Living Our Dream

Restaurants: Old Favorites, New Favorites, and One Not So Much

Wauchula, FL - Events of Wednesday, August 8 to Friday, August 24, 2018

Ever since the day trip we took to Punta Gorda for our anniversary, we have been sticking relatively close to home. We have both been working on a number of Co-op projects. Margery was working on a summer edition of the newsletter for most of the month, and she has also been helping plan and do publicity for a couple of activities for those of us who spend the summer here. Paul has been working on some cleanup projects around the Co-op, and he has been tending to some of the plantings for both the Co-op and on our own lot.

We also had lots of errands to run and several doctor appointments this month, and we frequently stop to eat somewhere while we're out. We've been hitting some of our old favorites plus a couple of new restaurants.

On Wednesday, August 8, we had to go to Sebring for an appointment in the late morning so we stopped at Dee's Place (one of our old favorites) afterward for lunch. We both had Philly cheese steaks, which were yummy as always.

Dee's Place

We needed a few things from Sam's Club so we scheduled a trip to the one in Brandon on Monday, August 13. There are several Sam's Clubs that are all about an hour away, but the reason we chose the one in Brandon is there is also a Mission BBQ located nearby. We first went to Mission BBQ with Lora and Lydia when we were in Pittsburgh in July, and we were thrilled to find out there are a couple of them not too far from the Co-op. Mission BBQ is one of our new favorite restaurants.

Mission BBQ

Margery had a North Carolina-style pulled pork sandwich (served with slaw on top for $6.99), and Paul had a pulled pork platter ($7.29) with slaw as his side. We also got an order of fries ($1.99) to share.

Paul with his pulled pork platter

Everything was just as good as it was at the Mission BBQ in Pittsburgh. The pork is tender, moist, and smokey. The slaw is also good as are fries, which are fresh-cut.

Margery had an appointment with the eye doctor in Sebring on Wednesday, August 15. She deliberately scheduled it for later in the afternoon because Cody's Roadhouse, which is located nearby, doesn't open until 3:00. Cody's has buy-one-get-one-free fajitas on Wednesdays. We first went there with a group from the Co-op last winter, and we've gone back several times since for BOGO fajitas. We headed there for an early dinner after Margery's appointment.

Cody's Roadhouse

We both had chicken fajitas (two for $12), which were delish!

Margery with her chicken fajitas

We had another errand to run in Sebring on Friday, August 17. We recently noticed a sign along the main highway in Sebring for The Wild Hawg, which is a restaurant in a little strip mall featuring barbecue. We initially thought we would go to Dee's Place after our errand, but The Wild Hawg got pretty good reviews online so we decided to give it a try instead.

The Wild Hawg

The Wild Hawg has very extensive menu for a barbecue joint. In addition to breakfast, they also have for lunch things like subs, burritos, burrito bowls, salads, and wraps. However, with a name like Wild Hawg, we figured barbecue was their specialty so that's what we had even though we had barbecue several days prior at Mission BBQ. We were hoping to find another good barbecue joint closer to home.

Pulled pork is available at The Wild Hawg as a sandwich or a platter for $7.95 including two sides. We both had platters. Margery had slaw and onion rings ($.50 additional), and Paul had slaw and sweet potato fries ($.50 extra).

Margery with her pulled pork platter

The pork was tender enough, but it tasted like it was stewed in a crock pot, not smoked. The sides were okay, but we were really disappointed in the pulled pork. Note to ourselves: if a restaurant has an extensive menu with lots of things in addition to barbecue, they probably don't know much about barbecue so don't bother.

One of the Co-op activities is going out to eat somewhere as a group once a month, and that activity continues over the summer. We normally don't participate in winter because, not only are we very busy in winter, but the group is so large that we have difficulty hearing conversations. Summer is a different story because the group is a lot smaller. For August, the group planned lunch at Dimitri's in Sebring last Wednesday, and we went along.

