A Little Picnic Lunch in Kissimmee After our exhilarating airboat ride and swamp buggy tour at Boggy Creek, we snaked our way north towards Orlando and decided to have a picnic lunch in the Orlando suburb of Kissimmee. Central Florida Orlando suburb of Kissimmee Walt Disney World historic downtown Kissimmee walking tours antique shops shopping dining sightseeing book Florida Indians and the Invasion from Europe by Jerald T Milanich tribes Jororo Historian John Hann Christianity mission Atissimi Jizimi Tisimi Cacema Police Department Lake Tohopekaliga Toho Square murals Big Toho Pier Lakeshore Boulevard war memorial Kissimmee Convention and Visitors Bureau Parcher, Susanne 2005-12-02 Travel and Transitions http://www.travelandtransitions.com/stories_photos/orlando_kissimmee.htm InteractiveResource en-us text/html Parcher, Susanne MBA Creator of <a href="http://www.travelandtransitions.com/">www.travelandtransitions.com</a>, a popular web portal about unconventional travel, interesting life-journeys and cross-cultural connections. Her 600+ articles and interviews are syndicated globally, and Susanne is in the process of publishing a series of entertaining and useful <a href="http://www.travelandtransitions.com/ebooks2.html">FREE E-BOOKS</a> about her international travels.

A Little Picnic Lunch in Kissimmee

After our exhilarating airboat ride and swamp buggy tour at Boggy Creek, we snaked our way north towards Orlando and decided to have a picnic lunch in the Orlando suburb of Kissimmee. This town is located at the doorstep of Walt Disney World complex and offers a variety of tourist class accommodations near historic downtown Kissimmee. The historic downtown districts feature walking tours, antique shops, shopping, dining, or sightseeing.

Welcome to Kissimmee, Florida

According to the City of Kissimmee's web site "local historians have offered many variations of the origin of the city's name. Most agree that Kissimmee is a modern spelling of a tribal word. The book Florida Indians and the Invasion from Europe by Jerald T. Milanich, links "Kissimmee" to a village of the Jororo, one of Florida's lesser-known tribes. Historian John Hann researched Spanish documents about missions established to convert the Jororo and other groups to Christianity in the late 1600's. Spanish records indicate that a mission was built near the tribe's main village, also called Jororo. Another mission was called Atissimi. Milanich writes, "Hann suggests that the name Atissimi, sometimes given as Jizimi and Tisimi, may be the source of the modern place name Kissimmee." A 1752 Spanish map used the name "Cacema" which has evolved into today's spelling, Kissimmee."

Kissimmee's main strip features a variety of local merchants and restaurants. The town was festively decorated and even the police department showed itself in a festive pre-Christmas mood:

Kissimmee Police Department

Kissimmee is located at the north end of Lake Tohopekaliga and one of its squares is appropriately named "Toho Square":

Toho Square

We noticed several murals throughout town, illustrating the town's history. My husband tried to check if he could blend into the mural without being noticed, I am not so sure that it actually worked:

Mural
Mural

We decided to have a nice little picnic lunch and settled in on a bench right in front of the "Big Toho Pier":

"Big Toho Pier"

Here is another view of the Big Toho Pier, a serene place where we enjoyed the warm December sun:

another view of the Big Toho Pier

A gaggle of seabirds was congregating just on the other side of the pier:

A gaggle of seabirds

On a brief walk along Lakeshore Boulevard we discovered a war memorial that commemorates the Second World War:

war memorial

For more information about Kissimmee contact its Convention and Visitors Bureau. Call 800.333.KISS (5477) or visit their website for more information.