Living Our Dream: Florida Wrap-up

April 14, 2016

Florida Wrap-up

Bushnell, FL - Events of Wednesday, April 6 to Wednesday, April 13, 2016

As our time in Florida neared its end, we tried to make time to relax a bit in preparation for the upcoming travel days, which always feel rather hectic. We also made time to visit some of our favorite eateries before we hit the road. Last Wednesday, we had some errands to run down south of Lakeland, FL, so we stopped at Parksdale Market in Plant City on the way back. Parksdale Market is famous for their strawberry shortcake, strawberry sundaes and strawberry milkshakes.

Parkesdale Market

We both had strawberry sundae boats ($4.00, up from $3.75 last year). The sundaes are made with soft-serve ice cream and are overflowing with strawberries topped with real whipped cream.

Strawberry sundae boats

Parksdale has picnic tables set up among the many beautiful plants and flowers they have for sale.

Margery digging into her sundae

The market also has a nice variety of reasonably priced produce. We got some spinach, a tomato, an eggplant and some cauliflower.

Produce at Parksdale Market

Since we changed our residency to Florida earlier this year and since it has been quite some time since we last updated our wills, we decided it would be a good time to do so. A couple of weeks ago when we had our initial appointment with an attorney, we were intrigued with the quaint downtown area of New Port Richey where the attorney's office is located. Therefore, when we headed there last Thursday to sign our new wills, we left early for our appointment so we could walk around town a little bit beforehand.

Port Richey was settled in the late 1800s near the mouth of the Pithlachascotee River (called the "Cotie" River for short and also sometimes called the "Cootie" River by locals). By the early 1900s, an area to the south of Port Richey was being developed. The new town, which was called New Port Richey, got its own post office in 1915. Today, the downtown area retains many Spanish Revival buildings that were built during the land boom of the 1920s.

Spanish Revival-style buildings in downtown New Port Richey

There are numerous murals all over the downtown area. The 3-dimensional appearance of the speedboat in the mural in the next photo was enhanced so much by the fact the bow of the boat was painted on the corner of a building, you almost had to walk over to touch it so see that it was painted on flat surfaces.

Speedboat mural on the corner of a building

When New Port Richey was first incorporated in 1924, real estate developer George Sims donated to the city a tract of land along the banks of the Pithlachascotee River called Enchantment Park. One of the first things the new town council did was to rename it Sims Park. Sims Park has a boat launch, boat slips, walking paths and an amphitheater. Every April the park hosts the 9-day Chasco Fiesta, which is a revival of a festival originally held in 1922 to raise money for the library. The festival features a street parade, a boat parade, carnival rides, food, entertainment, a car show, a craft show and more. The park was set up for the Chasco Fiesta when we were there, but the festival is only open in the evenings on weekdays.

View of the Pithlachascotee River from Sims Park

After we signed our new wills, we headed to Pancho's Villa to meet Donna and Tony, who are our neighbors in Blueberry Hill, and their friends, Sy and Judy, who have a park model on the street behind Tony and Donna. The special of the day was a chimichanga for $8.95, and that's what everyone had. The food was great, and so was the company.

Donna, Margery, Paul, Tony, Sy and Judy at Pancho's Villa

We normally don't go out to eat on weekends, but we were running out of time in Florida so we took a drive to Crystal River on Saturday afternoon to have clams one last time at Dan's Clam Stand. Dan's has restaurants in both Homosassa Springs and Crystal River. The one in Crystal River gets better reviews for some reason so that's the one we went to.

Dan's Clam Stand in Crystal River

We both had fresh clam strip baskets ($9.99). Margery had slaw and onion rings for her sides, and Paul had slaw and fries. Everything was yummy!

Paul at Dan's Clam stand

On Monday, we went to Beef O'Brady's in Bushnell for Burger Monday with Pat and Mike. The burgers were good as usual, and we had a nice time visiting with Pat and Mike.

Mike, Pat, Margery and Paul at Beef O'Brady's