Weekend Away

The highlight of our homeschool week was the time we didn't spend homeschooling. My husband and I got to run away for a 2 night stay at a bed and breakfast. No special occasion, just in honor of the grandparents being willing to keep the kids.

Left:  View of the Carillon  Top Right:  Sundial at the base of the tower  Bottom Right:  View of the orange groves

We spent a whole day at Bok Tower. Bok Tower is a really interesting place.  It's in Lake Wales Florida which is not really a destination location, no offense meant, it's just rather out of the way.  The tower and grounds were built as a place to honor nature, encourage reflection, and peace for humanity.  All of it was originated and financed by Edward Bok who was the editor of Ladies Home Journal for over 25 years.  He hired leaders in their field at the time to do the work such as Frederick Law Olmsted (who designed central park) to design the grounds and Samuel Yellin's firm (who did the Federal Reserve bank in New York) to do the ironwork.

I had really wanted to take a tour of the house.  The Garden acquired the neighboring estate Pinewood, whose grounds were also designed by Olmsted.  It's normally open for self guided tours but both times I've visited in the past I've had the kids and didn't want that battle.  Unfortunately, this time it was closed for Christmas decorating so I still didn't get to go.  Oh well, it gives me something new for next time still.
 

The next day we took a trip to the Florida Citrus Arboretum. The Arboretum is one of our best kept local secrets. It's a really amazing place. They have over 250 varieties of citrus on 4 acres. Most of the varieties you've of course never heard of, or had a chance to taste before. While there, you can eat all you want. For a fee, you can pick fruit by the bushel. This is the second time we've been. Last time we went it was December so a different set of varieties was ripe. That's part of the fun since you never know what you're going to get.

We came home with samples of:  Brown's Select Satsumas, Kimbrough Satsumas, Sunki Satsumas, Meiwa Kumquats, Procimequats, Lakeland Limequats, Variegated Rough Lemon, Red Rough Lemon, Nine Pound Lemon, Hirado Pummelo, Liang Ping Yau Pummelo, Pink Pummelo and Marisol Clementine.

We started three liqueurs from some of our haul.  Homemade liqueurs make great holiday gifts.  In the past we've made Calamondin liqueur from our neighbors tree.  The tree's gotten so old it's not producing anymore.  The book below is the one we use for our recipes.  It was published some time ago and there are more recent books available, but years ago I saw the authors speak at a conference so I am partial to this one.  They've published on a really diverse range of topics and are interesting people.

Of course, I caught a cold from younger Toad and got my period too, but it was still so great to get away.  We had a gourmet meal without complaints about the food, got to carry on a conversation without interruption, and slept in.  I hope all of you reading this get a break soon too.

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