in 1848 changed the coastline, making a cut from the Gulf of Mexico, and was named after Juan Levique, who discovered the pass. St. Petersburg counts tourism as its No. 1 industry.

At the southern end of this strip of the southwest coast of Florida is Naples, a very lovely city, rather upscale, and famous for its shopping and art galleries. Just above Naples is the busy city of Fort Myers. The center of Fort Myers is called Lee Island Coast and includes Cape Coral, Bonita Springs and the famous islands of Sanibel and Captiva as part of its area. Fort Myers has a large airport and has attracted visitors since Thomas Edison and Henry Ford began to winter there. Now the homes of these two legends have been restored and are open to the public.

Fort Myers is called “The City of Palms,” as its main boulevard, McGregor Boulevard, is lined for 15 miles on both sides by tall, royal palm trees, the first ones planted by Edison as a gift to the city. Fort Myers built a huge ballpark to house the Boston Red Sox during their spring training. I once saw Roger Clemens pitch a game there. The city of Cape Coral offers its many canals to boat owners, and says it has more canals than Venice. Sanibel Island and Captiva Island can be reached by a causeway from Fort Myers, and are famous for shells found on their beaches. The islands no longer allow the taking of live shells, as it’s against the law in all of Lee County.

A large part of Sanibel Island has been saved from development because it’s now the J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge, where visitors can see birds and native foliage as they drive through and stop to take photos or perhaps see an alligator. This coastal area of Florida is trying to keep its natural beauty that made it so desirable for winter visitors, who continue to enjoy this sunny destination when escaping the winter up north.