Mark and I had achy, painful calves all day yesterday and still this morning from the crazy Typhoon Lagoon day. Didn't matter, we still had things to do.
The NARFE meeting was great and went as planned. Then Mark and I shopped. We got home at 2 p.m. and had an hour to relax before heading up to The Villages.
We were laying in bed with our feet up, moaning that we had to get up and go out again, but later we were so glad we did! The Villages were wonderful; dinner was delicious; the performances were amazing.
This was our first trip up to The Villages. There are now three separate villages up there, and our restaurant was in the newest one called Brownwood. Mark has found his people. This is a western themed area! I didn't take my camera, so I didn't take any pictures, but next time we will take a camera! Mark could stroll around there in his cowboy gear and feel right at home. In fact, we did see a guy walking by in a cowboy hat, looking a lot like Mark does regularly!
We also went to one of the other areas for Happy Hour, had a cheap drink, sat outside and listened to the live band. Every one of the three villages has a bandstand in the central area with happy hour, vendors, and live music EVERY NIGHT! Crazy. Also each area has movie theaters, lots of restaurants, and many stores. There was even a Barnes and Nobles there. The Villages is so big that they have their own zip code! The over 150,000 residents can drive their golf carts right up to all those stores and movie theaters. Amazing. Although each housing area that we passed, and there were MANY, was gated so we couldn't see actual houses too close up, the shopping areas are wide open to everybody. Our own Solivita will only include 6,000 homes when it's finished (about 4,000 are up right now), so we will never be big enough to have all those stores inside our area. We just don't have enough people to support that. Sigh.
I had vaguely looked at The Villages, not in person but online, back when we were looking for this place. The western area didn't exist then, but the other shopping areas looked good online; however, i did not see floor plans that I really liked. I also thought it was too far from WDW, but it turns out it's about the same distance north of WDW that we are south of it, so that should not have been a concern. It is however nearly two hours from Cypress Cove, which would have been sad. We run down to the Cove multiple times a week because it's only six miles and 15 minutes away. We would never want to give that up!
Las Tapas was the restaurant and the four singers were great. Two men and two women were the singing waiters. In between taking orders and serving food, they did three thirty minute sets of music. Mostly they sang Broadway tunes and requests, which were also all Broadway. They are all part of an opera troupe, but they did not sing any opera, sadly. Maybe next time. They are there every Tuesday and Thursday nights, so we are hoping to schedule another trip up there. It was also only a ninety minute drive, not the full two hours that we thought.
The food was delicious, but the goat cheese dish was super salty. I am up two and a half pounds today! Hoping it's water retention and that normal eating today will drop those pounds again by tomorrow morning. We shall see.
Today will be far more relaxing! Mark has a haircut at the Cove at 10:30 and then we work in the library from 1-4. I'm hoping to swim and relax a little while he's getting his haircut.
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