Sholom Park

Today Pete drove Donna and us to Ocala for a yard sale. That's a long way to go for a yard sale, but it was a community sale which sometimes means a lot of great stuff. First we stopped at a couple of yard sales in our neighborhood, then cruised up to Ocala. The community sale was pretty good, although instead of having everything in one central area, several apartments in the community had a few things out in front of their garage. Still, we did all right. We thought we would follow that up with a trip to Goodwill, but our Google search led us to a location with only a Goodwill drop-off truck. That did us no good!

So we went to Sholom Park. This is a gem of a private park, open to the public and dedicated to peaceful contemplation and nature. It was wonderful to walk quietly through it and enjoy the sights, scents and sounds. 

The main path that winds through the park is called the Labyrinth Path. 

Along the path are plaques with thoughtful comments which, in the context of this beautiful setting, seem entirely appropriate.

Although at one point Randy and Donna were mainly contemplating the structure of a small arbor, considering its appropriateness to a backyard or dock. 

My favorite arbor was the another one because it crowned with beautiful pink and white flowers, amazingly growing together in bunches. It looked like it was covered with little wedding bouquets.

On the other side of the road was a small bridge over a lake. There was a little machine which, for a quarter, dispensed a handful of fish food pellets. So naturally there were a couple dozen big, eager coy right there. 

Several turtles were competing with the coy for the nuggets. Our favorite was a couple who were always together. The larger turtle, who we assumed was a female, was only interested in eating, while the little one, who we assumed was a male, kept trying to get her attention. He would swim around to her head, stretch his little front legs straight out, and frantically wiggle his toes at her. She would ignore him, swim over to more food, and he would scoot around to do it again. We watched them for 5 minutes and kept laughing at the poor little guy. We're pretty sure this is a mating dance but he could not get his girlfriend "in the mood"! But he kept trying and trying; he probably needs to try again when the buffet is closed!

For our own lunch we went to The Lunchbox. I'd found this one on-line, attracted by the photo of a cheeseburger that came with glazed donuts instead of a bun. None of us were that adventurous today, but we sure enjoyed our food. Pete and Donna ordered the Blue Cheese Burger and the Big Kahuanna Burger, posed quickly for me,

then did the "married couple lunch shuffle", swapping out the bits that one person likes better than the other.