February 27th, 2024

Hey!  Welcome to today's Blogpost!     Tim and I did something really different over the weekend, and it was so awesome!  It was a Minock Day first of all, which is always one of the very best days. We met up with our friends in a town none of us had ever visited, Safety Harbor.  Strange name, yes I know.   I looked up the name (of course I did) and it turns out that back in the 1800's when piracy was a serious problem on the high seas and even in the Florida Gulf, once ships managed to arrive in this particular harbor, they were "safe" from pirates - Safety Harbor!  Interesting!

I also learned that evidence of stone age have been found there! Whoa!  But while Spanish Explorers such as Hernando de Soto, visted the area, it was first homesteaded in 1823 by a French gentleman by name of Odette Phillippe.  It was Monsieur Phillippe who introduced grapefruit to Florida!  Nowadays it is an absolutely charming small seaside town that we all fell in love with immediately.

We went there specifically to visit the Art and  Music Center and a place called Whimzeyland.  How could anyone resist checking out a place called Whimzeyland?

The Art and Music Center was incredible.  It was decorated from floor to ceiling (no exaggeration) with unique art installations.  There was so much going on in every direction that it was almost sensory overload.  It took forever to walk through because with each step there was more and more AND MORE to look at, marvel over, wonder about and sometimes chuckle a bit.   I was particularly taken with the ceilings.  Here are a few:

Every single room, including the bathrooms by the way, had us  wide-eyed, craning our necks and twisting in contortions to get photographs.  It was Wild and Wonderful.  The gift shop alone could have kept us entertained for hours.

The walls were as fascinating as the ceilings of course.  Here is a very small sampling (you might catch an unintentional selfie in one of these photos)

When we could finally tear ourselves away from the Art and Music Center, we walked over the Whimzeyland.  It turns out that Whimzeyland is actually the homes of the people who created the Art and Music Center.    The public is welcome to walk their property and admire how terribly clever and artistic they are.  Most  of the art is upcycled objects which impresses me to no end.   It was easy to know when we had arrived.  I suspect that even without the "Whimzey" sign, everyone would know which houses they are.

There was a little bit of everything as we walked along:  A mosaic tiled sidewalk and pathway:

Chandeliers galore:  (one just to get a taste):

Statuary:

Some things were relatively simple:

Others were a wee bit more complicated:

Wow!  That was really something else!  

Once our creativity itch was scratched and our sense of wonder satiated, we wandered off to find food!  We found ourselves, arbitrarily, at a place called The Whistlestop which was, appropriately enough, right beside a traintrack and had a terrific meal.  We ate outside in a covered area and enjoyed the gorgeous day.

Afterwards we walked through the cutest dang little town to the waterfront, where, as it turns out, there was an art and seafood festival going on!  Well of course we had to check that out as well.

And by then, we had managed to spend the entire day out and about, discovering this new to us town and enjoying each other's company so it was time to head in our respective directions (them north and us south)

What A Great  Adventure!  And while I may not need to ever visit Whimzeyland again (probably) I think Tim and I will return to Safety Harbor some day, probably soon.