So Many Dishes

We are in Orlando for a couple of days, finally celebrating a belated Christmas with our son’s family. They gave us tickets to see A Beautiful Noise, the musical based on Neil Diamond and his music, and we attended that performance yesterday. Wonderful! It’s definitely worth seeing if you get the chance. Last evening, we exchanged gifts, and Ben cooked a delicious shrimp Creole. I forgot to take pictures. Emmalyn, our granddaughter, used my phone to take pictures of the cat, though.

This morning, Ken and I visited Leu Gardens, the botanical garden in Orlando. We love visiting botanical gardens when we travel, and we’ve been to Leu Gardens numerous times. We wanted to go because the camellias are in bloom. Camellias don’t grow in South Florida, so it’s always a treat to see them here. A bonus was the fact that the art installation Origami in the Garden just opened this week. These statues had been At Mounts Botanical Garden, where I volunteer, last winter, so I had seen them. But that was when Ken was dealing with the medical issue, so this was his first opportunity to see it.

We spent a lot of time on the camellia walk, and I took a lot of flower photos.

I did take some other photos. We walked through the tropical stream garden, which is so quiet and peaceful.

The garden is set on the shore of one of Orlando’s many lakes. We took the opportunity to walk across the lawn to the shoreline, and to admire one of the magnificent old oak trees on the property.

We finished the morning with a visit to Jeremiah’s, another of our favorite stops when we’re here. The combination of Italian ice and soft-serve ice cream isn’t gelato (although that’s what they call it), and it definitely isn’t the healthiest lunch, but it is delicious and lots of fun.

Happy eating!