We are here in Mount Dora! And, I feel like I arrived home. After a crazy week driving to two states north, going through my mom’s stuff, discovering family secrets tucked away in dusty cardboard boxes, loading my friend’s SUV with the items my mom left me (at least those I was willing to haul back to Florida), driving back, unloading the car and working for three days, I can now relax in my home away from home and spend a few days writing and reading.
We are in the midst of the eastern bands of Tropical Storm Debby that is swirling, unorganized and undecided, in the Gulf of Mexico. For those of you who live outside the range of tropical storms, these storms have winds 39 to 74 miles per hour that are cyclical or somewhat cyclical in movement. The eastern side of a tropical storm has the bands of rain and storms that are the most severe, sometimes creating tornadoes. The rain was non-stop all day and the closer to central Florida we came the gustier the winds were. We thought about, for a fleeting moment, cancelling our trip, but then decided a few rainy days in Mount Dora are better then sunny days most other places, so here we are.
Since starting this Manifesting Mount Dora project, I’ve been asked the same two questions multiple times: Why Mount Dora? and How did I find Mount Dora? Perhaps explaining my personal story of Mount Dora would not only help others to understand why I want to live there, but just writing about Mount Dora will increase my positive vibrations about it and those vibrations are a key part of manifestation.
I don’t remember when or how I first heard about Mount Dora, although for several years I was aware of the huge annual arts and crafts festival held here each fall and I knew that the town was famous for its quaint shops and antiques. In the back of my mind I had the idea of visiting here someday. Since Mount Dora is only about a two hour drive from my home, I figured a day trip would suffice.
The spring of 2009 was a difficult time for me. My daughter and her family, which included my newborn granddaughter and my almost 2-year-old grandson, moved far away and I experienced a sadness like none I had known before. Everything at home reminded me of them and I cried more often than I wish to admit. The need to get away and have time to reflect and heal haunted me, so I began researching where my man and I could go for five to seven days that would not be too costly and would not require traveling very far. Mount Dora popped into my mind and subsequent online research assured me that it would the type of quiet, quaint place that I needed. I discovered Tremain Street Cottages which had great online reviews and a five-day special rent price that was more than reasonable. June, being an off-season month in Mount Dora, meant we would not be inundated with tourists and the town would be relatively quiet. I booked our five-day stay and we headed south.
Mount Dora is located in what is called the “lake country” of Central Florida. Although our state is famous for the Atlantic on the east coast, the Gulf on the west coast and the beaches on both coasts and for Disney World and other entertainment parks in the central part of the state, there are many lovely towns west and north of Orlando nestled among a myriad of lakes and rolling hills. Mount Dora is approximately 32 miles from Orlando and overlooks several lakes, including Lake Dora and Lake Gertrude. Mountains are not a geographical feature of the Sunshine State, but Mount Dora, which is 184 feet above sea level, qualifies as a “mountain town”. Certainly not Aspen, but a Florida mount nonetheless!
The settlement of what would later be known as Mount Dora began in 1873 and was named Royellou after the children of Ross Tremain who was the town’s first postmaster; their names were Roy, Ellen and Louis. One of the earliest settlers was Dora Ann Drawdy for whom the lake was named and later, in 1883, the town. The area originally became a popular vacation spot for hunters, fishermen and boaters and later became known for its arts and crafts festivals, historical buildings and quaint shops.
We chose to drive down 441 rather than take the interstate highway. We meandered through towns like Ocala, Belleview, Leesburg and Eustis until we turned on Donnelly Street and entered Mount Dora. A lovely tree-lined street, Donnelly goes north to south dissecting what is called the “old city” almost in half. Since it was well past lunch time and we hadn’t eaten, we stopped at the first restaurant we came upon, Pizza Amore, which had just opened for business that week. The owner and her son welcomed us and we had a tasty meal while watching one of those catch-me-by-surprise Florida afternoon summer rainstorms.