Dimitri's

Dimitri's bills themselves as having "American cuisine with a Greek accent."  Dinners range in price from $9 to $15 and include things like mousaka, braised lamb shank, souvlaki, meat loaf, country fried steak, and New York strip steak. For lunch, there are sandwiches ($5 to $9) that include gyros, Philly cheese steak, burgers, chicken salad, roast beef, and various wraps. There is also a variety of large salads ($6.50 to $8.50) and baskets ($6 to $8). All the dinner items are also available for lunch.

Margery had a fish and chips basket ($6.79) with onion rings substituted for the fries ($.50 extra), and Paul had a fried shrimp basket that included slaw and fries ($7.49).

Our group at Dimitri's

Others in our group got things like coconut shrimp, stuffed green peppers, and lasagna. Not only did we have plenty of good conversation and laughs; the food was excellent and was served in generous portions. We will most likely be adding Dimitri's to our list of favorites.

Not only do we eat out when we're running our regular errands, sometimes we make up an errand just to give ourselves an excuse to eat out. Such was the case last Friday. Because we gave up going to Dee's Place to go have disappointing barbecue at the Wild Hawg the previous Friday, we were especially hungry for a delicious half-pound burger from Dee's. Therefore, we decided it would be a good idea to go to Lowe's and Home Depot to look at supplies for a couple of possible future projects. Even though we're not really ready to start those projects yet, it gave us a good excuse to go to Sebring, which is where Dee's is located. The burgers were very satisfying.

Half-pound burgers at Dee's Palce

So that's about it for the past several weeks. Stay tuned for our next update.

Punta Gorda

Wauchula, FL - Events of Friday, August 3, 2018

After we finished up looking around the little museum and the visitor center following our eco tour of Babcock Ranch Preserve, we hopped in the car and headed to Punta Gorda. Punta Gorda, whose name means "fat point" in English, is so named because it is located on a short, wide peninsula of land that juts out into Charlotte Harbor at the mouth of the Peace River. Charlotte Harbor is a bay located between Sarasota and Ft. Myers on the Gulf coast of Florida.

The first white settlers began arriving in the area that is now Punta Gorda around the mid-1870s. The plan for the town was filed in 1885. The town was originally called Trabue after Isaac Trabue, who was responsible for the platting of the lots, but when the town was incorporated in 1887, the name was changed to Punta Gorda.

It was a little early for lupper so we drove around to check out the town first. While Punta Gorda is a waterfront town, it's located on Charlotte Harbor and not directly on the Gulf. Therefore, it's not a crowded, bustling beach town, and it was pretty easy to get around.

There are a several parks with features like tennis courts, basket ball courts, playgrounds, picnic shelters, and benches located along the Peace River, and all the parks are connected by a harbor walk. Because it happened to be close to where we were when we made the decision to check out one of the parks, we ended up at Gilchrist Park.

One of the first things we noticed when we parked was the Victorian-style architecture with Bahamian and Cuban influences that reminded us of Key West.

Victorian-style architecture with Caribbean influences

From the park, there were nice views out into the wide expanse of the Peace River.

View of the Peace River from the gazebo at Gilchrist Park

There was also a statue of Ponce de Leon at the park.

Ponce de Leon

Ponce de Leon was a Spanish explorer who sailed with Christopher Colombus on his second voyage to the New World in 1493. That expedition landed in Hispaniola (present day Haiti and Dominican Republic). In 1513, Ponce de Leon led his own expedition that landed in the area of what is now St. Augustine making him the first European to set foot in Florida. He claimed the land for Spain naming it La Florida (the land of flowers).

Ponce de Leon then sailed around La Florida and landed in present day Charlotte Harbor along the Gulf coast in May, 1513. The expedition spent three weeks there and left after several clashes with unfriendly Calusa Indians.

