It was another glorious sun rise and morning that greeted up. The weather so far has been great, with temperatures in the mid to high 80’s but with intermittent cloud meaning that the sun has not burning down constantly. We have been so lucky so far.
Today’s plan involved watching the match from Carrow Road this morning which conveniently for us was kicking off at 10am Florida time. I found a ‘stream’ and Neil & I settled down to watch it outside by the pool. We wished we hadn’t. Sadly, it was a demonstration that with some key players out injured we are still just lower table standard. I have no doubt we will get better when the players return but that the squad does not have enough overall quality in depth yet. We lost two nil and were lucky to get nil.
Immediately following the final whistle, we had an early lunch outside, and then got ready to go out for the afternoon. We drove up to Winter Garden a place we had never really explored before. It was about 20 miles north of us but with a direct quick highway connection. My expectations were not that high but Neil explained that he thought there was an historic part of the town that we could walk around.
Winter Garden turned out to be quite the revelation. It had a lovely old centre and for a Saturday afternoon had quite a buzz about it. All the cafes and bars were full and there was a family party vibe about the place. We walked up and down the cobbled Main Street, looking in a couple of shops and visiting the Heritage Centre. We ended up in the Crooked Can Brewery sitting outside listening to some live music whilst Karen & Neil tried the local beer called ‘Florida Sunshine’. It is a nice place to visit and we will be back for visits in the future.
We went back to the car and drove the short distance to the actual shoreline of Lake Apoka upon which Winter Garden sits. This is the 4th largest Lake in Florida and we couldn’t see all the way across to the other side. As we walked along the boardwalk for a while we came across some wild gators, some small at first and then one that would definitely liked one of us for a snack. There were loads of birds flying around us of different shapes, sizes and colours.
As we walked back to the car there was a wedding taking place outside a Lakeside pavilion which we stood and watched as the main wedding party made individual grand entrances down the aisle. It took a while as there were 8 groomsmen and 8 bridesmaids all dressed differently in Autumn colours.
On the way back to the villa we stopped in the suburb of Ocoee to grab a couple of things from a non-touristy Walmart. We were in and out quite quickly.
We had a short turnaround in the villa before heading out again for dinner. We went to the relatively new Lazy Dog restaurant however there was a 30-minute wait and so we walked next door to Outback where we were seated immediately. It was just a shame that the service was so slow as the restaurant was rammed that we think we would have our food quicker if we had waited at Lazy Dog. We were offered a free dessert to make up for it but declined as we wanted to get to Old Town so that Neil could watch the Saturday Night Car Cruise.
It has been a few years since we have been to Old Town. One change they have made is that you now must pay $10 for parking. This means that people just abandon their cars anywhere on the roads around to avoid the cost. As we only had a few minutes to spare we paid the $10 and hurried to the main strip in time to see what turned out to a 20-minute-long car cruise driving past us.
The cars are obviously the owner’s pride and joy and it must be a real highlight for them to be able to take part. From Old Town’s perspective the cruise has been running for decades and brings the crowds in. It was apparent that almost all the owners were people of a certain age as well. A couple of the big old Americana cars of the 50’s caught my eye but the rest just seemed to be just loud and shiny ordinary cars but I’m no connoisseur.
Old Town itself hasn’t changed. It’s still loud, garish and full of tat – and that’s just the other visitors. It’s like being back in Gt Yarmouth during the summer season except much warmer. I do wonder how many of the outlets are selling goods which may not be the right side of legal. However, people seemed to be lapping it up. All the fairground rides were doing a brisk trade. We watched a couple
Back in the villa, Karen & I had a welcome cuppa before I retired leaving her to catch up on the latest episode of ‘Strictly’.
