Art Day

 Linda has become very involved in the Gateway Performing Arts Center while in Florida.  She has directed in their theatre, performed there, volunteers and has been taking classes there.  I've heard so much about it that I was excited to go take a look.  I was also looking for ideas for the Davis Arts Council where I served on the board in Utah.  We have been hoping to get our own indoor theatre and art space so I took tons of photos to send home.

They were preparing a new exhibit that was opening over the weekend so we got in for a sneak peek...

The theatre space

There is a group of artists who all get together one afternoon a week and work on their individual pieces.  Linda has been working in oils, and these lovely ladies are working on masks for a production of Much Ado About Nothing that Linda will be directing in the Fall.  They designed them and crafted them.  There's a whole range of animals that are so clever and fun!

I've always wanted to take painting lessons (my mom has been taking them and is doing great!) so Linda let me use her watercolors and walked me through the basics.  I had been looking for a photo all week I could copy and found one of a beach I liked.

Before watercolor photo

After dinner at home we headed to DeLand for "Theology on Tap".  A group of people from Linda's church meet on Thursday night's for a book discussion.  They have been reading Conversations With God which I have to say I have not read, but given the discussion I could tell it held no interest for me.  Definitely out of my comfort level and a group of very unique people (including a Wiccan  priestess who just happened to drop in based on the sign out front) but it was definitely a lively discussion with lots of disagreement but the freedom to express your opinion.  I said nothing,  just listened....taking it all in.

Deland is a lovely historic town, home to Stetson University and full of all kinds of cute shops.  We spent an hour just walking up the streets and of course stopping for some goodies at the Sweet Things shop!

Leu Gardens

 Not much to say except that it's nice to be on vacation and visiting someone who loves all the same things you do.  Not everyone would want to spend several hours wandering through gorgeous gardens and a beautiful home transformed into a museum.  Fortunately, Linda DOES like those things so we spent a very warm, okay, HOT day wandering the acres of gardens on this property.  Everything from tropicals, butterfly gardens, herbs, vegetables, roses, citrus groves, cottage gardens (my personal favorite) and anything else you can think of.  Not to mention all the beautiful paintings of the flowers inside this garden house...............

Spanish moss everywhere!

St Augustine

Linda teaches school in the mornings so I had plenty of time to get up and either run or swim in her lovely pool.  We headed out on our daily excursion by 11AM leaving us plenty of time to sight see.  Did I mention she has a cute little convertible so we are a tad windblown if we feel compelled to hit the road sans roof?

Tuesday we headed to St. Augustine which according to most history is the oldest city in the nation having been discovered by Ponce De Leon.  However, our tour guide on the cute little trolley respectfully acknowledged that Native Americans had already been here for a couple thousand years before he showed up.  Oh well.

Always have to have your pix taken with fake people on benches....

 Streets and streets of cute shops with anything you could ever want to look at and possibly purchase.  I'm on a "really don't need that" kick so we did plenty of just looking.

Shared a lovely lunch of crab cakes and seared Ahi tuna salad at Harry's before hopping back on the trolley for more touristy fun.

                                         The gorgeous Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine

Wrapped up the day at the San Sebastian Winery!

My Week In Florida

My very comfy room

 My old friend Linda Bishop has been away from Utah now for many years and I've never been in a position to go visit until now.  Caught a cheap Hotwire flight and went to enjoy some downtime before the "crazy life change part 2" starts next month.
   This fun photo was on my bed table to greet me taken way back in the late 80's.  Linda and I had gone to Australia and New Zealand and got to catch a quick visit at LAX with our theatre pal John on a layover.  Very thoughtful for my hostess to make me feel at home in my lovely bedroom.

This is Yogi.  We became fast friends as I was happy to take him walking and in return he slept outside my door acting as a perfect guard dog.

 Our first day was spent at my favorite place.....the beach.  Smyrna Beach to be exact.  Beautiful weather and flat sand where you just drive onto the beach and walk 5 feet onto your selected area.

 After a couple of hours in the sun and waves we walked through town and visited lots of cute shops and had Mexican food at Clancy's.  Yes, it DOES sound Irish and it's an odd mix of Irish/Mexican decor but it was charming and yummy.

No, I didn't catch that fish.