Ponce de Leon returned to Charlotte Harbor in 1521 with 200 men, farm animals that became ancestors of the Cracker cattle and feral pigs we saw on our eco tour of Babcock Ranch Preserve, and farming implements. His intention was to establish a colony and bring Christianity to the Indians. The Indians resisted vigorously. After several months, the colonists retreated to their ships during a skirmish, and Ponce de Leon was wounded by an arrow during the retreat. The colonists then sailed to Cuba where Ponce de Leon died of his wound.

From the park, we drove several blocks to Fishermen's Village. Fishermen's Village is a waterfront tourist area containing shops, restaurants, and a resort complex. Opened in 1980, Fishermen's Village is built on an old dock that had fallen into disrepair.

Some of the shops of Fishermen's Village

We were interested in two of several restaurants located in Fishermen's Village so we checked them out because it was mid-afternoon and we were getting hungry. One of the restaurants featured New England seafood. There's nothing wrong with that, but we were looking for local seafood. The other restaurant also specialized in seafood. They had grouper on the menu, which sounded good to both of us, but it was available at lunch time only as a sandwich. Therefore, we decided to hop in the car and drive a few blocks east to check out Laishley Crab House because the menu we found online indicated they had a fried grouper platter, which we preferred because it had no bread and therefore fewer carbs.

Laishley Crab House was a little hard to find because the entrance is kind of hidden under the front overhang of a building that was dominated by the sign for a realtor, which is located in the same building. Once we found the entrance, we parked and headed for the restaurant.

Entrance to Laishley Crab House

The restaurant is located on the second floor. On our way upstairs, we stopped to admire the attractive, carved sign inside the entrance.

Carved sign for Laishley Crab House

We chose outdoor seating on the balcony overlooking a marina.

View of the marina from the outdoor seating on the balcony

We both ordered fried grouper platters which come with slaw and fries for $13. Paul opted for sweet potato fries ($.50 extra), while Margery stuck with the regular fries.

Paul with his fried grouper and sweet potato fries

The grouper was excellent. It was tempura-battered, which made it extra crispy. The sides were good, too.

After lupper, we headed back to the Co-op where we relaxed for the evening. It was a nice day trip with our eco tour of Babcock Ranch Preserve and our lupper at Laishley Crab House. It was an excellent way to celebrate our anniversary.

Babcock Ranch

Wauchula, FL - Events of Friday, August 3, 2018

We spent most of the first week back at the Co-op after our 2½-week trip to Pittsburgh and to Ohio's Amish Country catching up with things like grocery shopping, grass mowing, and other chores. We took time out on Friday, however, because it was a special day. It was our 50th wedding anniversary.

We decided to celebrate our anniversary by taking a day trip to visit Babcock Ranch Preserve in Punta Gorda, Florida, which is a little over an hour from the Co-op. Babcock Ranch, also known as the Crescent B Ranch, was a tract of over 91,000 acres that was purchased in 1914 by Edward V. Babcock.

Edward Babcock, who was a lumber baron, used the land in Florida for cutting timber and for agriculture. He also has a Pittsburgh connection because he founded Babcock Lumber Company in our old hometown of Pittsburgh in the late 1880s. He was also Mayor of Pittsburgh from 1918 to 1922.

Edward Babcock spent little time in Florida. By the 1930s, his son Fred, who loved Florida, was managing the property on site. When Fred died in 1997, the Babcock family attempted to sell the land to the state. Florida wanted the land in order to help establish a conservation corridor from Lake Okeechobee to the Gulf Coast. This area is important environmentally because it supplies water to the western part of the Everglades.

In order to lessen tax liabilities, the family wanted to sell the land to the state by means of a stock transfer, but the state's constitution prohibited it from purchasing stock from a private company. When negotiations between the family and the state ended in 2005, the family began to seek private buyers. Fortunately, they found a real estate developer who purchased the land (presumably by means of the stock transfer) then turned around and sold 74,000 of the 91,000-acre tract (80%) to the state creating Babcock Ranch Preserve. The development company is using the land they retained to build a planned community called Babcock Ranch.

