After a brunch with cartoonist friends we made our way to New Smyrna Beach. We walked Canal Street to see what might have changed since we were last in the area.  Then we made our way to Flagler Street in an area we hadn’t been before. There we found many gems. Amongst them was the Riverview Hotel. A drawing of part of the building is above. For more info. click here.

Later that evening Georgia Turner of Volusia County Tourism joined us again and we all had dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp which is directly adjacent to the famous Daytona Beach Bandshell. Below is a drawing I made from our table in the restaurant. Learn more about this great structure by clicking here.

Sunday morning we were in Sanford and joined quite a crowd on the Rivership Romance to celebrate friend TexAnn Ivy Buck’s birthday! We were all gathered at various tables and Sandra and I found ourselves seated with Grace Chewning, former-Mayor Carl Langford, his son Tom and his wife, Pam. With the exception of Sandra, we are all former Orlando City Hall employees. We had a great time talking about “Silly Hall”, as Grace aptly refers to it.

Grace is the most amazing person I know to remember names and stories! She just remembers everything!

During the cruise in the St. Johns River, I sketched various scenes we went by. Here are two of those.

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After the cruise we quickly poked around Downtown Sanford so Sandra could update one of her guidebooks. In an art gallery we found old friend Pam Treadwell helping out. We got a chance to catch up with the always nutty-cool-dude happenin’s of the Treadwell domicile.

Sandra and I took off for dinner at a place neither of us have been to before in Ocala: Bella Luna. It’s an Italian restaurant that does a good job of being notches above an Olive Garden. Sandra had heard of one particular problem the restaurant had that we experienced and that is bad service. We waited quite a while for someone to serve us until I got up and tracked somebody down to help us.

The food was good and I liked the atmosphere. None of that awful, heartless supposed singing by that Michael “Bubble” guy, as I refer to him. Sinatra, Prima and Bennett tunes always win me over!

‘Hurricane Punch’ is Tim Dorsey’s 9th novel about his comdeic serial killer anti-hero. The more you know about our great state of Florida, the funnier the books are. This has some great scenes. Covering everywhere from Everglades City to Bok Tower in which the state is understtack by innumerous hurricanes.

Was in the Tampa Bay area Saturday and nabbed some goodies from the Alessi Bakery in Tampa. The bakery has been around for 95 years and though it has reduced it’s bakery output in the last year in favor of bacoming basically a place for take-out meals, what’s left of the bakery items are still outstanding. If you’re in the Tampa Bay area ya gotta check out the Alessi Bakery.

Here’s a quick sketch with quick color of an apple turnover I picked up there.

After we left Coral Gables we drove toward Lake Okeechobee. We started at the south end of the lake and went around the west side of the lake heading north and noting locations for a project Sandra’s working on for the Florida Trail Association. 

We ended up in Sebring where we stayed at the Inn on the Lake and had breakfast at a restaurant in Downtown Sebring. Here’s a drawing of a woman eating at the counter.

We headed out to the grand and historic Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, just blocks from where my mother was born and raised. Sandra was there for a tourism board meeting. We had a number of meals in one of their restaurants, 1200 Courtyard Grill.

The fellow on the left is a chef there and the fellow on the right was one of the waiters.

Rob Labby drove up from Fort Lauderdale to have lunch with me. While there a pigeon had escaped quite a torrential downpour outside and wandered around the restaurant. I tried to help chase the bird out, but only succeeded in getting the bird to fly into the lobby of the resort. Sorry, Biltmore!

Met with friends at Dubsdread Golf Course’s restaurant, The Taproom. To the left is a sketch of items at the table.

While there I drew and painted a caricature for the mother of a friend of mine, Sylvia Saunders. Sylvia belongs to a group that will be celebrating the person I drew, Floreine. Below is the caricature.

For Mother’s Day we took Sandra’s mother and father to Cinnamon Sticks in Inverness. Excellent bakery items and breakfasts. The grits this time were pretty bad, though.

The drawing is of a cluster of some of the various “old-time” items on the walls and ledges. These being two crates and a tray.

We gathered at Fred’s Marketplace Restaurant in Plant City for dinner with my brother, Jeff, my Aunt and her husband, friends Susie and Russell Noell and my sister, her husband and their two children.

This restaurant has a great history. I let you wander to their website to learn about it. Also great is their food! One of the best Southern buffets in Florida!

I was back at the Taproom at Dubsdread with folks. This restaurant shares the property with the City of Orlando owned Dubsdread golf club. The two have been thriving for over 80 years. To learn more, click here!

 The drawing is of a half podium the Rotary Club uses for it’s meetings at Dubsdread.

I grew up near Dubsdread and am very, very glad to see it is still around!