Sat – 4 Feb/17

After a busy day yesterday we, as usual on Saturday, slept in until 9 a.m. and remained in bed watching TV. We always enjoy watching “Innovation Nation”. It is our Saturday version of CBS Sunday Morning. It always has highly interesting and informative items.

Today we are heading to Mount Dora for the 42^nd annual (juried) Arts Festival. Hundreds of tents fill the streets in downtown with displays of all types of creative art. The temps are in the mid-70’s F today with a mostly cloudy sky. This will make walking throughout the whole downtown a little less exhausting.

We have a routine for this event. We always park in the same bank parking lot. The parking fee goes to support a different charity each year. It is right at the beginning of the blocked off streets providing a beginning and ending to our “Loop”.

Also, as per tradition, our first stop is across the street and we always buy a basket from the same booth every year.  

 

While most of the artists are from locations throughout the USA, Patsy is a Mount Dora resident. This year Charlotte decided on a “Cat’s Head” basket.  If you look closely at the basket when it is turned upside down you can visualize the cat’s face and ears. Cute!

 

Most of the booths are for “Art”; however a few do advertising. One called “Roadie Friendshipping” is like Uber for packages.

 

We picked up a backpack at their booth which made it easy for Charlotte to carry her “Booty”

 

As usual, a mile or so of streets were packed. Art of all types with item prices ranging from a few dollars to thousands competed for attention.

 

 

Charlotte found a few items for our girls that they can add to what we bought them last year from the same booth.

Some items were as large as they were unique.

 

Charlotte didn’t buy a ticket for the quilt. She will do that when she attends the Mount Dora Quilt Show in a few weeks.

We also stopped at a few stores as we made our tour. Charlotte went into the KaDee Kay Gourmet Kitchen Products store to look for a pair (actually like 4 pair in one) of scissors used to cut herbs.

 

At another one of our regular stops Charlotte bought a Hamburger. No, not food! It is another First Edition Boyd’s Bearstone for her collection.

There were musicians performing at a few locations throughout the festival. All were quite good.

 

A sad note! The Orange Blossom Cannonball that travelled between Mount Dora and Tavares is no longer running. This steam engine, also known as the “Hollywood Train” because of the number of famous movies and TV shows it appeared in, offered a neat trip. It was not because of lack of interest (we have taken it a number of times) – the lost their “Right of Way” for the railroad track. Go Figure?

 

The main street intersections all had a wide variety of food offerings. Like last year, the “Arepa’s Booth” reminded me of our travels in Mexico with our good friends Diane and Alberto.

 

If you get a chance – try it - You'll like it!

Lunch, again as per tradition, was at PizzAmore, just a few blocks from downtown. They were previously on the “Main Drag” close to the beginning of the festival booths; however they moved last year. My guess is they needed a larger facility because of their popularity. This is the only area “Pizza Joint” that rivals the excellent pizzas we have back home. We ordered a large Crisp Thin Crust Veggie Pizza and added Pepperoni and Anchovies. It is great when you can taste each of the individual ingredients – Yum!

 

They don’t offer a medium size and the small is too small. We ordered a large and took half home. It will be our snack tonight.

The Valentine’s Dance at OMS tonight (7-10 p.m.) features “Feels So Right”. The park’s Valentine’s Day Dance is more than a week ahead of the day itself. This is because it was hard to get a band closer to that (Feb 14^th) date – even when they book a year in advance!

Every few weeks during the “Prime Season” the park (OMS) sponsors a dance for the residents. We bring the munchies and they supply the pitchers of beer and soft drinks.  A great time is always had by all.

As usual, we mostly danced the slow ones. Then it was only a short walk back to our site.

With such a busy day we won’t have to count too many sheep tonight.