From what we can tell, the community of Babcock Ranch will be much like The Villages except it will apparently have less emphasis on golf and more emphasis on high tech and energy efficiency. They will supply some of their own electricity with their own solar power plant. Like The Villages, Babcock Ranch will be made up of a number of smaller neighborhoods each with housing at different price levels. Also like The Villages, there will be shopping, office space, light industry, a hospital, public areas, schools, and entertainment venues.

Anyway, enough about the community of Babcock Ranch and about the history of the ranch itself. We were interested in taking an eco tour of Babcock Ranch Preserve. The preserve is administered by the Florida Forest Service and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, but the tours are conducted by a private company in cooperation with the state. The address for the tours is 8000 State Route 31, Punta Gorda, which is located about 15 miles east of the city as the crow flies. Tours depart every half hour from 9:30 am until 2:00 pm at a cost of $23 for adults and $22 for seniors.

Putting the above address into your GPS will get you to the approximate location of the turnoff from SR 31, but the actual starting point of the tours is down a narrow road a little over 2 miles to the east of that turnoff. Paul was just beginning to question if we missed the place or if we were even on the right road when we saw a sign that said "almost there." After about another quarter mile, we finally arrived. We parked and headed to the visitor center to check in.

Visitor center for eco tour

The eco tours are given aboard so-called "swamp buggies," which are actually converted school buses.

Eco tour "swamp buggy"

We noticed when we first arrived there weren't many cars in the parking lot, and most of them were at the end where there was a sign for the start of a hiking trail. It turned out we were the only ones there for the 10:30 tour. It was great having a private tour because we could ask all the questions we wanted, and we could move from one side of the bus to the other to get a better view.

Shortly after the tour started, we came to our first of many alligators. The 'gator wasn't very big (maybe about 3'). The 'gator is a little hard to make out, but its scaly back is in the center of the picture and its head extends off to the left and is partially obscured by plants.

 
The first of many 'gators

The preserve is operated as a unique public-private partnership that uses income from eco-tourism and its ongoing logging, farming, and ranching operations to sustain itself. The preserve is made up of diverse habitats including scrub flats, pine forests, marshes, cypress swamps, prairies, and hardwood hammocks (a hammock is a tract of land that rises above the surrounding wetlands).

Grazing land

A few slash pines with lots of undergrowth

With all the marshes and ponds, we saw surprisingly few wading birds, namely a few snowy egrets. We also saw one anhinga perched atop a dead tree.

Anhinga

Although the preserve is home to a wide variety of wildlife, we didn't see that much of it. They did tell us there is usually much more wildlife in winter when water levels are lower. The tour guides are able to attract some wildlife because they carry buckets of corn to use as handouts. The first of the beggars were white tail deer.

White tail deer

They saw us coming and meandered in our direction as the tour guide dumped some corn out onto the ground, but they kept their distance until the bus had started to move on.

Less wary were the feral pigs. They charged right up to the bus and waited for the corn.

Feral pigs

The cattle were even more demanding. Several of them put their noses all the way into the bus through the open door and one even started climbing up the steps.

One of the many cattle looking for a handout

The cattle are "cracker" cattle whose lineage goes back to the time of the arrival of Ponce de Leon in the early 1500s. These cattle were brought in by the Spanish and adapted well to the heat of Florida. "Cracker" is the name given to Florida cowboys, who were more properly called cow hunters, because of the cracks of their whips as they drove the cattle.

Back in the day, the small town of Rouxville (population 200) was a logging town that supported Babcock Ranch. The commissary, which still stands, had a company store and a doctor who also served as a barber... or was it the other way around?

Rouxville commissary

Next to the commissary was a pond with a resident 3-foot alligator.

Alligator in the commissary pond

After passing the commissary, the road crosses a fast-moving creek. They always say don't drive through water where you can't see the bottom, but the driver was obviously familiar with the route and charged right in.

View out the front window as the bus was about to ford a fast-moving stream

When the bus was mid-stream, we could see the remnants of an old railroad trestle out the right side. The railroad ran right through the ranch and was important for getting logs to market.

