A Walk through Winter Park - A Hint of New England in Florida

Just a few minutes north of downtown Orlando awaits Winter Park, a charming picturesque suburb steeped in history. After my excursion on the Scenic Boat Tour, my local expert Wanda Salerno took me on a little walk through town past beautiful historic neighbourhoods.

With is origins as a citrus growing region, Winter Park became a major destination for wealthy northerners during the early 1900s, who came into town by train to reach their elegant winter retreats, seeking shelter from the cold winters of the north. Elegant mansions and and stately old oak trees draped with Spanish moss bear witness to this historic era.

Wanda then took me through some of Winter Park's hidden courtyards, which are
filled with specialty retail stores and galleries. Winter Park features a large variety of galleries and I had a chance to sample three of them, all of which carried vastly different artwork:

- Scott Laurent Collections

- Native Visions Gallery

- Timothy's

Our walk took us out on to Winter Park's main street, Park Avenue, which houses 10 blocks of specialty retailers, galleries and ecclectic restaurants. Park Avenue is flanked on its west side by Central Park which offers a welcome sanctuary of relaxation with its graceful fountain, walking paths and shaded benches.

We then went on to explore Casa Feliz ("Happy House" in Spanish), the signature residential work of renowned architect James Gamble Rogers II.

In 1932 Robert Bruce Barbour, a chemical engineer from Massachusetts, commissioned Rogers to design a home on Lake Osceola, which turned out to be the Andalusian-style masonry farmhouse that we see today. This home was not only cherished by Barbour, but by the community as well. Throughout its history, it has hosted garden club tours, symphony orchestra concerts, poetry social meetings and a dinner for author Sinclair Lewis.

In 2001, in order to prevent the house from demolition, Casa Feliz was moved across Interlachen Avenue to its present location on Park Avenue. This move was one of the most dramatic events in Winter Park's history. Casa Feliz was transported on 20 pneumatically levelled dollies, and an elaborate pulley system moved the house about 75 feet per hour. After the house was in position at its new location, skilled craftsmen worked on restoring it to its original 1933 condition. A special landscape design was commissioned to reflect the style of the era.

Today, Casa Feliz is available to rent for weddings, parties, business meetings and events. Its unique features provide the perfect backdrop for a truly memorable event.

As a centre of local culture, Winter Park also features three well-known museums:

- the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American art, which holds the world's most comprehensive collection of works by Louis Comfort Tiffany, including Tiffany’s 1893 Chapel. The museum also features paintings, furniture and other works primarily from the late 19th and 20th centuries.

- the Albin Polasek Museum and Sculpture Garden: 3 acres of gardens, featuring sculptures and painters by Albin Polasek. The museum is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

- the Cornell Fine Arts Museum, which focuses on western world art of the 20th century and includes paintings, drawings, sculptures and other art from America and Europe. This museum is located at Rollins College, one of the top rated liberal arts colleges in the country.

The Winter Park Historical Museum examines various historic time periods, interchanging exhibits and rotating displays highlight some of the changes that have occurred in central Florida.

While I explored the town my husband actually played a round of golf at the 9-hole Winter Park Country Club, which is nestled beautifully inside Winter Park's historic neighbourhood. The WPCC is the second oldest golf club in the Central Florida area and makes its way through the downtown Winter Park area and provides a challenge to even the most experienced golfer. He enjoyed his outing, and a cost of $12, it was an extremely affordable outing on a well-maintained golf course.

We capped off our excursion with an enjoyable dinner at a restaurant called 310 Park Avenue, right on Winter Park's main strip. While a good portion of the Orlando area is very new, Winter Park is a welcome oasis of history and ambience that is perfect for a day of exploring.

For more information on Winter Park contact the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce, www.winterpark.org.

Susanne Pacher is the publisher of a website called Travel and Transitions (http://www.travelandtransitions.com). Travel and Transitions deals with unconventional travel and is chock full of advice, tips, real life travel experiences, interviews with travellers and travel experts, insights and reflections, cross-cultural issues, contests and many other features. You will also find stories about life and the transitions that we face as we go through our own personal life-long journeys.

