On the Road – Page 8

Friday Meanderings

October 30, 2015 by KTgreen

We were in Tampa last weekend for Darin and Kathryn’s wedding. The venue was the Davis Island Garden Club. Fun. Fun. Fun. Got to see all of our children, grandchildren, cousins, nieces, nephews, and other assorted family members. I didn’t bring my camera to the wedding so my only pics were from when I remembered to use my phone.

We stayed at the ALoft hotel in downtown Tampa. Gorgeous views and the riverwalk right outside the door. We lived in Tampa for many years and were really excited to spend a few days there.

It was a fun-filled weekend full of family events. For the past four years we’ve either had a big wedding or significant birthday to celebrate and it’s been so great seeing all of the extended family and catching up on their lives. Kind of like a reunion where we get all dressed up. Hopefully we can continue with this new tradition–without any weddings!

So what’s going on this weekend?

Halloween parties, of course! Going to be a great big moon to make things extra spooky!

Next Saturday, Nov. 7, is the Blues & BBQ at the Museum Cafe in Old Homosassa. It’s a great concert and if you buy your tickets in advance, it’s $5 cheaper. Gonna get ours today!

Then the Homosassa Arts, Crafts, and Seafood Festival is the following weekend. November 14-15. Fun! $2.00 admission, kids are free. Lots of great food, unique crafts, and beautiful art. And there is entertainment this year.

But don’t bring your dog! Maggie will be very sadly staying home.

The Old Homosassa Heritage Council will have a booth just outside the Festival. There will be raffle tickets for a golf cart for just a $5 donation! And the lucky winning raffle ticket will be drawn on that Sunday afternoon. Need not be present to win. Don’t you want to win a golf cart? Don’t you want to support the Old Homosassa Heritage Council?

If you are into treasure hunting, the weekend of November 20 – 22 is the Renninger’s Antique Extravaganza in Mount Dora.

That’s it!

Have a great weekend!

Kathy

National Wildlife Refuge Day at Three Sisters Springs

October 19, 2015 by KTgreen

Terry and I attended the annual National Wildlife Refuge Day at Three Sisters Springs. There were numerous informational booths and the bluegrass band, Shade Tree Pickers provided entertainment. The real star of the day was the new wetlands that was recently completed by SouthWest Florida Water Management District. The area will clean water run off from the businesses on US 19 from Three Sisters Springs Blvd all the way to Fort Island Trail.

Water that has been cleansed in the wetlands goes through this spillway into the canal. The bars keep the manatees out of the area because the wetlands are tidal and the manatees could get stranded in very little water.

The entrance to Three Sisters Springs. Kayakers, swimmers, and manatees all share this inlet.

The former Lake Lynda, it’s now Lake Crystal.

An Evening in Inverness

October 13, 2015 by KTgreen

I haven’t done a restaurant review in a way long time.

I need to make up for it.

So today I’m writing about a whole town on a Friday night

okay, maybe not the whole town,

just parts of it.

Inverness

Which I’ve been to many times. It’s that town that got cut in half by that big highway.

But SO MUCH MORE!

Let’s talk about romantic evenings.

Somewhere, somehow, someone mentioned that McCleod House Bistro was the best restaurant in Citrus County. When we found out that our local favorite place in Crystal River for special dinners was closed for remodeling we were like, well, okay, we might as well try a new place….

Made reservations and they asked if we were celebrating anything special, oh yeah, it was our anniversary and Terry’s birthday.

And this was our menu:

In case you can’t see it…..

Okay, we’ve dined all over the country at many different places for our anniversary, and this was a first. Maybe that’s what restaurants are doing now! Since we only have an anniversary and birthday together once a year, how would we know????

And here I am having some Cakebread Cellars Chardonnay. We ONLY order this on our anniversary. Ka-ching.

And our dinner…

We both ordered the specials, Terry’s is the red meat variety.

Service was extraordinary and the food was excellent.

We opted for no dessert but they brought us key lime pie with a lit candle for Terry’s b’day.

OH geeeeez, now we have a new favorite local anniversary restaurant. What are we going to do when our other favorite local anniversary restaurant reopens????

As we left the restaurant, Inverness city manager Frank DiGiovanni was dining on the porch and gave us a wave. Yes, he has no idea who we are, we either looked really important in our special going out to eat at a special place clothes or he just waves at anyone and everyone. So everything we read in the paper that makes us think he is a cold hearted politician is all WRONG!!!!! He’s our new BFF. I know if we had just gone over to his table we could have shared a nice glass of Cabernet.

But anyhow let’s move on, we could hear a classic rock band playing around the corner which sounded like fun, but we had a destination. We were headed to Fox Den Winery for one last sip of wine. (Okay, I use “we” loosely, I was drinking most of the wine!)

Not only was there a band playing, but there were a whole lot of people hanging out on the streets of Inverness. And they didn’t look homeless. There were no special events scheduled so I was surprised that Inverness was so busy on a Friday evening.

Fox Den Winery had several tables filled but there was room at the bar for us. The owners remembered us and we had only been there one other time. (Is that a good thing or a bad thing?)

I told the owner that we just had an anniversary dinner and a lovely bottle of Cakebread Cellars Chardonnay. And she said, oh you had dinner at McLeod’s House Bistro!

We enjoyed listening to the acoustic duo that was performing.

Next we headed over to the Valerie Theatre so we could see it lit up at night.

I took lots of pictures, but I either had the wrong lens filter on or was using the wrong setting. Or had too much wine. (Good thing that I wasn’t driving!) The snaps didn’t turn out all that well.

Gosh, I love sparkle lights and shiny fountains. It was a great evening, the weather was perfect, Think we will be returning to Inverness for another romantic evening. Soon.