Cool things to do in the Orlando area that have nothing to do with theme parks

I was concerned that the drive from Englewood to Altamonte Springs where my cousin lives would be stressful, but I set out with an intention of not being in a hurry and as a result it was mostly pleasant and relaxing. There was one exception to the smooth flow of that drive, which was  highway 4 through Orlando. It's heavily under construction, and the freeway repeatedly curves left and right around construction sites instead of following its usual straight course through the city. This confused my navigation software, which kept telling me to take every exit and then merge back onto the freeway in an attempt to keep me on the course it expected to see me taking. I only fell for that once before figuring out what was going on. Fortunately it was not a busy day in Theme Park Land because the exit it told me to take was the one that goes to Universal Studios. That could have been very unpleasant on a busier day, but it only resulted in slowing me down by a few minutes.

Usually I use TripAdvisor to find things to do in unfamiliar places, but this time I had the help of some locals (my cousin and his girlfriend). It turns out that the most comprehensive collection of the works of Louis Comfort Tiffany (yes, that Tiffany) is in Winter Park, just a few miles from their home. The first picture included here is a close-up of the window titled Winter from a series inspired by the four seasons.

The next photo is taken from the side in an attempt to show the texture of the border of the centerpiece of the same window.

Here is the whole window:

And the other three seasons. I hope you can zoom in nice and close to see all the beautiful textures in these four photos!

In addition to windows, the collection at the Morse Museum of American Art includes lamps and vases and jewelry and carved wood doors and many other delights: https://www.morsemuseum.org The museum and the town have an interesting history that is presented in a couple of short videos at the museum. If you're interested in learning more, you can learn about those things on the museum website or on Wikipedia.

The art is beautifully lit and displayed, and most of it has no glass barrier to keep you at a distance, as you can see by the angle of the second photo above. Some of the smaller and more fragile items do have glass boxes that prevent touching, but it is really a joy to be able to get up close to the stained glass windows and see them unobstructed.

There was another art museum we tried to visit nearby in Maitland, but the grounds are also a popular wedding venue https://artandhistory.org/maitland-art-center and all the available staff was busy showing young couples around and explaining the services they offer, so the whole time we were there the office where they take admission fees had a "be back soon" note on the door. We wandered around the grounds and I took a few photos of the "Mayan Revival" architecture. It was a delight to see so much interesting color and detail:

There's no getting around the fact that Orlando is a big city with huge draw for tourists, but I really enjoyed seeing what it has to offer through the eyes of local people who aren't part of the whole tourist hubbub.