An Update--Finally!

So the last time we talked, I was in Florida, biding my time until I could get back to sweet home Chicago. And I promised pictures from the trip. Well, time and tide--in the form of our cable TV connection being on the blink--have finally allowed me to make good.

The photo above is from the Harry P. Leu Gardens, a lovely local landmark, and one that I'll bet few visitors to Orlando ever bother to see. It was private land until the early 1960s, when it was bequeathed to the city by its owner, whose name it still bears. The centerpiece of the gardens is the Leu home, which was built in the latter half of the 19th century and added onto by subsequent owners over the years. It was a fairly modest house as the houses of the affluent go. The gardens and land are the real showstoppers. But it had been nicely restored with botanical wallpapers, period details, and many of the Leus' personal effects. I was amused by this framed advert in the kitchen (which was quite small by today's standards):



The Dionne Quintuplets! Now, who even remembers why they were so famous?

Of course, the things that interested me were the odd details. The master bedroom sported this rather creepy lamp:



and this mannequin head, with its feathery chapeau.



I sense a theme...

The real attraction, though, was the garden itself. It boasted the nation's (maybe the world's) largest collection of camellias, and they were not kidding. Just look:



Camellia bushes. Camellia TREES! Gorgeous!



And, of course, the ubiquitous Spanish-moss-draped oaks.



And some more tropical plants, such as this one with eyes on the trunk:



Ooohh!

There was also a rose garden--supposedly a famous one--but it was too early in the season to appreciate.

The garden visit was on Saturday, and it was the perfect day for it. Warm, sunny, just a lilt of a breeze.

Sunday, though, dawned rainy and windy, so my colleague Margo and I decided to do some flea marketing. At what turned out to be a huge market that had the market cornered on tacky! Joy!


It doesn't look like much (and by the time I snapped this, on our way out, the rain had cleared), but this low-slung building is like a warren--nay, a labyrinth--of cheesy and/or tawdry commodities. Don't believe me? Just look!


These little piggies went to market, for sure!



Bagged geishas and pre-9/11 NYC skyline motion lamps. Sigh.



A dreamcatcher, an Our Lady, or a frou-frou asymmetrical clock for everyone!



Less than two months 'til Easter! Get your bonnet here!



Have refrigerator, will decorate!



What's with the foot thing? Yikes!


Margo got into the spirit, haggling with the woman at this jewelry booth. The proprietor kept trying to interest Margo in necklaces to go with the bracelets she was admiring. I tell you, I've never heard "I'm not interested in necklaces, thank you!" repeated so emphatically so many times in such a short time span.

Margo knows how to haggle!

All in all, it was an entertaining way to spend a rainy afternoon, but I wish there had been more funky old stuff--vintage stuff--there. Oh well... if I had wanted the Rose Bowl Swap Meet, I should have been assigned a two-week gig in Pasadena, huh?

Home Soon!

The stint in Florida is winding down--by this time tomorrow, I will be waiting at the Orlando airport, more than ready to board my flight back to Chicago and Jeff and Mifune. While the weather has been almost uniformly nice (aside from some rain on Sunday), and while the folks at the comp house have been wonderful--so competent AND accommodating, nothing takes the place of home.

I'll have some photos to share once I get home and can upload them--then I'll give a more complete account of our ramblings over the weekend--but until then, I want to give some impressions of Orlando.

First off, the tap water just stinks! Sulfur! I don't believe the tap water in the little cabin we stayed in at Yellowstone had such smelly water, and it was situated right in the middle of a volcanic caldera! I know it's ecologically unsound to drink bottled water, but I'm not ingesting water that stinks! It's bad enough to use it to brush my teeth and wash with!

Secondly, the hotel is pretty bare-bones. Yes, every "room" is a suite, and that is nice. Yes, it's cleaned every day. And yes, it offers breakfast each morning (although the scrambled eggs--a constant on the menu--are constantly overcooked). It's entirely adequate. And no one is ever in the workout room, so the elliptical trainer is always available. There is no restaurant or bar, though--save for the "Teekey Bar," which is supposed to be open poolside each evening from 4-10, but which is really only open sporadically. Not that I am jonesin' for a drink from the Teekey Bar (I'm not kidding--I don't know if the name is supposed to be ironic or if it's a typo...), but if they say they are open, they should be open. Oh yeah--and it was FOUR BUCKS to do laundry! FOUR BUCKS! Two to wash and two to dry. Sheesh.

The town also seems to be one big strip of chain restaurants, chain hotels, $1.99 T-shirt emporia, and general tourist attractions, no matter what street you are on. I must say this, though--the Capitol Grille, where we splurged on dinner last night (and I do mean splurged) is superlative. Just wonderful. And tres chere!

So, I'm going to be really, really happy to get home to my husband, my cat, and my washer and dryer! And Jeff's cooking. And Mifune's quacking. And a stack of mail (most of which are probably bills...

Fun in the Sun...

Okay, so I've been in Orlando all week. But it's not been all that much fun... I've been reading pages and pages and pages and trying to keep another work ball up in the air back in Chicagoland at the same time. I'll be here for another six days, and then I can come home to Jeff and Mifune, whom I miss an awful lot. And, of course, my lovely new guitar, which I also miss!

I would be lying if I said that I didn't appreciate the warmer weather here. It's been quite lovely, although there has been precious little time to enjoy the out of doors. Today Margo and I (the other editor who is down here for the duration of this assignment) went to the Harry P. Leu Gardens, a lovely botanical gardens in town. We had originally thought a nice afternoon at Sea World, which is within walking distance from our hotel, would be just the ticket... until we found out how expensive tickets actually were! Close to sixty bucks per! And you can't expense a ticket to a theme park!

But the Leu Gardens were lush with camelias of every conceivable variety and citrus trees heavy with lemons and grapefruit. There was a historic home on the property, begun in 1888 and added onto over the next fifty years or so. Not a huge mansion, but rather a modest but well-appointed home that reflected the eras in which it was constructed and renovated. There was a butterfly garden, a floral clock, vegetable and herb gardens, and a rose garden that must be spectacular in season, but which was not in bloom yet. Rhododendrons were were blooming all over the place, though, making me yearn for the Blue Ridge in late spring. It was a nice way to spend an afternoon, if you couldn't spend it being amused by porpoises and orcas.

This hotel--a modest suite hotel--is completely adequate and until the weekend hit, it was very quiet and sedate. Now it has become a madhouse. This is the weekend of Megacon, apparently THE big comic book convention in the Southeast. So the hotel (and the sidewalks all up and down the nearby stretch of International Drive where the big convention hall is located) currently swarms with teens and twenty-somethings dressed in all their gothic and/or fave comix character splendor. It's very amusing, I must say, but some of the costumes are, well, more successful than others.

Tomorrow Margo and I are braving Fleaworld, the self-proclaimed largest flea market in the world. We will see. I only hope it is not the world's largest flea market selling nothing but tube sox, cheezy T-shirts, and T-fal cookware.

I will keep you posted!