Submit your own travel stories in our first travel story contest (http://www.travelandtransitions.com/contests.htm) and have a chance to win an amazing adventure cruise on the Amazon River.

"Life is a Journey Explore New Horizons".

The story with photos is published at Stories and Photos (http://www.travelandtransitions.com/stories_photos/orlando_winter_park.htm).

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How to Deal With People Who Bring Us Down

It takes all kinds of people to make up the world we live in. In life, we have the opportunity to meet many people. Some of them we find are too difficult to deal with. These are the people we end up not liking and we try and avoid them as much as possible. Keeping well away from them might be the right thing to do. But sometimes there are situations where it is impossible to avoid them.

Happy and friendly people have the ability to uplift people and should there be any kind of conflict the situation can easily be worked through. However, when dealing with difficult people it is important to distinguish between rights and responsibilities. Under certain circumstances we feel obliged to adapt and agree with them but we need to be careful we don't give up our rights at the same time.

Some people we deal with out of a feeling of obligation. The important thing to remember is that we do not retaliate in the same way as the person is dealing with us. Treat them with respect at all times and learn to listen to them allowing them to air their point of view. This will enable us to understand them better. Often it is also the case that once we get to know a person whom we thought was difficult we are able to deal with them much more easily.

It is important to remember that difficult people are most often the ones that have real issues in their lives. Take away that problem from the person and try and see them as an individual. After all if this person does not overstep his boundaries, they will eventually see that we also deserve respect. Anyone with sense will know this.

Stop seeing yourself as a victim of a situation. It damages us more if we blame others for making us feel miserable. It's important that we take responsibility for our own feelings and work towards resolving the situation before they can score a mental victory over us.

We are unable to change other people. We can of course influence and stop ourselves from becoming affected. Nobody is worth this amount of energy and we don't need to bother ourselves over people who don't deserve our respect. Pretend that they are like our work and never take it home with you.

We need to accept that when dealing with people who bring us down that we cannot change others. We can only change ourselves. By changing our perception we may be able to deal with a situation more effectively. It's always easier to look into ourselves first and try and make changes. After all we all have our own pet peeves and issues.

If the other person is ready to change and is willing to make adjustments, then we need to be a constructive influence. It is better to be tactful when sending a message through so that the other person doesn't end up feeling worse. Some people influence our lives very badly. But we can be a positive influence in somebody else's life by letting go of what we cannot control and doing our best to be helpful instead.

Mahatma Gandhi once said that we must be the change we want to see in the world. In the same way let us serve as inspiration to many and be the positive influence. If we can do this we will find ourselves surrounded only by people we like and respect.

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Central Florida Social

Internet social networking has been proven to increase overall communications among people, organizations, and communities. We find that the majority of effective communication tools are localized around cities and smaller communities, and we would like to extend these enhanced capabilities to you and your members. We are very interested in knowing your organization and member interests to begin working together. The ability to share resources, communications, and participation can benefit all involved. It is our goal to add to the capabilities and growth of membership of your organization by providing excellent communication tools. It is not our intent to detract or diminish the importance or credibility of your organization. One of our upcoming social events will be a weekday, evening social gathering in the Casselberry/Winter Park area, where we'll promote fellowship, fun, food and beverages. We also have planned a 4-day 3-night group cruise to the Bahamas Islands out of Port Canaveral aboard RCCL scheduled for November 6th to November 9th. We are featuring an incredibly talented and entertaining Social Consultant, Jay Golden, PGA, who will provide a very special weekend of golf lessons, comedy and lectures. I plan to provide musical entertainment, dance contests and other activities for those who choose to be involved. I very much look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience and will be pleased to talk with you via phone or email.

Norma Hunter Social Consultant
DatingNetwork.com
CentralFLSocial.com
Phone: 407-473-0600
norma@datingnetworkusa.com
norma@centralflsocial.com