The Villages and Silver Springs, March 14-19, 2015

Saturday, March 14th, we drove to the square at Brownwood in The Villages for the weekly Farmer’s Market.  The entire square was lined with vendors, not all fresh produce.  We had to get some of those Florida strawberries that are in season now.  A Golf Fest was being held in The Villages that Tom attended while I stayed back at the campground. 

Later in the afternoon we went to Oakwood Smokehouse restaurant for barbecue food.

Sunday, 15th, we stopped at 3 of the numerous open houses in The Villages.  Everyday there are open houses of all price ranges and models in The Villages.  Moving on we went to Leesburg for the Art Festival that was being held there.  We received a text message from Cricket McGinnis, a friend that lives in The Villages with her husband Bruce, asking about meeting for dinner about 4pm.  So we went to The Villages again to have dinner with Bruce and Cricket and other friends of theirs Pat and Bill at Sonny’s Barbecue restaurant.  After dinner we all went to Sumter Landing Square for the evening entertainment.

Monday, 16th, we went to an early showing of the movie “Still Alice” and then ate a midafternoon dinner.  In the evening we again went to The Villages (Brownwood Square) for the evening entertainment.  A male and female singers called C 2 (C square) were performing and had been highly recommended by Bruce and Cricket.  We were not disappointed, they were very good singers.

Tuesday. 17th,  we drove to Spanish Springs in The Villages as there was going to be big goings on here today for  St Patrick’s Day.  We had lunch of corned beef and cabbage at Toojay’s Deli  which was really good. 

Then at 4:30 there was a parade that lasted about 40 minutes.  There were a variety of groups – decorated golf carts, baton twirlers, belly dancers to list a few groups made up of the residents in The Villages. 

Our friends the McGinnis’ and the Alberts, Jeff and Anni, were in a group of Segway riders.  After the parade, celebrating was continuing in this square but we chose to leave as it was extremely crowded.

Wednesday, 18th, we went to Silver Springs State Park.   We had been here several years before when this was privately operated.  In  2013 this park became state operated.  The glass bottomed boats remain and we took the 30 minute tour on the Silver River.  The jeep tours and animals that had been here are no longer here.  The state plans to keep this in a natural condition with native plants.  There are kayak and canoe rentals available.

Thursday, 19th, after breakfast at Waffle’s and then to the grocery store was a stay at home day.  Cleaning, laundry and cooking dinner (yes I cook now and then).  The weather has been warm(80 plus degrees) all week with bright sunny skies