RichEdwards Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 A group of us had a very pleasant lunch with Leslie yesterday in historic Mt. Dora, FL at The Lakeside Inn. Bill Ferran (RoadScholar) sent these pictures to me for posting: Leslie enjoys the rocking chairs on the porch of the Lakeside Inn with Nancy Wuerth, Frank Brown, and Rich Edwards. Bill brought along a Mercedes-Benz convertible to give Leslie the tour of the Mt. Dora area. The Tampa group heading home. The rest of the pictures were taken on the boat ride on Lake Dora. Leslie is a bird watcher and she had plenty to see: Link to comment
BFish Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 les..after our chat last week i can't think of a better place than mt. dora to represent old florida. there are many areas like this w/o high rise condos, no beaches but plenty of nature and h20. hope you enjoyed it. the company may have been circumspect, but you can't have eveything. only kidding....way to represent folks! Link to comment
Francois_Dumas Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 Great pictures.... I love those 'weeping' trees.... very moody. Link to comment
TN_R_Girl Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 Sure wish I could have joined the fun :-) Looks like a nice visit! Link to comment
TampaJim Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 It was a beautiful day, and we had a great ride over through the Florida back roads. The location was one of those "back in time" places and we all enjoyed a leisurely lunch in a 1886 hotel. A natural choice for future meets. The real pleasure was meeting Leslie and Bill. It's always good to put a face with a screen name. Link to comment
Kathy R Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 Good to see you folks meeting up in such a wonderful spot. The shots of the birds amaze me. Ya'll look great! Link to comment
roadscholar Posted January 31, 2010 Share Posted January 31, 2010 It was nice to see the folks from Tampa and then spending the remainder of the afternoon with Leslie was great. We had a lot of fun. I think reviving the meet-up in Mt. Dora at some point would be a good thing. Link to comment
eddd Posted January 31, 2010 Share Posted January 31, 2010 The trees were weeping, but the chick was smiling. Thanks for sharing. Link to comment
BFish Posted January 31, 2010 Share Posted January 31, 2010 It was nice to see the folks from Tampa and then spending the remainder of the afternoon with Leslie was great. We had a lot of fun. I think reviving the meet-up in Mt. Dora at some point would be a good thing. Agree Mr. Bill. kinda let that slide with Biketurkeyfest and Huckleberry's. Link to comment
FLrider Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 Nice!! I've never done that boat tour. Great idea for next time. Link to comment
Les is more Posted February 4, 2010 Share Posted February 4, 2010 Wow! I missed this somehow. Thanks for posting, Rich! I'll use this thread to give my thanks to all those who had a part in this highlight of my Florida trip. You all rock! A special thanks goes out to roadscholar for the pictures and for taking point on getting folks together. The Lakeside Inn was charming and I got a nice little tour of Mt. Dora and neighboring Eustis where roadscholar grew up. His family has been in that area since the late 1800s if I recall correctly. In the morning, before the Mt. Dora meet up, I explored the Tibet-Butler Wildlife Refuge. The weather was perfect and I had the place to myself. I used my phone to snap a few pictures. I meandered around on some of the 4 miles of trail amid the palmetto and the cypress with their elegant shawls of Spanish moss. And eventually came to the overlook at the lake edge. Birds for the morning included sandhill cranes, wood ducks, osprey, red shouldered hawk, pine warbler, cardinal, red bellied woodpecker, brown pelican, yellow rumped warbler, catbird and brown thrasher. I also saw a couple of large turtles sunning themselves. They didn't look like snappers. I thought maybe they looked more like this--Florida cooters- Next it was off to Mt. Dora where arrived a little late (sorry folks!) after I failed to realize that, yes, the expressway was indeed located at the end the off ramp which left what appeared to be the main road--ah well. Once I had reached Mt. Dora, Bill (roadscholar) got me on the phone and talked me in to the Lakeside Inn where I enjoyed fine company and tasty food. Thank you all for coming out to join me! After lunch Bill had a treat in store. He put us on a pontoon boat to take me into "Old Florida" via the Dora Canal. For an earthy crunchy gal like me, it was wonderful. Birds for this part of the trip--green heron, bald eagles, osprey, turkey vultures, black vultures, snowy egret, great egret, blue heron, double crested cormorant, Forster's tern, red shouldered hawk, and best of all for me, anhinga which I had really hoped to see earlier that day. My guide- The secret garden gnome burial ground- Just a FEW of the hundreds of turkey and black vultures there to feast on the dead tilapia that lined the shore courtesy of the recent freezing temperatures. The quiet beauty within the shelter of those ancient cypress. I headed back to Orlando with a deeper knowledge of Florida, gratitude for friends and really lovely images in my mind's eye. Link to comment
dhanson Posted February 5, 2010 Share Posted February 5, 2010 Great pictures, and nice tour. Views reminded me of my bow hunts on St. Vincent Island NWR for Whitetail deer, hogs, and Sambar. Link to comment
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