Well, it doesn't get better than the past three days! My friend Jockie flew in from Ontario and we had a blast checking out the local thrift shops. The first day we drove over to Dade City where there are lots of antiques shops and a few antiques malls. We each found a few little goodies. I found an adorable wooden magazine rack for $3.50 that I will paint white and use for my teddy bears and magazines in the guest room!
We ate lunch at a place called "Lunch on Limoges" that's 100 years old! The food was fantastic...the service left a bit to be desired though. It wasn't a relaxed & charming atmosphere. Between the two of us we had a pecan encrusted chicken breast & red potatoes to die for and a turkey, bacon & cheese croissant sandwich with red potato salad. There were also yummy mini muffins and strawberry butter to start off the meal (served on Limoges plates) with our raspberry iced tea. YUM!
The next day we headed down into Tampa. Of the five thrift stores we hit, three of them were having a HALF OFF day. Now that made it all worthwhile!
Yesterday we decided to have a cultural day and drove to St. Pete for the day. We went to the International Museum to view the Vatican exhibit-200 objects. Amazing textiles. Then we took in the Pier and the Fine Arts Museum. We saw wonderful masterpieces for such a small museum...Monet, Renoir, and others. They just opened the new wing...modern and in my opinion it just doesn't blend well with the original wonderful older building, but what do I know? I'm no architect! I just know what I like! The last thing we saw was a shop that sold Croatian reverse painting...very interesting and colorful. After all of that culture, the heat and humidity we stopped into a little cafe and had some gellati (sp?)....YUM!
We hightailed it up 275 and missed the brunt of rush hour. Jockie left today, we both agreed that we had a great time!