Back in the car, we found Tremain Street Cottages just a couple of blocks east. The cottages consist of an old cracker-style house in which the bottom floor is a two-bedroom “cottage” and the second floor is a small one bedroom unit. Behind the house is another two-story building that may have been a garage or possibly a barn at one time, but now contains two more one-bedroom cottages. All the cottages have kitchens and small dining and living areas. Ours was the bottom cottage in the back building. It is called the Nantucket and is, no surprise here, decorated in nautical style. The bed is huge and I later learned, could be separated into two beds. The living area, which is part of the bedroom, is small but comfortable and boasted a TV larger than we had at home. The kitchen is complete with a small stove and oven, full-sized refrigerator, microwave, coffee maker and all the dishes and cooking utensils we needed. A tiny dining area is in the back of the kitchen next to a door that leads to a small wooden deck, where we chose to have our breakfast each morning. Besides a bathroom and a roomy hall closet, there is a small sitting room which is the perfect place for me to read, write or meditate while my man os watching TV or sleeping. Only on one of our trips was the Nantucket unavailable, so we stayed in the unit above it, which was also nice and comfortable but lacked the additional sitting room and the deck. Last year I brought my daughter and grandchildren to Mount Dora and we rented the two-bedroom “main house” which was plenty large enough for us and included a separate living room/dining room combination and a spacious porch.
Tremain Street, a quiet, mostly residential street, is one of the highest spots in the Mount Dora and leads to Lake Dora and two of the nicest parks in town. Grantham Point Park, commonly called Lighthouse Park, has a boat ramp, fishing and boat docks, and a man-made peninsula that juts out into Lake Dora and holds one of the best known local landmarks, the less-than-full-size Lake Dora lighthouse.
Benches are scattered along the lighthouse peninsula and provide a fabulous view of the lake and its breathtaking sunsets. Grantham Point flows into Palm Island Park, an eight acre nature park with picnic areas and a wooden boardwalk that hugs the shoreline of Lake Dora and allows you to stroll along, spotting alligators, great blue herons and a wide variety of water birds and even the occasional racoon or other wildlife. Rather than the boardwalk you can choose to venture through a wooded nature area full of native trees and flora.
Across from Grantham Point Park is Gilbert Park, a children’s playground paradise with the “Kids Castle” and other unique and state-of-the-art playground creations, as well as two picnic pavilions and numerous picnic tables. The park is beautifully landscaped and even has a creek and a bridge. On weekends Gilbert Park is alive with the sound of children playing as the pavilions are set up for birthday parties and the tables and grills are occupied by picnickers.
Two and one half acre Donnelly Park, on Donnelly Street and right below where we stay at Tremain Street Cottages, is the main city park and has a large recreation center where dance and exercise classes, concerts, movies and art shows are held, as well as gardens, a fountain, benches, tennis and shuffleboard courts.
There are many other parks in Mount Dora, small and large, and even though we have visited here eight times, we have yet to visit them all because there is the town itself, with its many shops and restaurants, to keep us busy and entertained. When making the plans to go to Mount Dora, I worried that I might have problems finding food to please my man, who is very particular about what he eats - although he denies the label “particular” and says that he just knows what is good and what is not. As a small southern town, I was concerned that the restaurants of Mount Dora would be more of the bar-b-que, down-home-cooking types that would not be acceptable to my travel companion. Fortunately, my concerns were washed away when we discovered Copacabana, a Cuban restaurant; Pisces Rising, a seafood and steak restaurant with a tiki bar that looks out on Lake Dora; Cecile’s French Corner, a sandwich and crepe eatery; One Flight Up, a sandwich, salad and coffee house; Cody's on 4th, a breakfast, sandwich, salad and soup cafe; and Palm Tree Grille, a steak, seafood and pasta restaurant. As with the parks, there are many other restaurants in Mount Dora that we’ve heard are great, but we just have not gotten around to eating at all of them.
The streets are lined with a variety of shops offering antiques, artwork, jewelry, books, imported furniture, clothing, pampered pet supplies, gifts, home decor, wine, coffee and tea, bakery items and fine cheeses and meats, kitchen and dining products, garden accessories, footwear, bath and body items, music and photography products and even, I am sorry to admit, a gun shop (we are in Florida after all). There are also several spas, although I’ve never indulged in their services.
