At Legoland parks, builders construct entire city skylines of LEGO bricks. In Palm Beach, the Norton Museum of Art saw art in the structures and commissioned Dan Parker, a LEGO-certified professional, to use the bricks to construct landmark buildings from around the world. The structures are part of the exhibit Block by Block: Inventing Amazing Architecture, which opens Thursday and runs through Oct. 20.

Central Florida is famous for a lot of features, but your first association probably isn’t “cabins in the woods.”

New this year in Orlando are penguins, Krusty Burgers, Autobots and Decepticons, Chima animal warriors and a home for the Disney princesses

When it’s cold, they’re warm. When it’s warm, they’re cold.

Do the stomp

Lawn party

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Presidents Harry S Truman and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Jean Harlow, Charlie Chaplin and Al Capone. Cheryl and Matthew. These are some of the distinguished guests who may have graced Casa Marina with their presence, and probably tracked in some Jacksonville Beach sand, too.

All revved up

SeaWorld Orlando’s new Empire of the Penguin, which has its grand opening Friday, is a fun family ride that tilts and twirls gently through an artist’s impressionistic re-creation of Antarctica and ends up in an icy penguin habitat where a visitor could easily watch the antics of the real thing for hours -- if only it weren’t a bone-chilling 30 degrees.

A proud tradition

Paul Reinckens kicked slowly over the sandy bottom 30 feet deep in the Gulf of Mexico looking for triangular objects — not an easy task with visibility a mere four feet and this dive being his first underwater fossil hunt. But suddenly, there it was: a hard, brownish-gray chevron lying on the sand.

Legoland’s new attraction, The World of Chima, in which animal tribes war over an energy source called Chi, will open July 3, the park announced Tuesday.

Miami-Dade — South Beach especially — is still seeing a surge of new or rebuilt hotel openings, giving locals plenty of fresh options close to home.

With its sizzling beaches and steamy nightlife, it’s no wonder Miami is a top vacation spot for snowbirds, spring breakers, international tourists and passengers heading out on cruises from Florida ports. More than 13 million people visited the city in 2011, according to the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau.

A week’s worth of South Florida fun

Ups and downs

It’s a Friday or Saturday night and you are ready to go out and get your party on. You know Miami and South Beach are among the best places in the world to do this, but since you don’t normally frequent the clubs and you’re not interested in spending a ton of cash on bottle service, you end up staying home and jamming out to your favorite Pandora station. Well that’s no fun!

Growing up in Miami, riding a bike was my primary source of true neighborhood exploration. I spent countless hours outside discovering surroundings: which trees to climb, where the best parks were, finding hidden roads. It was a new adventure every day.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando will expand into London next year, the theme park announced Wednesday. The new area, which has been under construction for months, will be built along Diagon Alley, and the centerpiece will be a ride based on Gringotts Bank. It is to be completed in 2014.

Central Florida’s theme parks will have a spate of new attractions opening over the next three months as Autobots take on Decepticons, the animal tribes of Chima battle over “chi,” pirates battle over treasure, penguins open their 30-degree home to visitors (Brrr!), space shuttle Atlantis goes on display, and the characters of Madagascar come to life.

Just can’t get enough

Transformers: The Ride – 3D will open at Universal Studios June 20, just a year after construction began and close to the start of the summer season, resort officials announced Thursday.

You can order Gloria Estefan’s ropa vieja at either end of an hour-and-a-half drive on I-95, but only in Vero Beach does it come with a side dish of an uncrowded, white sand beach.

Historic moments

Those who remember the pink stucco and brick façade of the original Elliott Museum will be surprised at the “pink lady” now. The Grand Dame has been reincarnated. The demolition and reconstruction took 1 1/2 years.

Come hungry

They write the songs

During the 1950s, my husband traveled from New York to Miami Beach for winter vacation long before there was an I-95. He recalls seeing the McKee Jungle Garden, hailed as a “mecca for visitors,” set along Route 1 in Vero Beach. Attractions at the 80-acre “manmade jungle” included a wide variety of palms, spider and rhesus monkeys, a bear named Dr. Dolittle and fly-eating flowers.