View out the right side of the bus of the stream and the remnants of old railroad trestle 

Most of the second half of the tour was through a cypress swamp... and we do mean through the swamp. The bus was in the water up to its axles most of the way.

Cypress trees are conifers that grow in or near water. They have buttress roots at the base to help support the trees in the wet soil, and the roots have projections called knees that stick up out of the water so the roots can get air.

Cypress swamp

The red-brown color of the water is due to tannin. The tannin comes from leaves and organic matter that fall into the water and break down.

Tannin-stained water in the swamp

Near the end of the tour, the driver stopped the bus on Alligator Bridge where we watched about half a dozen alligators in the water below.

One of the alligators we saw from Alligator Bridge

The driver got out and came back with a baby 'gator. At first we thought she picked it out of the water, but she admitted it came from a holding tank mounted on the back of the bus. When it gets a little bigger, they will release it.

Baby 'gator up close and personal

From Alligator Bridge it was a short drive back to the visitor center where there is a small museum with early artifacts from the ranch. Adjacent to the visitor center is the Gator Shack Restaurant that serves ribs, east Carolina-style pulled pork, various kinds of seafood, and alligator (tastes like chicken).

Back at the visitor center there was also there was a taxidermy display of Lulu the three-horned cow. She was born on Babcock Ranch in 1967. She had 18 calves, all of which were two-horned.

Lulu the three-horned cow

The tours are led by the driver and a spotter who helps look for and points out wildlife. Both were excellent and very knowledgeable. We thoroughly enjoyed our eco tour of Babcock Ranch.

We do have one caution regarding the tour, however. The roads are very rough so you may not want to take the tour if you have severe back or neck problems.

After looking around the visitor center a while, we hopped in the car and headed to our next stop. We'll tell you about it in our next post. 

Walnut Creek Flea Market

Berlin, OH - Events of Saturday, July 28 to Monday, July 30, 2018

Saturday was our last day in the Berlin area. We started off the day with a breakfast buffet at the Carpenter's Cafe located inside Keim Lumber.

Margery at the Carpenter's Cafe buffet

Carpenter's Cafe is open Monday through Saturday, but the buffet is served Saturday morning only. It costs $7.49 and includes a drink (coffee, tea, or soft drink). That's $2 less than the buffet at Der Dutchman, and the one at Der Dutchman doesn't include a drink.

The Carpenter's Cafe buffet includes many of the items that are on the Der Dutchman buffet like scrambled eggs, hash browns, French toast sticks, bacon, sausage patties, smoked sausage, sausage gravy and biscuits, oatmeal, cold cereal, fresh fruit, and even fruit slush. However, it doesn't have nearly as many of the secondary items like toppings for the scrambled eggs (mushrooms, green peppers, onions, etc.) or things like pudding, fried cornmeal mush (one of Margery's favorites), or yogurt. However, the food at the Carpenter's Cafe is good and the price is very reasonable so we think it was definitely worth the stop.

From the Carpenter's Cafe, we headed to the Walnut Creek Flea Market in Sugarcreek. It is one of two flea markets in the area, the other being the Holmes County Flea Market in Berlin. Since both flea markets are similar selling mostly new, country-themed merchandise, and since we didn't have much time on Saturday (more about that shortly), we only hit the Walnut Creek Flea Market. We like it better because it is a little bigger.

View down one of the aisles at Walnut Creek Flea Market

Except for produce we buy at some flea markets, we usually do more looking than buying. This time, however, Margery found several kitchen items she wanted at one of the booths. She was especially pleased to come across a ball of butcher's twine, which she has been trying to find for some time. She also got a lemon squeezer, a funnel, a non-stick baking pan to replace her old one that is all beat up, and a spoon holder that clips on the edge of a pot. Now that Margery has a larger kitchen, she is doing more cooking so the gadgets and the twine will come in handy.

