If manicured lawns and golf courses aren’t your idea of communing with nature, then head to Gumbo Limbo. Named for an indigenous tree, the 20-acre complex protects one of the few surviving coastal hammocks (subtropical hardwood forests), in South Florida. Nature trails feature lush canopies and a butterfly garden. Walk through the hammock on a half-mile-long boardwalk that ends at a 40-foot observation tower, from which you can see the Atlantic Ocean, the Intracoastal Waterway, and much of Boca Raton. From mid-April to September, sea turtles come ashore here to lay eggs. In fact, Florida Atlantic University’s Department of Biological Sciences keeps an active research lab here that’s open to the public, where you can gawk at the adorable sea turtle hatchlings in the summer and fall months. Another big attraction here are the aquariums, featuring native fish and organisms, and naturalistic habitats representing the coastal mangrove community, a nearshore reef, tropical coral reef, and artificial reef/shipwreck, whose resident rescued sea turtle, Morgan, seems to love hamming it up for visitors. The small indoor nature center has all sorts of slithery creatures as well as a sea turtle garden and educational tidbits.