Tina Allen from Mount Dora reminded me of the coming festival in Active Rain Withdrawals? I have visited the Show twice before, and she reminded me just in time for us to make plans for the coming weekend.
I also wanted to try to make a live contact with a fellow Rainer, and I was curious to meet Tina's daughter Tiffany, who at 12 is an aspiring entrepreneur, making cookie mixes and selling them on the Internet. I liked Tiffany's site, it has a warm feel, I am sure people like it.
Tina told me where to find them at Daisy a Day flower shop at 7th Street and Donnelly. It is my fault that I did not tell her that we were coming on Sunday. So, we found the shop but Tina was not there, we were told that she and Tiffany were somewhere in another kiosk.Well, considering the size of the show, it is not a simple thing to find. Over 250,000 people come to this 2 day event. City block after city block is taken over by tents, and the crowd is flowing the many blocks of this charming small lakefront town with more boutiques per sq. ft. than any other Florida city.
For us, coming from the flat east coast, hilly Mount Dora is a change. The trees are huge and tall, we do not have trees like that, and we are only 60-70 miles away. The place looks more from the North, which by some weird accident ended up in Florida.
I like to go to Shows, though I am not buying anything. I am going because I feel good in the crowd. I crave for that shoulder to shoulder crowd of realxed people, enjoying being out together.
Vendors are both local and from all over the country. It is fascinating to see so much creativity, fantasy, beauty brought from the whole nation. Some faces look familiar, I have seen them before. We walked the beautiful streets of Mount Dora and enjoyed the fun and a gorgeous weather, sunny and comfortable.
We did not find a kiosk with Cookies by Tiffany, maybe next time, at Art Show. Hope her business survives. Here's my wife Olga with the box. I do not know whether the Show was smaller this year or ot, but I noticed that fewer people were buying.
This is not the only show in Mount Dora, and not even the biggest. The Art Show attracts up to 300K people.
For Floridians this is a nice place to come and stroll the treed streets with hanging Spanish moss, enjoy the atmosphere, shop at numerous boutiques, check local fare at restaurants, spend time on the lake.
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