Enjoying Lakeland

As I told you yesterday, I'm sharing this Florida vacation in pieces, so I don't overwhelm you all with photos.  Today I'm sharing about Lakeland, Florida.  Terri lives in Lakeland and often talks about her love for her city.  It was so fun for us to see places in person that she has talked about!  After spending time there, we totally understand her love for the city and the area where she lives.  Here's some photos of her beautiful surroundings!

I'm a fan of murals and we saw quite a few as we drove around.  Here's some I was able to get photos of.

Michigan's own Detroit Tigers have their Spring training camp in Lakeland.   We drove past and a game was scheduled. There was so much traffic!

It's such a beautiful city - look at those Palm trees!  We were also impressed with how clean everything was. We also noted that everyone was kind and friendly.

Check out some of the beautiful homes we drove by as we toured the city.

We drove around Florida Southern College where many of the buildings are designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.  This is the Annie Pfeiffer Chapel.

We did a little shopping and then went back to Terri's place. 

When Terri visited us last Summer, she helped me snip beans for supper and teased me about making her work. I told her, she could have some jobs ready for us.  She didn't have anything for me to do, but Bob did a couple of simple things and now we're even!  :)

It was a fun day and there is more to come!

Back from vacation!

I'm back from a wonderful getaway.  Bob and I went to Florida and enjoyed some time with Terri, of Your Friend from Florida. Terri is so sweet and invited us to come visit her, and when I whined about the nasty winter we were having, she invited us again! 

I'm going to break this up into several posts so you all don't get overloaded!

We left Grand Rapids on Sunday morning.  It was cold and a snow storm was coming in over the lake.  Here we're getting close to landing - look at all that green!  We arrived in Florida shortly after 1 and Terri was there to pick us up. 

She took us to her lovely home and I had to take a picture of this Palm tree - something we don't get to see in Michigan!

Terri spoiled us with her amazing Ziti and fresh, Florida Strawberry shortcake. Sooo good!

On Monday, Terri took us to Bonnet Springs Park.  What a beautiful place!  If I lived there, I'd be walking the trails frequently.

I love Live Oak trees and Spanish moss, another thing we don't see in the North.  This park was full of them.

They have an elevated walking path.

Here's Terri and I at the park.

We also stopped at Hollis Gardens, but they were closed. We ended up going back the next day, but someone passing by offered to take a photo of the three of us.

We saw these pelicans on the lake by Hollis Gardens.

Terri lives in Lakeland, which is known as the swan city. They became a symbol of the city when Queen Elizabeth gifted a pair to the city in 1957.  Now there are lots of them and we enjoyed a visit to feed them.  They are so beautiful!

I caught this pair in the classic swan pose.

That's all for today. Tomorrow I'll share more about the city of Lakeland.

Break Time

I'm going to be on a blog break next week. We're going to visit a dear blog friend and enjoy a little sunshine.  And - we're even getting to meet up with a few other blog friends while we are away. 
See you all soon!