My favorite shop is Em’z on Fifth, a women’s boutique, where I can always find a unique piece of clothing that is just to my taste. The owner, Clara, has a knack for remembering the preferences of her customers, even those who only come a couple times a year. She and I always find time to chat as I shop and we are now Facebook friends. In fact, that is one of the my favorite things about Mount Dora, the eatery and shop owners typically work at their places of business so they take a personal interest in the customers who come back again and again. Because our first trip and most of our subsequent trips have been during off-season times of the year when the flow of tourists and the town itself have slowed down, we have had the pleasure of getting to know many of the business owners and their staff. Alberto, who owns the Copacabana and is from Cuba, lingers long at our table talking to my man, who is from Argentina, about food, tango, Che Guevara and life in Cuba, Argentina and Florida. They, along with Alberto’s Mexican son-in-law who also works at the restaurant, have already made plans for an asado (an Argentine cook-out) to be held at our future home in Mount Dora! We always look forward to reconnecting with our Mount Dora friends when we are here.
During our first trip we had breakfast on our deck and then wandered the streets, visited the shops and strolled through the parks in the morning before the heat and humidity settled like a blanket over the town. Before noon we would stop for a cool drink and a snack, often on the outside balcony at One Flight Up,
and then after noon we would return to our cottage and rest - I would read or write and my man would read or watch TV. Sometimes we indulged in a nap. In the late afternoon we would again take to the streets ending up at a restaurant for a delicious meal. While we were there that year, the NBA championship was being televised and the Orlando Magic was playing, so the locals were glued to TV’s every evening. Several times we went to the tiki bar at Pisces Rising and spent our evening watching the game on the bar’s TV and watching the sunset over Lake Dora.
On our first trip and on a later trip with my daughter and grandchildren, we took the nature boat tour of Mount Dora and the Dora Canal. Skimming across the lake is so refreshing on a hot, humid, sunny afternoon. We saw eagles, alligators, many water birds, turtles and fish, as well as lovely houses that rim the lake.
During our five days I indulged in the rest I needed so badly, I re-awakened my creative writing that laid dormant for years, I healed some, but not completely, from the heartbreak of my daughter and grandchildren moving far away and my man and I fell in love with this lovely little historic town called Mount Dora and Mount Dora became my "righteous fantasy".
We are in the midst of the eastern bands of Tropical Storm Debby that is swirling, unorganized and undecided, in the Gulf of Mexico. For those of you who live outside the range of tropical storms, these storms have winds 39 to 74 miles per hour that are cyclical or somewhat cyclical in movement. The eastern side of a tropical storm has the bands of rain and storms that are the most severe, sometimes creating tornadoes. The rain was non-stop all day and the closer to central Florida we came the gustier the winds were. We thought about, for a fleeting moment, cancelling our trip, but then decided a few rainy days in Mount Dora are better then sunny days most other places, so here we are.
Since starting this Manifesting Mount Dora project, I’ve been asked the same two questions multiple times: Why Mount Dora? and How did I find Mount Dora? Perhaps explaining my personal story of Mount Dora would not only help others to understand why I want to live there, but just writing about Mount Dora will increase my positive vibrations about it and those vibrations are a key part of manifestation.
I don’t remember when or how I first heard about Mount Dora, although for several years I was aware of the huge annual arts and crafts festival held here each fall and I knew that the town was famous for its quaint shops and antiques. In the back of my mind I had the idea of visiting here someday. Since Mount Dora is only about a two hour drive from my home, I figured a day trip would suffice.
