I left Atlanta Sunday morning and had a long but uneventful drive to the White Sulphur Springs, Florida, where I spent two delightful days at the Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center. While Stephen Foster never set foot in Florida, his song "Old Folks at Home" is the Florida State Song. The Folk Culture Center (also a state park) is built right on the the Suwannee River and may be one of the most tranquil setting I have ever experienced.
The Center has a wonderful Carillon that plays Stephen Foster songs every few minutes and a lovely museum with a collection of old pianos and wonderful dioramas depicting various songs he composed. It also has a large array of craft buildings where different folk crafts are demonstrated daily. There are monthly folk festivals, as well as a large folk music festival every May.
Next it was on to Dunedin and Clearwater Beach where I'm visiting a colleague of almost 40 years before going on to the destination for this trip, Sarasota, on Friday. The weather is beautiful, mid 70's and sunny. To borrow a quote from a t-short company "Life is good".
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| Greetings from Clearwater Beach |
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| The Bell Tower/Carrillon at the Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center |
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| The famed Suwannee River. It's pretty low now, as it's fed by the the Okeefenokee, which hasn't had sufficient flooding to raise the water level |
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| One of the wonderful dioramas at the Stephen Foster Museum |
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| Elli says it was a bit chilly and actually snowed in Annapolis! |
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