Is Florida part of the South?

I am from Florida and there is a joke that the more southern and coastal in Florida you get, the more northern you are. In some ways Florida is the bridge between the north and the south. Born and raised in southern Florida on the Gulf Coast, the heritage of the "south" was not a foreign concept, nor was it something that I identified with. Florida has always been very much dependent on the tourist economy. From people coming down for the winter, to coming for short vacations, the population fluctuates quite a bit. What makes Florida somewhat northern is that the majority of people who have homes or vacation are from the north. Therefore they bring with them the ideas and culture of the north. When thinking about the Civil War however, the average person thinks about Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee as some of the states that fought, what they don't realize is that Florida did fight and that they were involved in many battles. Overall Florida is a country unto itself, from the "northern" to "southern" to the most southern part of Florida which is predominately Hispanic.