Hospitality

   What makes us want to go back to a place?

   Well there is the weather, there is the locality and a sense of just belonging, and a feeling of that is where you are supposed to be in that moment. And there is always the place where you slept and ate a good meal.

   When we were thinking of going to Mt. Dora and spending the night there, I looked up on a website for bed and breakfast locations in that area and found one with a bunch of "excellent" ratings. So I booked, and the rest is history.

   The Grandview Bed and Breakfast in Mt. Dora

   When I considered the area to visit, what made it appealing was the ties that I had to the locality when I was growing up. Since my grandparents had lived in Eustis, right up the road, and I had played golf in Mt. Dora, it was a great place to go back to my roots.

   But what I did not know was the tie that this old house would have. I knew that our company in Chattanooga had often sent trucks by Mt. Dora to pick up oranges and grapefruit, and I knew that my grandmother had a grapefruit tree in her side yard that we picked breakfast from each day, but the history of Grandview was tied up in the citrus industry.

   From a book in the living room, I saw pictures and read of the beginnings of the homestead back in 1906, built right in the middle of an orange grove. The windmill in the back yard was not the original, but a replacement for the system that could spray the trees with a coating of water, protecting the grove from freezing temperatures.

   There was even a picture of a label that had graced the end of the wooden boxes used to ship the fruit to markets.

             SIMPSON

   But all of this might have been wasted on me, if not for the graciousness of the old house and the people who ran it.

   From the swing on the front porched that seemed to call my name,

   To the food for breakfast that called for an cleaned plate,

   Our stay could not have been better, and just put the finishing touch on a visit to a town that we will remember with pleasure for a long time.

   History and Hospitality….What a Combination

   Thank you Patti and Gordie for our stay and our full stomachs on leaving. Can't wait to get back to our roots in this area again.

   And yes, Thank You God for giving us this adventure in this great place.