Upcoming Exchanges

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Incoming Domestic Exchange

2011

Outgoing International Exchange 

Curitiba & Iguacau, Brazil

Incoming International Exchange

New Zealand

Incoming International Exchange

Belo Horizonte, Brazil

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Highlights of Our May Exchange to Greater Orlando

May, 2010

Fern Momyer, Emily Smith, Thelma Diggs, Sharon Dawson, and the Van Ingens met in Florida on May 21st to be hosted by the Greater Orlando Club.  This was a smaller exchange, different because of its intimacy.    
 
We first attended the local Winter Park History Museum and Farmers Market, had a guided tour of the Albin Polasek Museum & Sculpture Gardens which had over 200 examples of this Czech-born sculptor's work on display.  There just happened to be an orchid show on the premises, so of course Dick Van Ingen wandered right off.  That evening we met up with the Taste Travelers, local FFI members who like to meet for dinner at various ethnic restaurants.  We just happened to meet them at Black Hammock Fish Camp where we tourists were introduced to deep-fried alligator (tastes just like chicken, right)?  We saw our first alligator, but not our last.
 
We attended a lovely harp soloist's performance at Casa Feliz, the signature residential work of noted architect James Gamble Rogers II and an historic home that was saved from demolition and moved from its lovely lake setting to a piece of property nearby.  There is more water than you might think in the area; many of the lakes are connected by canals dug in the early days to facilitate logging.  We went on a scenic boat ride through some of the canals connecting three of the lakes.  Many Winter Park homes face canals.  The boat ride was followed by a progressive dinner:  Appetizers at one home, the entree at another, desserts at a third.  Each of these hosts outdid themselves in variety and presentation.
 
Next day we left for Gatorland, a pretty amazing and very educational place.  A surprise was finding white alligators, not albinos but leucites, characterized by reduced pigmentation but with regular colored eyes.  There happened to be four from a litter of thirteen.  A plus was that the raised walkways gave us an opportunity to see the many hundreds of nesting egrets and other types of birds at eye level.  We saw tended nests, untended nests, eggs being turned, a chick hatching, so close you could almost "reach out and touch them."
 
We met another day at the Harry P. Leu Gardens where a very knowledgeable docent and local FFI member gave us a personal tour.  While there, we went through the 1888 home and enjoyed a picnic lunch on the grounds.  This garden has a Wollemi Pine, recently known to science and very rare.  Dick Van Ingen went running off to find it.......
 
The Morse Museum, which features Tiffany glass, was closed, but at home on Antiques Roadshow Orlando we saw some clips of what we missed.  A must see for another time.  We were treated to a wonderful potluck at the home of the Gatlins complete with a boat ride around the lake - saw Shaq O'neal's house and David Siegel's unfinished 66,000 sq. ft. home.  Certainly lifesyles different from ours!
 
We had a very filling brunch at the Disney Animal Kingdom Resort Boma, rode the monorail to the Grand Floridian Hotel, and in between got a general idea of just how much land Disney really encompasses.  Later that day, a member who lives in the Disney planned community of Celebration explained the layout of the city, took us on a walking tour, and even bought us ice cream on a very warm day.
 
It was a most wonderful experience.  I think we must have been seen every sight while being royally "wined and dined."  Our hosts were wonderful in every way.  He was a car buff, she had many irons in the fire, including being ED and having just attended her second china painting class.  We went outside several nights to watch satellites being launched, but each time, they were scrubbed.  Fern stayed with a woman who does incredible beading and weaving, Emily had her sketchbook everywhere we went, and we even got to make our own feeble entries, Sharon and Thelma walked everywhere (!).
 
Winter Park and Orlando are places that are truly worth a visit, and that's not even taking into account Disney and related attractions.
 
Mary Gayle Van Ingen - Exchange Director