Margery with her kitchen items at the flea market

The theater in Massillon where we went on Wednesday to see "Equalizer 2" is very nice. It is really clean with no trash and no stickiness on the floors whatsoever, and it has large, comfortable recliners. In addition to enjoying the movie, we also liked the theater a lot. Therefore, we decided to go back for a Saturday matinee, and that's the reason we only had time for one of the two flea markets. We went to see "Mission: Impossible - Fallout," which had just opened the day before. We like the "Mission: Impossible" movies, and in our opinion, this was the best of the series.

On the way back from the movie, we stopped for dinner at Park Street Pizza. This time, we had an order of bread sticks and an order of plain, boneless chicken wings with sweet and spicy sauce and honey-mustard on the side. The bread sticks are made from pizza dough with melted mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses on top and served with marinara sauce and melted garlic butter for dipping. Everything was yummy!

Paul with our bread sticks and boneless chicken wings

After dinner, we stopped at a gas station in Walnut Creek to fill the tank in preparation for our departure the next morning. Adjacent to the gas station was a hillside garden we had admired every time we drove by so while Paul was filling the tank, Margery walked over for a photo.

Hillside garden in Walnut Creek

Back at the loft, we did a little preliminary packing then settled in for an evening of TV. The next morning, we were on the road before 7 am. We weren't shooting to get going quite that early, but the preliminary packing the evening before made the final packing go more quickly than expected.

The first day's drive on Sunday was around 8 hours, including gas stops and potty breaks. Traffic was much lighter than it is when we head south after Christmas. There weren't even any significant slow-downs on the stretch of I-77 north of Charlotte where it is always congested and where they are currently doing construction.

We stopped at the Hampton Inn in Rock Hill, South Carolina where we always stop. We had dinner at Texas Roadhouse on the way north, and we stopped there on the way south, too. The food is always good, and it's only a couple of minutes away from the Hampton Inn.

Hampton Inn has a free, hot breakfast in the lobby every morning. The breakfast is pretty good, and having it right there at the motel saves a lot of time in the morning when we're trying to get on the road.

The drive from Rock Hill to Wauchula is normally about two hours longer than the one from Pittsburgh to Rock Hill, and this time it was even longer because we were delayed for about half an hour on I-95 in South Carolina because of an accident. The accident was well off the road (a truck and a 5th wheel went off the road and down over the bank), but they stopped all southbound traffic just before we got to the site of the accident so they could land a Life Flight helicopter on the highway.

Shortly after the helicopter took off, we were on our way again. As we passed the 5th wheel, we could see it was upright; but it had apparently rolled a couple of times because the sides, front, and roof were all askew and split open. With the helicopter being there, there were obviously injuries, but we don't know anything more.

We had no other significant delays, even going through Orlando at the beginning of rush hour with road construction. We stopped for a quick dinner at Arby's on our way through Avon Park and pulled into our driveway around 6 pm.

It was good to get away, to visit family in Pittsburgh, to do some of our favorite things in Berlin, and to eat at some of our favorite restaurants; but it was also good to get back home again.

We took a couple of days to catch up on grocery shopping, lawn mowing, and other chores; but it didn't take us long to plan a local outing. Stay tuned.

Kingwood Gardens

Berlin, OH - Events of Friday, July 27, 2018

As most of our regular readers know, we love gardens. Kingwood Center Gardens are a little over an hour away in Mansfield, Ohio. Kingwood doesn't have a huge garden, but the plantings are usually well done with pleasing color combinations and nicely contrasting textures so we have gone to Kingwood every year for the past several years. Even though this year's stay in Amish Country was much shorter than in the recent past, we made it a priority to squeeze in a visit to Kingwood on Friday.

Kingwood is a 47-acre estate built in 1926 for Charles King. King was President and Chairman of the Board of the Ohio Brass Company, which made electrical fittings for railroads and trolleys. King was married and divorced twice, and he never had children. Therefore, he left most of his estate to a trust that still operates Kingwood Center today as a public garden. Admission is $5 per person.

