Few Days in Lakeland

We moved on from MacDill AFB in Tampa about an hour east to Lakeland FL.  In-laws and good friends Marg and Bill are spending the winter here and it was another chance for us to spend time with extended family.

I called a couple of days to confirm our reservations and was glad I did.  From time to time there can be a mix up and such was the case.

 Though we visited Sanlan last week on a day trip from Tampa and made reservations at the Office, they had no record of it.  Our original site near Bill and Marg was not available but we got one a short walk away.
Sometimes it pays 'just to follow up and confirm our reservation'.

We drove over on Tuesday morning.  It was light traffic and a pleasant journey.  Our new spot was fine.  Level, full hook ups and plenty of room with a nice pad for the picnic table.

 I had to knock on a neighbor's door and ask him to move his truck so we could make the turn into the 'alley' for our pull through site.  He was gracious and quickly did so.

Bill was playing golf and we visited with Marg for a while before we to lunch and drove around Lakeland to see what we could see and get a feel for the town.  Nice place.  We came across Frank Lloyd Wright Way which indicated to me that there must be more to that story...something to check out while we are here.

Later, we then had happy hour with Bill and Marg and then dinner together.  Fun hanging out!

The next day, Bill and I played golf at Cleveland Heights in Lakeland for only $26 with the cart included.  We are were a little cool starting out in 49 degree weather.  But the sun came out and it was mid 60's before we finished.

And it was a very nice course.  They have a new superintendent / golf course manager in and he has systematically worked on it and it is in great shape. The day was lots of fun although the golf stunk.  We had way too many three putts, too many errant shots etc etc.   However -- it was a beautiful day, we enjoyed the company and it was a nice day in Florida in January...

We have lots of friends in Florida and got together with two of them yesterday in Celebration FL.  I've known Ed and Candi (Candice) since my college days at ASU.  They live in Winter Park and we were able to get onto their calendar for lunch and some time together.

A few years ago we met in St. Augustine FL and had lunch at Columbia Restaurant.  And we thought we'd try another one of the famous family of restaurants.

I found the history of the Columbia Restaurant fascinating.  I thought it was a Mexican restaurant but its really Cuban.  And the original was established in the Cuban section of Tampa (Ybor District) in the early 1900's.

We spend a couple of hours over lunch then talked some more at a table near the downtown area of Celebration.  It was just a great time hearing about kids and their Christian work in the Orlando area.

We are so glad to be able to do these kinds of things and visit friends.  We love this lifestyle!