A Florida resident for most of her life, Sandra Friend has a passion for hiking and playing outdoors, exploring natural lands, parks, and gardens throughout her home state and around the world. A strong believer in "sense of place," she focuses on genuine experiences, down-home restaurants, historic accommodations, and the backroads and byways in her many guidebooks, including the three-volume Explorer's Guide series to Florida (WW Norton) and eight books on hiking in Florida. Sandra runs the popular Florida Hikes website and blogs about travel at Candid Florida. Sandra is a member of the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW), the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA), and the Florida Outdoor Writers Association (FOWA). She lives in Ocala, Florida, with the largest National Forest in Florida in her backyard.