The spring of 2009 was a difficult time for me. My daughter and her family, which included my newborn granddaughter and my almost 2-year-old grandson, moved far away and I experienced a sadness like none I had known before. Everything at home reminded me of them and I cried more often than I wish to admit. The need to get away and have time to reflect and heal haunted me, so I began researching where my man and I could go for five to seven days that would not be too costly and would not require traveling very far. Mount Dora popped into my mind and subsequent online research assured me that it would the type of quiet, quaint place that I needed. I discovered Tremain Street Cottages which had great online reviews and a five-day special rent price that was more than reasonable. June, being an off-season month in Mount Dora, meant we would not be inundated with tourists and the town would be relatively quiet. I booked our five-day stay and we headed south.
Mount Dora is located in what is called the “lake country” of Central Florida. Although our state is famous for the Atlantic on the east coast, the Gulf on the west coast and the beaches on both coasts and for Disney World and other entertainment parks in the central part of the state, there are many lovely towns west and north of Orlando nestled among a myriad of lakes and rolling hills. Mount Dora is approximately 32 miles from Orlando and overlooks several lakes, including Lake Dora and Lake Gertrude. Mountains are not a geographical feature of the Sunshine State, but Mount Dora, which is 184 feet above sea level, qualifies as a “mountain town”. Certainly not Aspen, but a Florida mount nonetheless!
The settlement of what would later be known as Mount Dora began in 1873 and was named Royellou after the children of Ross Tremain who was the town’s first postmaster; their names were Roy, Ellen and Louis. One of the earliest settlers was Dora Ann Drawdy for whom the lake was named and later, in 1883, the town. The area originally became a popular vacation spot for hunters, fishermen and boaters and later became known for its arts and crafts festivals, historical buildings and quaint shops.
We chose to drive down 441 rather than take the interstate highway. We meandered through towns like Ocala, Belleview, Leesburg and Eustis until we turned on Donnelly Street and entered Mount Dora. A lovely tree-lined street, Donnelly goes north to south dissecting what is called the “old city” almost in half. Since it was well past lunch time and we hadn’t eaten, we stopped at the first restaurant we came upon, Pizza Amore, which had just opened for business that week. The owner and her son welcomed us and we had a tasty meal while watching one of those catch-me-by-surprise Florida afternoon summer rainstorms.
Back in the car, we found Tremain Street Cottages just a couple of blocks east. The cottages consist of an old cracker-style house in which the bottom floor is a two-bedroom “cottage” and the second floor is a small one bedroom unit. Behind the house is another two-story building that may have been a garage or possibly a barn at one time, but now contains two more one-bedroom cottages. All the cottages have kitchens and small dining and living areas. Ours was the bottom cottage in the back building. It is called the Nantucket and is, no surprise here, decorated in nautical style. The bed is huge and I later learned, could be separated into two beds. The living area, which is part of the bedroom, is small but comfortable and boasted a TV larger than we had at home. The kitchen is complete with a small stove and oven, full-sized refrigerator, microwave, coffee maker and all the dishes and cooking utensils we needed. A tiny dining area is in the back of the kitchen next to a door that leads to a small wooden deck, where we chose to have our breakfast each morning. Besides a bathroom and a roomy hall closet, there is a small sitting room which is the perfect place for me to read, write or meditate while my man os watching TV or sleeping. Only on one of our trips was the Nantucket unavailable, so we stayed in the unit above it, which was also nice and comfortable but lacked the additional sitting room and the deck. Last year I brought my daughter and grandchildren to Mount Dora and we rented the two-bedroom “main house” which was plenty large enough for us and included a separate living room/dining room combination and a spacious porch.
Tremain Street, a quiet, mostly residential street, is one of the highest spots in the Mount Dora and leads to Lake Dora and two of the nicest parks in town. Grantham Point Park, commonly called Lighthouse Park, has a boat ramp, fishing and boat docks, and a man-made peninsula that juts out into Lake Dora and holds one of the best known local landmarks, the less-than-full-size Lake Dora lighthouse.
Benches are scattered along the lighthouse peninsula and provide a fabulous view of the lake and its breathtaking sunsets. Grantham Point flows into Palm Island Park, an eight acre nature park with picnic areas and a wooden boardwalk that hugs the shoreline of Lake Dora and allows you to stroll along, spotting alligators, great blue herons and a wide variety of water birds and even the occasional racoon or other wildlife. Rather than the boardwalk you can choose to venture through a wooded nature area full of native trees and flora.
