DeLand Florida, A Step Back and a Step Forward In Time, Part 1 of Two Chapters

**Stepping out Friday nights at the Artisan Alley Farmers Market with Georgia, Barb and Teddy Roosevelt.**

**Pat & Toni’s Sweet Things! Talk about a treat to the eyes and tongue. Best candies we remember tasting, ever!!**

**Taste test offered-hard to ever forget!**

**Pat & Toni’s offeres everyone some of the sweetest tastes, anywhere!!**

Breakfast at DeLeon Springs State Park at the Old Sugar Mill Pancake House and Fountain of Youth Boat Rides. Here, you cook your own pancakes, eggs and all the meat fixin’s you can want. This couple drove hours to enjoy the park and have breakfast there too! Sparkle Rex was our contact. She was terrific!! Go Floridastateparks.org to see all this park has to offer

American Press Travel News-Bob and Barb “On the Road Again.” June 14th-June 17th–We contacted our very favorite tourism specialist; Georgia Carter Turner to develope a visit itinerary to DeLand Florida, located in Volusia County. We rolled in to town on June 14th, and moved into a very comfortable apartment at True Trail Farms –[email protected] Mike and Kathy Densmore, the owners were very welcoming and we found they loved farm animals and they had a bunch of them. We were also greeted by the goats, turkeys and more chickens than Kentucky Fried could have handled. DeLand is a bit like old time Florida meeting up with the modernity of today! After settling in at True Tails Farms, we headed into town to the Half Wall (half the wall was covered by beer taps) for a delightful dinner. For dessert, we went next door to Davids Sweet Things. David was the most affable and interesting man we encountered during our adventure to DeLand.

GO: VisitWestVolusia.com and see all the greatness that this area has to offer. (end of part 1 of our DeLand Adventure, see part two shortly)

Deano’s Italian Grill The Authentic Brick Oven Favorites on Main St. Dublin, GA.

**Chicken Marsala had the most tasty mushrooms and sauces ever!!**

AmericanPressTravelNews.com-Dublin, GA.-November 7^th,-Bob & Barb “On the Road Again and feasting again! We headed out from Page House B & B into town by car (although it was in walking distance) and stopped in front of Deano’s Italian Grill. We are familiar with the great tastes that come out of a wood-fired brick oven, and when I saw the massive grill full of various Italian dishes and pizzas being done to perfection in the black-body heat method (cooks through and through quickly and leaves all dishes moist and not dried out) of radiating cooking temperature, perfect for doing dishes perfectly, I sat down-period!

**Pizza Bruni with fresh mozzarella and copicola sausage, basil and red onion.**

Robert and Jennifer Shaffer owners and operators, both graduates of the Culinary Institute of America in New York, came from Florida to Dublin in 2010, to do their thing! And boy, do they do their thing. Their wait and cooking staff are really committed to this restaurant, as besides loving the fare, they respect and like the owners as well, I learned this based on me asking a few of them how they like working at Deano’s.

Check Deano’s out at: www.deanos-italian.com

So what did we eat, well, we popped a pizza, a chicken marsala dish, Calamari dish to perfection and then desserts to salivate over. So we were talked into a Crème Brule’ that was fab-plus!

**Pizza Bruni, a delight to the eye and the palate!**

**Candied walnuts salad with excellent sauce and farm fresh greens! WOW!!**

**Calamari was touted by our waitress as best in GA. We ate and agreed with her!**

**An overhead view from their upstairs party room.**

Calamari was light floured and flash fried. It came with marinara and cherry pepper sauce. The citrus garden salad was crafted with strawberries, mandarin oranges, grapes candied walnuts and Gorgonzola cheese with balsamic vinaigrette. The Chicken Marsala was a pan seared chick breast with delicious sauteed mushrooms, in roasted garlic butter and Marsala wine sauce. We finished our meal with Coffee and crème brule.

Fishermen’s Village 30 Shops, Great Seafood, a Quality Resort and Marina=Valhalla!!!

Fishermen's Village has the best candy and chocolate shop, ever! The Village was all dressed up in their holiday lights and "festive" is the word! We loved it! — **Fishermen’s Village has the best candy and chocolate shop, ever! The Village was all dressed up in their holiday lights and “festive” is the word! We loved it!**

APtravelnews-Dec. 19th,-Bob and Barb writing from Fishermen’s Village, Punta Gorda, FL.–Its really hard to say anything else then; Barb and I really loved this place. So many animated and excited folks-from children to old timers really having a ball, looking at the lighting, meeting Santa, tasting chocolates, buying gifts, visiting a real Military Museum with hero Veterans talking about past wars and their recollections and through it all; friendly shop-keepers and visitors! We ate seafoods, destroyed sumptious desserts, a few cocktails and after dinner libations as well. We stopped to listen to chorals of the season, popped into the Village Fish Market (www.village-fish-market.com) for the aforementioned seafoods such as the ubiquitous shrimp done many ways, crab cakes, scallops, fish dishes, delicious’ too! Our dinner was hosted by owner Sue Randall.

We ended off the evening with a Christmas Canal Cruise through Punta Gorda’s canals with the Kingfisher Fleets excursion boat loaded with all kinds of appetizers-we sure do travel on our stomachs too! www.kingfisherfleet.com Stay tuned! Much more coming of our trip to Punta Gorda! Go for some great info: www.CharlotteHarborTravel.com