Winter Park, FLorida
The weather did not look good for the trip earlier in the week.  Finally Friday came and the weather channel looked better and better.  
We did not start off until around 4:30 or 5:00.  Once on the road we had that great freedom feeling, oh what a nice day it did turn into.  
We headed south from Gainesville  on 441 all the way to Leesburg.  Then headed to Howey in the Hills.  We did not make it to the Best
Western in Winter Park until around 9 pm.  The last few minutes of riding we caught a flame in the sky to the east.  The Cape had sent
another rocket up, looked pretty cool.
Heres a picture from our room of the Best Western in Winter Park.  We did get to enjoy the pool and they had a restaurant that we ate
breakfast at both mornings.  This picture was taken Saturday morning.  Friday night when we got there, we did go across the street to
the Houston restaurant.  Looked like a pretty popular place.  I had a great prime rib, everybody seemed the have had plenty to eat and
enjoyed the meal.  Defiantly a good place to go.
I think this picture is behind the Albin Polasek Museum.  First thing after breakfast we headed over to the hardware store to pick up
tickets to the Garden Tour.  Jill and Marcia seemed to keep finding things to do.  We once again were on exploration mode.  Man they
had some nice homes, I mean the gardens and plant life these homes had were very nice, but the whole package was great.  We spent
most  of the morning taking the tour.  The weather was great not too hot.  
Another nice house on the Garden Tour.  I think of all the homes, I liked this one the best.  Right across the river you can see Rollins
College.  The picture above and below are of this house.  About an hour after leaving this house we were on a boat tour on the lake in
this picture.  There was a lot of history we learned from Winter Park.  Our day of exploring was just going great.  
On the picture to
the left look close
at the center of
the tree.  It has a
palm tree
growing in the
center.  I thought
that was neat.  
Right to the left of
the tree was one
of the first houses
built here by the
lake.  It was built
by Mr. Stone
Well we got back on the
bikes and looked for the
scenic boat tours.  They
take you to 3 or 4 lakes.  
What makes this even
more interesting, the
lakes connect to each
other with canals.  The
canals in there own way
were very pleasing to
the eye.  Here is were
we learned a lot of
history of Winter Park.  I
wish I would have got a
picture and name of our
Boat Captain Gide.  He
was very good.  If you
have the time I
recommend it.
Picture to left is of just
one of the canals.  The
picture does not do it
justice.  We had signed
up for the tour and had
about an hour to wait.  If
you walk back up to the
main street.  Before you
get to main street which
I think is Park Ave there
is a Cuban sandwich
shop on the right.  They
had some great
sandwiches.
Just another neat
sight on the boat trip
on the right.  After the
boat tour we went
back to the Best
Western and enjoyed
thier pool for a while.  
Met some people
around the pool who
suggested that we eat
at Luma down town
Winter Park and we
did.  The food was
great, but on the
pricer side.
This is
Saturday
night.  We
just parked
down town.  
With the
brick roads,
street lights,
all the little
shops, and
the people
busy doing
their thing
gave a nice
picture of
the town.  
Picture to the right is at the
Wine Room.   I like this
place.  Gives ATM's a whole
new meaning.  You buy
their credit card and put
money on it.  Now you get
your glass and go to the
different machines and
select your wine you want
to try.  You can see every
bottle of wine, and there is a
write up just below the
bottle with the description
of the wine.
Here we just finished
eating breakfast at the
Best Western.  We are all
packed up for our trip
home.  But we still have
most of the day to stay
on explore mode.  We
are at Mead Garden.  It
felt good just to walk
around some.  From here
we headed back to the
down town area and just
rode around for a little
while.
Our last stop down town Winter Park.  Was it fun?  Oh yea.  We walked around the town for a while checked out the hotel right down
town, and checked out some of the shops and restaurants.
Here is our last
stop in Winter
Park.  We stopped
here Saturday but
they had just
closed when we
pulled up.  We are
at the Albin
Polasek Museum.  
You were not
allowed to take
video and pictures
inside.  We did
take the tour and
some pictures
outside.  
After the museum we headed to Orlando to see if we could find the house were Jill first lived at.  We did find the place.  It had like most
places taken a big change.  From there we went west on HWY 50, and when we made it to HWY 27 we headed north.   One more stop
before Gainesville, which was at Lady Lake.  Kinda sad, I mean 2 days ago this was our first stop and we were all excited and looking
forward to the weekend, and now we are here again, and the weekend is over with.  Our very last stop was in Gainesville at Sonny's for
supper.  I know Marcia and Jill most likely used that last 50 miles home planning our next trip.  Well until next time
JUST GET OUT AND RIDE!!!    Michel T
Michel Marcia
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