We started our garden tour by stopping to admire the view across the duck pond toward the buildings that were once the stable and carriage house. The former stable now houses, among other things, the rest rooms where we headed next.

Duck pond with former stable and carriage house

One of our favorite areas is the Terrace Garden. In Mr. King's time, there was a tennis court, a vegetable garden, an orchard, and a cutting garden in this area. The foundation that Mr. King established funded the transition to the purely decorative Terrace Garden in the 1990s.

View up to the Terrace Garden

Each level of the Terrace Garden has different color schemes, which is one reason we like this area. The next photo shows the blue and white colors of one of the levels called the Sunken Garden.

Sunken Garden

Another level had predominantly red colors...

Another level with predominantly red colors

...and yet another level had pink and chartreuse.

Yet another level with pink and chartreuse

Kingwood frequently has a traveling display of art in the garden. This year, there was an exhibit called "Invasion of the Big Bugs," which featured larger-than-life insects sculpted from sticks and twigs by artist David Rogers. Shown below is a damselfly that was in the Terrace Garden.

Damselfly sculpture in the Terrace Garden

On stone pillars at the end of the steps in the background of the damselfly photo above were container plantings of succulents that we found particularly interesting. We liked the variety of colors and textures of the succulents.

Container planting of succulents

Speaking of container plantings, Kingwood always has a nice variety of them. The next photo shows two of the many we saw.

Two of the many container plantings we saw

The upper terrace was once the swimming pool. It has been filled in and the gardens that once surrounded the pool now cover the entire area.

Margery and Paul with the swimming pool garden in the background

Formal Garden adjacent to the former swimming pool

In the area above the upper terrace was another "Big Bug" sculpture consisting of three giant ants. Since Paul is chairman of the Landscape Committee at the Co-op in Florida, he has taken on a project to experiment with different methods to control fire ants. Therefore, he felt compelled to try to fight off these ants as well.

Paul pretending to fight off one of the ants

From the upper terrace, we headed back down through the daylily garden. Last year, we went to Kingwood in August when the daylilies were done blooming. In fact, many of the other flowers were also past their prime so we made a mental note if we came back to do so no later than July. Fortunately for us, the timing of our trip north this year made it possible for us to do that. The dayllies were waning slightly since it was late in the month, but there were still plenty of them to admire.

A few of the many daylilies that were blooming

From the daylily garden, we crossed over to the other side of the terraces and walked down the path toward the parking lot through the perennial garden.

Path through the perennial garden

Before we got to the parking lot, we made a slight detour through the rose garden (the roses were done blooming for the most part) to the Gazebo Garden. We always like the Gazebo Garden because it is picturesque and usually has a nice display of annuals. The flowers this year weren't as spectacular as they were last year, but they were still very attractive.

Gazebo Garden

On our way out, we passed a gorgeous display of echinacea (coneflowers) with a few yellow rudbeckias (black-eyed susans, also sometimes called coneflowers) thrown in for contrast.

Coneflowers

We had a nice visit to Kingwood. July definitely seems to be a better time to go than August because not only are the daylilies and many of the other perennials still in bloom, but fewer of the annuals have started to decline because of the heat. The photo below shows just a few of the many beautiful flowers we saw.

A few of the many flowers we saw at Kingwood

When we go to Kingwood Gardens, we always stop at Athens Greek Restaurant. They have two locations, both of which are only a few minutes away. We have eaten at both locations, but we prefer the one located in Ontario, Ohio, to the one located in downtown Mansfield.

Athens Greek Restaurant

We both like gyros. Athens has both a traditional gyro, which Margery prefers, and an open plate version, which Paul likes. The open plate version has the meat, onions, tzatziki sauce, tomato and a quartered pita served on a plate. It is a lot less messy to eat.

Margery with her gyro

With our bellies full, we headed back to the loft for an evening of TV. Our time in Amish Country was winding down, but we had a few more things we wanted to do. Stay tuned.