Tampa Bay, FL- Almost a quarter of all Americans plan to travel in less than two weeks for the Memorial Day weekend. According to TripAdvisor, these are the top five destinations in the Sunshine State for people who live in the Bay Area. Daytona beach tops the list. Then it's Orlando and Miami. Sanibel Island comes in at number four, and Naples rounds out the list at five. It seems many will be traveling somewhere this summer. Ninety percent of Americans will hit the roads for a summer trip, and 51 percent admit their summer plans will be affected by the high gas prices. Among these traveling for Memorial Day, 59 percent of Americans plan to drive.

This is the season where those big, lovable ton-sized turtles come bury their eggs along the beach in various places waiting for the eggs to hatch and the baby turtles walking back out to sea. More...

There is nothing like a beautiful secluded island where there are no waiting lines, the beaches are quiet, there is an abundance of privacy and the room rates go lower. More...

I spent part of my childhood not far from Sanibel Island, Fla., and thus have kept an eye on the thriller writer Randy Wayne White, whose Doc Ford novels are often set in a fictionalized version of the place. His latest, “Black Widow,” enters the fiction list at No. 10. White is a former fishing guide and a former columnist for Outside magazine, and his Doc Ford novels go down smoothly. When he’s in the mood, though, he can turn on the afterburners, a fact Paul Theroux comprehended when he reviewed one of White’s nonfiction books in 1991. Theroux wrote: “‘Batfishing in the Rainforest’ contains equal parts of comedy and courage. Randy White is not simply a wonderful writer; he is a fishing guide of genius.” By NYT writer - By DWIGHT GARNER

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