Across from Grantham Point Park is Gilbert Park, a children’s playground paradise with the “Kids Castle” and other unique and state-of-the-art playground creations, as well as two picnic pavilions and numerous picnic tables. The park is beautifully landscaped and even has a creek and a bridge. On weekends Gilbert Park is alive with the sound of children playing as the pavilions are set up for birthday parties and the tables and grills are occupied by picnickers.
Two and one half acre Donnelly Park, on Donnelly Street and right below where we stay at Tremain Street Cottages, is the main city park and has a large recreation center where dance and exercise classes, concerts, movies and art shows are held, as well as gardens, a fountain, benches, tennis and shuffleboard courts.
There are many other parks in Mount Dora, small and large, and even though we have visited here eight times, we have yet to visit them all because there is the town itself, with its many shops and restaurants, to keep us busy and entertained. When making the plans to go to Mount Dora, I worried that I might have problems finding food to please my man, who is very particular about what he eats - although he denies the label “particular” and says that he just knows what is good and what is not. As a small southern town, I was concerned that the restaurants of Mount Dora would be more of the bar-b-que, down-home-cooking types that would not be acceptable to my travel companion. Fortunately, my concerns were washed away when we discovered Copacabana, a Cuban restaurant; Pisces Rising, a seafood and steak restaurant with a tiki bar that looks out on Lake Dora; Cecile’s French Corner, a sandwich and crepe eatery; One Flight Up, a sandwich, salad and coffee house; Cody's on 4th, a breakfast, sandwich, salad and soup cafe; and Palm Tree Grille, a steak, seafood and pasta restaurant. As with the parks, there are many other restaurants in Mount Dora that we’ve heard are great, but we just have not gotten around to eating at all of them.
The streets are lined with a variety of shops offering antiques, artwork, jewelry, books, imported furniture, clothing, pampered pet supplies, gifts, home decor, wine, coffee and tea, bakery items and fine cheeses and meats, kitchen and dining products, garden accessories, footwear, bath and body items, music and photography products and even, I am sorry to admit, a gun shop (we are in Florida after all). There are also several spas, although I’ve never indulged in their services.
My favorite shop is Em’z on Fifth, a women’s boutique, where I can always find a unique piece of clothing that is just to my taste. The owner, Clara, has a knack for remembering the preferences of her customers, even those who only come a couple times a year. She and I always find time to chat as I shop and we are now Facebook friends. In fact, that is one of the my favorite things about Mount Dora, the eatery and shop owners typically work at their places of business so they take a personal interest in the customers who come back again and again. Because our first trip and most of our subsequent trips have been during off-season times of the year when the flow of tourists and the town itself have slowed down, we have had the pleasure of getting to know many of the business owners and their staff. Alberto, who owns the Copacabana and is from Cuba, lingers long at our table talking to my man, who is from Argentina, about food, tango, Che Guevara and life in Cuba, Argentina and Florida. They, along with Alberto’s Mexican son-in-law who also works at the restaurant, have already made plans for an asado (an Argentine cook-out) to be held at our future home in Mount Dora! We always look forward to reconnecting with our Mount Dora friends when we are here.
During our first trip we had breakfast on our deck and then wandered the streets, visited the shops and strolled through the parks in the morning before the heat and humidity settled like a blanket over the town. Before noon we would stop for a cool drink and a snack, often on the outside balcony at One Flight Up,
and then after noon we would return to our cottage and rest - I would read or write and my man would read or watch TV. Sometimes we indulged in a nap. In the late afternoon we would again take to the streets ending up at a restaurant for a delicious meal. While we were there that year, the NBA championship was being televised and the Orlando Magic was playing, so the locals were glued to TV’s every evening. Several times we went to the tiki bar at Pisces Rising and spent our evening watching the game on the bar’s TV and watching the sunset over Lake Dora. 
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