2018 Trip 5: Orlando and Palm Beach, Oct. 27-29

Rollins College in Winter Park, FL

Kissimmee, FL October 29

We have been to Orlando and Florida so frequently that I can visualize many of our highway exits in advance. The flight down on Saturday was easy but Chris had the window seat for a change. My cold and cough were practically gone but her hacking was still quite noticeable. She got the window seat away from people. Her inability to talk to her neighbor was mitigated since the aisle seat was only occupied for one-half of the flight anyway and we both watched inane movies that distracted us.

For the first five nights we are staying at Vacation Village at Parkway, one of many timeshares in the area. It is big; 20 buildings with 7 to 13 stories each. We have found it clean and pleasant with the usual amenities. VV at Parkway was chosen primarily because it is on the south side of Orlando and we will be driving south to Palm Beach Thursday.

Sunday was spent in the Winter Park area. In this part of Florida there are four “Winter” towns; Winter Park, Winter Haven, Winter Springs, and Winter Garden. All are in the 30-40 thousand population range but Winter Park is a bit older and more established as a town. We had been to the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum in Winter Park previously. Northern business magnates established the town in the late 1800s; with the arrival of the railroad the little town was prospering. The downtown area along a lake was active with people eating at cafes and strolling along the lake front. Today our first stop was for a one hour boat tour of three of the inter-connected lakes in the area.

Our boat excursion was with Scenic Boat Tours. On the tour, we found it was the oldest operating attraction in the state of Florida, beginning in 1938. The boats are comfortable, not fancy; basically stripped down pontoon boats with pleasant seats but no canopies. This tour covers Lake Virginia, Lake Osceola, and Lake Maitland. There are numerous spring-fed interconnected lakes in this part of Florida (Winter Haven has over 50) and the three lakes we rode on are home to expensive mansions.

Scenic Tour boats going through one of the canals

There are narrow canals that provide the waterway connection; creeks that had been previously used by lumber companies to ship timber to a sawmill on Lake Virginia. During the Depression, WPA crews widened and improved the banks so the canals are kept boat accessible year around. At least most of the time; our driver indicated two years ago during a dry time, the canals were not deep enough.

The canals operate on a chance basis. They are basically wide enough for one boat and you hope you do not encounter another boat coming at you before you complete the one-two block long winding canal. The tour operates 6-7 boats who go through the canal about 250 feet apart and the last one through tells any waiting traffic that it is clear to proceed. Our boat did encounter two paddelboarders working feverishly to get out of the canal before we caught up to them.

Examples of homes along the lakes in Winter Park and Maitland FL

The tour guide talks extensively of the homes along the shores. Stories such as: the home of the NBA star whose home when sold had to be renovated to lower the height of the light switches, counters, and toilets; the home of a Cortland NY 1800s lumber baron who in order to convince his wife to come down to Florida built an exact replica of their Cortland home; and the largest home on the chain of lakes at 30,000 square feet.

We saw the water side of Rollins College, a small liberal arts college with an endowment of $300 million, in the top ten percent of colleges. The lake has buoys marking the slalom practice area for the water skiing team. The tour guide extolled the chapel and art museum so we later stopped by there also.

It was a surprise to us to learn that Fred Rogers (Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood) went to Rollins. Evidently his family had big bucks from local business operations and after one year at Dartmouth, Fred transferred here. His family bought a lake home for him and his grand piano while he finished the last three years at Rollins. He met his wife here and they wintered in a home along the lake frequently. (He also lived in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh.)

Knowles Chapel at Rollins College in Winter Park, FL

After the tour we visited a few land sites pointed out on the boat tour. The Kraft Azalea Garden is probably a nice site to hold a small wedding but nothing distinctive. The Knowles Memorial Chapel at Rollins College was designed by Ralph Adams Cram who designed more than 75 churches and cathedrals. He declared it his favorite. We were not impressed, it was pleasant but nothing notable. The exterior was more striking with the soft white across the blue sky, the interior dark.

The Cornell Art Museum at Rollins is small. It may have notable acquisitions but few, if any, were on display. There was a special, small, exhibit organized by the Ringling Museum out of Sarasota with several striking paintings under the theme of “Dangerous Women”.

Views along our walk at Mead Botanical Garden

The Mead Botanical Garden was our final stop. It is fall and not much flora was in flowering mode but we had a pleasant walk here. Most of the visitors were with a photography group that was utilizing the grounds for a special outing or with a weekly yoga group.

Sunday dinner was in our timeshare, one way to save money and avoid lines at restaurants in this top visitor destination. Monday we exercised walking throughout VV at Parkway in the morning and spent the afternoon by the pool.

One of the pools at Vacation Village at Parkway, Kissimmee FL

Ed and Chris
October 30, 2018