Lake Placid Annual Caladium Festival

Every year Lake Placid holds it's Caladium Festival.   This is our first year here in Lake Placid, and I thought it was going to be in August.  When I returned from visiting my friend Linda on Friday I was detoured around Stuart Park in downtown Lake Placid on my way home.  It was then I realized that the festival was under way.  Checking it out, we learned that it would be going on from July 25th through July 27th, from 10:00 am until 4:00 pm Friday and Saturday, and closing at 3:00 pm on Sunday.

I told Rich that there was a booth that would be selling Funnel Cakes - so I had no problem getting him to go with me on Saturday.  We left about 11:00 am, found a place to park (about 3 blocks away) and made our way to the festival area.    This event brings people from all surrounding areas every year.  We could not believe the amount of people in downtown Lake Placid.  A good portion of Interlake Blvd was blocked off to traffic from about Oak Street to Main Street.   There was even an area where buses were parked, and a short while after arriving we ran into some people from The Villages, up near Ocala, who had come by bus. Interlake and Pine Street were lined with vendor booths as was all of Stuart Park.

The variety of booths set up was amazing;  everything from Caladiums (of course), plants, herbs, gifts of all sorts,  And places like  Billie Swamp Safari, Henscratch Winery, Seminole Casino Immokalee, just to name a few........were set up for business.  There were artists, painter and even face painters from Toby's Clown Museum here in Lake Placid.  And the picture (top center) below is our friend and neighbor John  - The Man Of Trunks.  John makes these by hand next door in his garage, and they are just beautiful.

 
It was a blistering hot day!  We finally found some shade in Stuart Park, where the ongoing entertainment was set up, as were the majority of the food and beverage vendors.   There was most anything you could think of to eat, from ice cream, strawberry shortcake, burgers, fish fry, dinners.....  Rich had is funnel cake and a couple of bites of my bratwurst with sauerkraut and we shared a glass of Bud Light!  I''m not a beer drinker - but it was cold and it tasted good!

A couple of hours later we headed for home.  It was a long walk back to the car in the heat and the air conditioner felt wonderful!   We were lazy the rest of the day, watching some TV  and heating up some fixin's for fajitas.   We were thinking of going out and doing a little fishing - but the weather could not make up it's mind.  Lots of thunder and lightening - but only a sprinkle.........

If you're in the area - The Annual Lake Placid Caladium Festival is worth going to.  We had a great time despite the heat!