Tallahassee Recognizes National Tourism Week

Tallahassee area attractions, museums and parks recognized National Tourism Week by offering free admissions to residents on Saturday May 12, 2007. The Tallahassee Area Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) coordinated "Get Out & See Tallahassee" to encourage residents to become tourists in their own town. By exploring local activities, the CVB hopes residents will become community ambassadors and encourage family, friends and business colleagues to visit Tallahassee.

Being a fan of free activities, I played tourist for the day and visited Alfred B. Maclay Gardens State Park and Pebble Hill Plantation in nearby Thomasville, Georgia (yeah, I know, it's in another state, but close enough). Humidity was high, the temperature hovered in the 90s and a haze of smoke from nearby wild fires lingered, yet, I'm glad I got out and explored.

My day began at Pebble Hill Plantation, a sporting estate on the National Register of Historic Places. Pebble Hill's history dates back to 1827 when Thomas Jefferson Johnson, namesake of Thomasville, Ga., built the first house on the cotton plantation. The estate remained in his family until 1896 when Ohio industrialist Howard Melville Hanna purchased it. Hanna gave the plantation to his daughter Kate and when she passed, her daughter, Elisabeth "Pansy" Poe, inherited it. Poe died in 1978 and in 1983, Pebble Hill opened to the public.

I spent about two hours wandering the grounds, petting the horses and playing with puppies. Yes, puppies. Pebble Hill is a 3,000 acre living museum (80 acres are open to the public) still raising some of the animals loved by Pansy Poe.

Poe was a sporting enthusiast who loved horses and dogs. Images of dogs and horses are visible throughout the plantation. Visitors will see dog and horse statues, boot scrapers with either dogs or horses and horse-shaped hooks holding garden hoses. The "Dog Hospital" is where Poe's favorite hunting dogs were treated and this is where I played with three black and brown puppies wanting some love.