weekend in Winter Park

This past weekend  it  was  time for The 55th Annual Sidewalk Art Festival in Winter Park; and since David was going to be in it...John and I decided to go over for the weekend. Actually...John's been fishing quite a bit and he took a quick ski trip a few weeks back...so he planned the weekend as something to do for both of us. Normally John's idea of a good weekend has nothing to do with something like an Art Show....hahah but in small doses he enjoys them.  The weather was perfect for the weekend...not too hot...breezy and no rain in sight! They had a great crowd Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

 The show takes place in downtown Winter Park, Florida along Park Avenue and in the park. Very nice setting...beautiful old oak trees, fountains in the park...pretty nice place to hang out for a couple of days. (Plenty of good food and shopping nearby too :)  )

To break up the day, we decided to take the Scenic Boat tour that starts right down the street from the show. My friend Karen suggested it when she heard we were going over...I'm glad she did. we enjoyed the tour and met up with some people who had lived down the street from my parent's house...and  also enjoyed talking to the one of the boat captains.

                                          The tour takes you through some canals and three lakes

The price is right!

It would be fun to rent one for a little party cruise around the lake some evening don't you think????

 

Here we are heading through one of the canals connecting two lakes....originally used for logging purposes.
We passed a few kayakers (?...is that a word...computer doesn't like it...haha suggested Quakers...hahah...no they weren't Quakers) and paddle boarders along the way. Passed a few boat "sheds" (i guess that's what you call them...and some dusty, dirty boats that had not gone out in a  loooooooooooooooooong time!

look at the Spanish moss on the tree

beautiful old and some new homes

One of these homes was built by a Cortland alumni..built by the owner to look like his home in Cortland in hopes that it would entice his wife to want to stay there.

It's hard to see this...but the house is now used for events like weddings, etc. We passed one old home that was going to be knocked down... so the new owners could build, but the Historical Society and  residents raised money to buy it and pay to have it moved to another site. They ended up cutting the home in half and floated it across the lake to it's new site. Didn't get a picture of the two parts.

As it turns out this isn't actually a bird house...the owner of the property is going to install a camera in there and take photos of the people on the boat tours for souvenirs

There was a crew regatta going on at Rollins College that day...so we stayed clear of the area...but it was fun to see the campus from the lake side. The captain told us some stories about the homes, the development over the years and about the various plants and trees that we passed. It was great.

heading back

When the tour ended we walked back up the street to the Art Festival.

I had to stop to get a picture of the street sign. I like signs...can you tell....

Our hotel was a mile or so down the road from the art festival...so we walked back to the hotel...John stayed to watch basketball while I changed and headed back to the show and the shops.

David had a piece selected for judging...so he was happy. He ended up with an Award of Distinction. There were 3 top prizes.., 10 Awards of Excellence and 20 Awards of Distinction. Then I believe there were 30 Awards of Merit. David's was worth $1000.00....not bad!

train station is also near the park

statue at the Civic Center right next door to our hotel

lots of flowers in bloom

We also enjoyed some great food...traveling with David...that's always a given...hahah We went to Cristeners (?) formerly DelFrisco's. It was ALL delicious. Celebrated Marty's birthday. He has been helping David with the shows.( Nice guy) Saturday night we opted to head a few miles down the road to my favorite place in Maitland....Antonio's!

It's not that I've tried many restaurants in Maitland...just once I tried this place...that's where I always want to go when I am over there! It's so pretty right there at the lake....and once again I wanted a picture of the signs.
I had my favorite Eggplant Parmesan and the  Butternut Squash soup....so good!
I enjoyed the art, enjoyed all the great food, shopped a bit in some stores we don't have over our way...and enjoyed the art festival. People watching is always fun...the art was nice. I admired it...didn't buy anything. though. They also had great live music...and again the perfect spring weather. You couldn't have picked better days for the event!
All in all it was a nice treat!