I had some ice cream from Treats on the Beach on Flagler Avenue in New Smyrna Beach, FL. I ordered soft serve lime flavored ice cream. I'm not sure exactly how it worked, but they advertised something like twenty six soft serve flavors of ice cream. I only saw two soft ice cream machines, so I don't know where all of these flavors came from. I'm guessing they somehow mixed flavoring syrup in each time they dispensed the ice cream. The ice cream really didn't taste that much like lime and tasted more like vanilla. It was still good as far as soft serve ice cream goes...
In the shopping center at the intersection of Lockwood and Mitchell Hammock in Oviedo, FL, there is an Italian Restaurant called Cafe Panuzzo's. The neon lights out front attracted me to the restaurant while I was riding by, and I eventually returned to give Cafe Panuzzo's a try.
I ordered Tortellini Alfredo. It came with a salad and bread, both of which were served before the tortellini. It was pretty good bread. The tortellini itself tasted okay, but it was a bit boring. It was basically the pasta and sauce on a plate, and that was it. Adding anything at all to break up the monotony of the pasta would have been an improvement. Sprinkling some basil leaves on top or something would have helped. The food did taste okay, but it was nothing that will have me going out of my way to return to Cafe Panuzzo's any time soon to eat more boring food.
I had a sesame bagel from Dunkin Donuts in Altamonte Springs, FL. I found it funny that there were several police officers in here buying doughnuts at 10:00 PM when I had my bagel...
Lots of art shows/craft fairs were going on this past weekend. There's the Longwood Crafts Fair. Deland had some sort of similar event, and Altamonte Springs had the Art on the Boulevard in Uptown Altamonte Festival of the Arts event. I walked around this art show the day after I walked around Longwood's event. I liked the selection of art being sold here much better than what Longwood had, but don't forget it's all about the food. Unlike Longwood, I actually ate something in Uptown Altamonte. I had a chicken gyro from the Sparta Greek Food stand. It was tasty, with chicken, lettuce, tomato, onions, peppers, and tzatziki, all wrapped in a pita. My only complaint was that the chicken was a little burnt in spots, but otherwise I had no complaints. I ate the gyro sitting on bleachers overlooking the lake in Cranes Roost Park...
I went to the Longwood Arts & Crafts Festival on November 22, 2008. It was a good time walking around Downtown Longwood, looking at the old houses and what people were trying to sell. Much of it was actual handmade arts/crafts, while a lot was also mass produced junk made in China that people were trying to pass off as their own. This is a food blog though, and that's why I took lots of pictures of the food stands at the festival. The food always seems to be very photogenic at events like this, and although my visit to the festival involved no actual eating of the food being sold, I'm posting the pictures of the food stands anyway.
I ate a Chicken Souvlaki Pita at Athena Cafe in Altamonte Springs, FL. The pita was filled with very flavorful chicken, lettuce, and tzatziki. Tomatoes were also an option, but I had them left off of the sandwich. Pasta salad was served with the pita and it was all very tasty.
Even though the food is good, the atmosphere of the restaurant could use some improvement. Being able to watch the employees do crossword puzzles due to there being so few customers isn't a good thing.
I went to Cypress Gardens in Winter Haven, FL on their last day of existence in their current form. After, I ate at the Ruby Tuesdays right outside of the park, but I will get to that. First, I'm going to post some random pictures from Cypress Gardens in it's current state with an occasional comment. To start, here's the front entrance to the park. Cypress Garden's last day was the busiest I've ever seen the place. It took about twenty minutes of sitting in traffic on this road to finally enter the parking lot due to the crowds. After entering the park, I first headed towards Cypress Garden's zoo and saw giant rodents, miniature deer with tusks, an albino blind wallaby, lemurs, and all sorts of other animals.
After the seeing the animals I walked through the Santa's of The World exhibit and saw mannequins dressed up as variations of Santa Claus.
After I saw the Santas, I decided to go on a ride on the park's observation tower type ride that is currently called The Sunshine Sky Adventure. Formerly, it was known as the Island in the Sky, but whatever it's called, it's a very cool ride that was one of the park's original attractions. The only problem was that it wasn't open. It actually looked like it was sort of in a state of disrepair from the angles I saw the ride from and would take some work to get it in working order again. I don't see it up for sale with the rest of Cypress Garden's rides though. Since the ride was closed, I headed towards the Wings of Wonder Butterfly exhibit. I guess all of the butterflies must have died because instead of butterflies, they put a few parrots in here instead. In some of the gardens right outside of the former butterfly exhibit, I did come across a wild butterfly that sat there while I took pictures of it, along with a sad looking vegetable garden and some lion statues. I wandered through more of the gardens in the park, like the topiary garden. I kind of wonder if this part of the park will still be here when Cypress Gardens reopens next year. I kind of get the feeling it won't be (if the park reopens at all). There's the park's big waterfall nearby the topiarys. I remember all of the plants around here being much more lush on my last visit to Cypress Gardens. The water ski show was up next. They no longer had an ice skating show, so Cypress Gardens was down to only one 'big' show. I actually didn't watch the whole thing, but I did stay for the best part, which was the hang glider. During this show, I guess the employees all wanted to get one last flight in, so there were multiple gliders flying at once. It was cool. After the ski show, I continued through the rest of the botanical gardens in the park. This is actually one of the coolest parts of the park in my opinion, with all sorts of unusual plants in a jungle like environment. That baynon tree is very impressive. Rumor is that this part of Cypress Gardens is staying, but I hope they at least bring back the boat ride through the canals when (or if) they reopen. After I finished up viewing plants, I took one last look at the rides at Cypress Gardens. It seems every single one of these rides are up for sale and a parking lot will be built in their place once they are gone. They are mostly carnival rides and small (and painful) roller coasters which really won't be missed, but my personal opinion is that Cypress Gardens should keep the two wooden roller coasters. The Triple Hurricane is small, but it really is a fun ride. It was the only roller coaster that I enjoyed riding before the park bought the Starliner. The Starliner is Cypress Gardens newest roller coaster, and it is something they should definitely keep. It was built in 1963 at Miracle Strip in Panama City, FL. When Miracle Strip closed in 2004, Cypress Gardens bought the ride and rebuilt it in it's current location. It finally reopened in 2007, and less than a year later, it's up for sale again.
Going for a ride on the Starliner was one of the reasons to visit Cypress Gardens one last time. Apparently, I wasn't alone because I rode at the end of the day when the line was shortest and the wait was still over an hour. I overheard the ride attendants talking that people flew in from places as far north as Massachusetts to get a ride on the Starliner before it was sold or demolished. The Starliner is definitely a draw, and since it is the first roller coaster built in Florida, and Cypress Gardens likes to advertise they are Florida's First Theme Park, the two seem like a perfect match for each other. Cypress Gardens wants to build a parking lot here, but I think they should definitely consider building the parking lot around the Starliner. I found this video of the Starliner on Youtube from Theme Park Review:
After riding the Starliner, it was 5:00 and Cypress Gardens was closed for the day, at least until next year or possibly forever. I made my way to the parking lot where I sat in traffic for over an hour trying to leave due to the huge crowds that Cypress Gardens had on their last day. I stopped at the Ruby Tuesdays right outside of the park to get dinner once I finally left the parking lot. I ordered something called New Orleans Seafood. It consisted of tilapia and shrimp, served with rice and broccoli. I don't really get where the New Orleans name came from since the food didn't taste very Cajun, but it was still tasty. I had the salad bar along with the seafood. After dinner was done, I headed home and took one last look at the Starliner...
