I’ve always wanted to spend my birthday in Florida, so this year we did it. Dropped Freckles at Audrey’s (Powhatan Paws), on Jan. 22, and set out Thursday morning. Our timing was great, as a snow storm was predicted for the weekend. In the past we’ve always driven to Jacksonville, but that’s a long drive for one say-9 hours, so we decide to revisit out previous stopping off point. It’s called Gateway, GA. It’s a complex of several hotels and restaurants just off I-95. Comfort Suites was our choice, $120, with a Ruby Tuesday right next door. Which is where we had dinner. Nice place, good salmon, mediocre service.
Magic Tree on Friday, dinner at an oh-so convenient Black Angus for dinner. We were a little concerned when we missed our landmark for turning into our timeshare. The huge restaurant sign was missing. So, we asked our waitress about it, She explained that a county ordinance doomed it. No signs are allowed over a certain height, and the Black Angus sign was huge. And check this out-no grandfather clause. So, they had to remove it -at a cost of $30,000. I had the ribeye, and it was really good. KK had the Mr. Angus special, not so good.
Farmer’s Market in Winterpark on Saturday. I’d heard really good things before coming, and it is large, but not much different than a typical farmer’s market. Then we visited my sister, Jilll, who was in the Orlando Advent Hospital after suffering a shorness of breath on Christmas Eve. She’s been diagnosed with one or two failing heart valves, so had just undergone open heart surger to replace the. She was still in ICU, and never woke up while we were, but we caught her daughter Ramsey, in the waiting room and had a nice talk with her. One of Jill’s neighbors was there-Jackie, and we got acquainted with her. Dinner at my fav seafood place, Juicy & Crab. The oysters (raw, of course) were excellent. The fried oysters, not so much-the breading was too heaving, and they were overcooked
In our room, I discovered that they had upated the TV service with Fire TV’s. Here are some things I discovered: magic tree fire tv: You have to connect to wifi first-home/gear/network. You must sign in to amazon account-and sign out before you leave To browse home/live/guide, then selections at top of screen You can set favorites home with /live/guide +Channels
We went to the Medieval dinner show, pretty good. I really enjoyed the sword fighting. Our dinner of chicken was excellent.
The weather turned much cooler-it was in low 70’s vs. 82 yesterday. We finally found a decent Mexican reataurant: we had dinner at El Tapatio, about s 20 minute drive away. We tried the Queso Fundido, but it was expensive $14, and the cheese was ridiculously stringy. The carnitas were were just pulled pork, not crispy, and covered with onions. Strangely, this is one of the dishes they supposedly “specialize” in. KK’s chimichanga was excellent. and we did like the decor and service. It’s worth another try.
Visited with Jill-she was able to sit up in bed and move her arms and legs. Emari came in, so we got to catch up with her. Had burgers at Walmart for dinner, and they were actually quite good.
We drove to Blue Spring State Park on Tuesday to see the manatees. They were visible at the springs, but not on our boat tour ($76). We saw lots of gators, birds, etc. It was a good trip, but would be more fun when it’s warmer, though.
My birthday dinner on Wednesday was at Black Angus. and I had surf and turf. The steak was good, but lobster tail was undercooked. KK’s burger was not as good as Walmart’s.
Drove to Lakeland on Thursday for lunch with the Ficcos at Low and Slow Bbq in lakeland. We saw jill again. She looke better and talked better, no word on moving home.
Friday was spent driving home, straight through, after hearing about a possible storm moving in. We left at 9am, got home at 9:30pm. We met a friend of Terry’s, Jeff (goose) at a Bo Jangles on the way.