mindsplinters (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mindsplinters) wrote2013-03-01 06:24 pm
mindsplinters) wrote2013-03-01 06:24 pm
Sunshine and Pretties
So over Valentine's Day weekend (which already feels like ages ago) I went down to Florida with my mom and aunt to visit my Nana. She didn't know I was coming along with them so it was a nice little surprise for her. Thankfully, not too much of one as she remained standing and, strangely, remembered an off-hand comment months ago about me coming to visit at some point. Good thing. I mean, the woman is 90 years old and adorable. You know Rose Nylund on The Golden Girls? Yeah, that's my Nana.
Thursday, our first full day there, was spent doing everything Nana likes best. Which worked out very well since it was grey and misty and rainy all day. We took her to the most deliciously amazing tiny wee place ever to eat - Chef Larry's. Seems this is what you get when you have a high class chef that gets sick of the rat race. A teeny restaurant crammed into a classic itty bitty old one-story Floridian cottage with the most mind-blowing food at criminal prices and staffed by hot boys. We had forgotten it was Valentine's Day, of course, and so had to kill an hour before we could hope for a table. Luckily, there was an antique store next door. I made friends with the older ladies running the counter over their strange awe re: my braiding skills and the woman who owned the wee tea shop hidden inside (10% off tea for being a tea-geek!). Then... Lunch. Unngod. Roasted garlic creamy tomato soup. A side salad with the most amazing vinagrette dressing. Smashed red potatoes and green beans with squash. Perfectly cooked salmon in a citrus peel and wheat ale reduction sauce... For $10.
The rest of the day was spent going to thrift stores and antique malls before going to the local ASPCA cat shelter to play with the kitties. Because, as I said, these are the things my Nana likes to do. I have to say, that is the nicest, cleanest, most homey cat shelter I've ever been in. Large and comfy cages, stories and facts about all the cats on sheets hung up beside the cages, actual playrooms for the kitties to romp in... Wow. I so badly wanted to take home a gorgeously sweet silver grey Siamese with ice blue eyes or even (against all previous tastes) the most wonderfully fey Cornish Rex. It kind of broke my heart that some of the cats in there were there because their owners passed. I guess it's, well, Florida. Titusville has a high population of retirees.
Retirees, thrift shops, pawn shops/bail bond stores, and gun shops.
Friday, we left Nana to recover and the three of us sauntered off to the Renninger's huge mofo antique flea market extravaganza. My mom, btw, cannot navigate for beans. I had to turn on my phone's GPS system and I wish I would have thought of it sooner because we didn't get there until later than we meant to and... It's so huge you need lots and lots of time.
I also needed a bigger suitcase and a way to know I could get any number of Do-Want things home. But here are some of my treasures...
First purchases at a table just inside the gate. They were half price, okay? I don't know why but I just fell in love with them utterly. They even have names scratched on the back of the frames.
The little bird is actually a cast iron bottle opener. Beneath him, there's an indention that fits over tight-fitting soda bottle tops to help there, too (in theory). He's not an antique but he's a fat little happy birdie and he was $2 so... Nyah. The green glass bowl was actually free. I got it from a stand full of other neat glass pieces and the guy running it saw me pick it up and just offered it outright - because it has a crack. Which you can't really see unless you look for it. Given the conversation that followed, I'm pretty sure he was just using it as a gambit for flirting. But he was a nice guy and interesting and I got to show him where I found my ultimate pretty - a Gil Elvgren print complete with cheesecake and alligator - and it resulted in me getting 2 more for a bargain price since he bought a stack and included 2 more for me in the deal. I deflected the request for my phone number but gave him my email.
Now see the hideousness of my Geek Room carpet and the loveliness of my new ladies!
I also found a 1932 edition of a Nancy Drew mystery that I already owned but, you know what, I don't care and bought it anyway. The 1932 editions are the more pure versions and free of the editing that happened in later editions (which is mostly what I have).
So, overall, it was a lovely trip and worth the too-short-ness of it and getting up at 5am on Saturday morning to get home.
Thursday, our first full day there, was spent doing everything Nana likes best. Which worked out very well since it was grey and misty and rainy all day. We took her to the most deliciously amazing tiny wee place ever to eat - Chef Larry's. Seems this is what you get when you have a high class chef that gets sick of the rat race. A teeny restaurant crammed into a classic itty bitty old one-story Floridian cottage with the most mind-blowing food at criminal prices and staffed by hot boys. We had forgotten it was Valentine's Day, of course, and so had to kill an hour before we could hope for a table. Luckily, there was an antique store next door. I made friends with the older ladies running the counter over their strange awe re: my braiding skills and the woman who owned the wee tea shop hidden inside (10% off tea for being a tea-geek!). Then... Lunch. Unngod. Roasted garlic creamy tomato soup. A side salad with the most amazing vinagrette dressing. Smashed red potatoes and green beans with squash. Perfectly cooked salmon in a citrus peel and wheat ale reduction sauce... For $10.
The rest of the day was spent going to thrift stores and antique malls before going to the local ASPCA cat shelter to play with the kitties. Because, as I said, these are the things my Nana likes to do. I have to say, that is the nicest, cleanest, most homey cat shelter I've ever been in. Large and comfy cages, stories and facts about all the cats on sheets hung up beside the cages, actual playrooms for the kitties to romp in... Wow. I so badly wanted to take home a gorgeously sweet silver grey Siamese with ice blue eyes or even (against all previous tastes) the most wonderfully fey Cornish Rex. It kind of broke my heart that some of the cats in there were there because their owners passed. I guess it's, well, Florida. Titusville has a high population of retirees.
Retirees, thrift shops, pawn shops/bail bond stores, and gun shops.
Friday, we left Nana to recover and the three of us sauntered off to the Renninger's huge mofo antique flea market extravaganza. My mom, btw, cannot navigate for beans. I had to turn on my phone's GPS system and I wish I would have thought of it sooner because we didn't get there until later than we meant to and... It's so huge you need lots and lots of time.
I also needed a bigger suitcase and a way to know I could get any number of Do-Want things home. But here are some of my treasures...
First purchases at a table just inside the gate. They were half price, okay? I don't know why but I just fell in love with them utterly. They even have names scratched on the back of the frames.
The little bird is actually a cast iron bottle opener. Beneath him, there's an indention that fits over tight-fitting soda bottle tops to help there, too (in theory). He's not an antique but he's a fat little happy birdie and he was $2 so... Nyah. The green glass bowl was actually free. I got it from a stand full of other neat glass pieces and the guy running it saw me pick it up and just offered it outright - because it has a crack. Which you can't really see unless you look for it. Given the conversation that followed, I'm pretty sure he was just using it as a gambit for flirting. But he was a nice guy and interesting and I got to show him where I found my ultimate pretty - a Gil Elvgren print complete with cheesecake and alligator - and it resulted in me getting 2 more for a bargain price since he bought a stack and included 2 more for me in the deal. I deflected the request for my phone number but gave him my email.
Now see the hideousness of my Geek Room carpet and the loveliness of my new ladies!
I also found a 1932 edition of a Nancy Drew mystery that I already owned but, you know what, I don't care and bought it anyway. The 1932 editions are the more pure versions and free of the editing that happened in later editions (which is mostly what I have).
So, overall, it was a lovely trip and worth the too-short-ness of it and getting up at 5am on Saturday morning to get home.
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