Tag: Florida

Florida Prize 2025

One of my favorite times of year at the Orlando Museum of Art (OMA) is the Florida Prize. Florida Prize in Contemporary art is an exhibition of contemporary artists in Florida. Every year they throw a big party and exhibit some great artists. I haven’t been to the party the past couple years but I am always sure to at least check out the exhibit while the art is displayed.

I don’t think I caught photos of all the exhibits but the following is the list of artists:Nathalie Alfonso, Eddie Arroyo, Leo Castañeda, Kelly Joy Ladd, Amanda Linares, Kandy G. Lopez, Jiha Moon, Troy Simmons, Cornelius Tulloch, and Lisu Vega.

Amanda Linares

Kelly Joy Ladd

Being from the central Florida area this piece of art is fun because it contains dirt from different Florida locations, many of which actually had meaning to me.

Jiha Moon

Lisu Vega

Cornelius Tulloch

Kandy G. Lopez

Leo Castañeda

Audiovisual

Can’t wait for next year’s show!

Playalinda Brewing Company

With nothing planned one weekend some friends invited us to go with them to check out the Playalinda Brewing Company in Titusville, Florida.
It is not a long drive from Orlando and perfect for a day trip.
We arrive to a clean and friendly tasting room in a quiet town. A few patrons were enjoying a lazy Sunday.
We had no problem finding a table in the front of the tasting room with a nice view of the street outside.
We ordered flights of beer, some snacks and played the games provided by the tasting room.
We were familiar with Ron Raike’s beers (the brewer) from when he brewed at Shipyard in Orlando (now closed brewery/restaurant). Some interesting brews. My favorite of the day was the strong “Go Big”.
If you are happening to look for a nice short day trip from Orlando I suggest you stop on by.

St Pete Breweries Day 2

We started off our second day of St. Pete with brunch at Peg’s Cantina. It was a good time on the patio enjoying food beer and friends.

I thoroughly enjoyed this cheese appetizer. It didn’t last long.

Blueberry goat cheese pancakes

The bill comes in this fun box.

Soon after Peg’s we headed over to 3 Daughters for our first beer tasting of the day.

The 3 Daughters tasting room was attractively decorated there. We spent quite a bit of time sipping our samples there. I soon realized that they had an outdoors activity area. You can play games with a view of the brewing facilities.

Our next stop was Cycling Brewing. Their cream & sugar, please was all the rage. We had fun hanging at their tasting room but soon it was time to head back home.

Not quite done yet. We decided to stop at Rapp Brewing Company heading out of Tampa. It proved to be the best stop of the day. You can tell they love what they do, you can taste it in their beers.

So the trip comes to an end. I will return someday. However next on the list is all the great breweries in Dunedin. See you soon!

St Pete Breweries Day 1

Last fall I went on a brewery road trip with some friends from the Orlando Lady Crafters to St. Petersburg, Florida. St. Petersburg and the Tampa Bay area in general is a burgeoning location for the craft beer scene in Florida. There are a number of breweries in a short distance.
My friends have had craft beer road trips before but this is the first one I was able to attend.
Only a few of our events are opening to the men behind the ladies; this is one of them.
Our first stop on our brewery road trip was the Green Bench Brewing Co. Green Bench hosted a one year anniversary party. We stuck around a while to try some of their beers.

It was very crowded so they decided to discontinue beer flights for the day. I was disappointed I was unable to try more of their selections.
However we did get a free can of their anniversary beer.

They had the brewery open to visitors. We took a tour around.

They even had food trucks and live music outside.

When I cashed out I was happy to discover that they give you one additional anniversary beer for every pint you purchased. We almost had enough for a six pack!

Second stop on our brewery tour was St. Pete Brewing Company.

We were happy to discover that flights were available here.

We passed the time with games while we enjoyed our samples.

After touring the breweries we grabbed dinner at Engine No 9. The Saganaki burger was probably one of the best burgers I have ever had. The restaurant is small and has limited seating. We got lucky out and spread our large group across the bar; we only had to wait around 40 minutes.
Not quite wanting the evening to end we visited the The Ale & The Witch to keep the night going on. They had a great beer selection and live music. However we all got tired quickly and called it a night after one drink. We planned to meet up the next day for more beer-ploring St. Pete.

What a fun day in the city!