We went to a cooking demo/class on Saturday night. It was different as it paired each course with a different beer. It was a nice night out!
Author: melisajohnson
Winter Park Boat Tour
Yesterday we decided to take a morning tour of Winter Park via boat with a company called Scenic Boat Tours. They are a great little tour company that has been giving tours in Winter Park for 80 years. We will definitely be doing the tour again!
Avery as a kitten
I had completely forgot I had this old video of Avery and Yabbey meeting for the first time!
New home
I thought I would share a few photos of our new place in Winter Park- I am really starting to get use to it. We just need some furniture and a few kitties and it will be home. It is a bit high tech as we don’t even have a key for our front door, but open in with an app!
On the first floor is the game room along with a TV room. In the game room they do wine tastings, trivia nights and other events for the residents. There is also a fridge stocked with soda and a coffee/tea bar open 24 hours a day.
If you head out from there you get to the pool area. They have a BBQ grill, fire pit, fire place, ping pong table, hammocks and a pool of course.
On the second floor they have 3 gym areas, cool towels for you after your workout, a board room and a computer room.
On the 5th floor we have a roof top patio that is really cool at night with all the lights on.
Probably the coolest part is the mail room (which is called the library). They have amazon lockers, some other lockers for your dry cleaning and mailboxes. It even has 2 flat screen TVs- quite the mailroom!
Mellow Mushroom Pizza
Last night I joined the Orlando Running Club for a 5k run followed by pizza at the Mellow Mushroom. I had never heard of the Mellow Mushroom pizza chain and I have to say the pizza was amazing!
The run was not great… but I have to start someplace!
A bit of sad news
Yesterday was the big day for Avery and Ziggy to travel to the US. They even had their nails in red, white and blue. We got them in their harnesses, got Ziggy a bit drugged up and headed to the airport. We had a checked back full of their beds, toys and treats… they were ready to go.
Unfortunately, they were not allowed to fly as there were problems with the paperwork. We were missing the export approval from the Department of Agriculture. So, Richard loaded them back up in the car and took them home. Ziggy was slept off his medicine most of the day while I made the trip back to the US without them.
We are going to try again in a few weeks and hopefully they will be able to make the move to the US!
Summer squash couscous with sultanas, pistachios and mint
Tonight I made a salad with some local squash to put on top of my local lettuce I got at the farmers market.
The couscous dressing was really nice- some lemon zest and juice, honey, olive oil and garlic.
Winter Park Facts
I have been reading up on Winter Park and found a few facts:
- Founded in 1881 or 1882 (publications have different dates) with the purchase of 600 acres for $13,000
- Incorporated in 1887 with a population of 600
- Logo: Peacock
- Nickname: City of Trees
- Size: 8.68 square miles
- Population: 29,943
- Persons with Bachelor’s degree or higher: 56.7%
Farmers Market
This morning I went down to the local farmers market. I have to say I was a bit disappointed as most the food was bought at the market and not locally grown. I did find one stall with local grown produce and got a few items.
Unfortunately they are at the end of their season, so will be gone until September/October.
Strawberry-tomato pasta salad
I really enjoy cooking so I am going to start to cook more now that I can get some better ingredients!
Tonight I made a pasta salad with a homemade yogurt and poppy dressing, sautéed asparagus and topped it off with red onions, strawberries, cherry tomato and fresh basil.
I have to say it was really nice, but I would probably put a few less red onions next time.
Unfortunately I used every dish I currently have and made a huge mess in the kitchen I have to clean up now!
The Johnsons 