Saturday:
Note:  For some unknown reason, Friday's blog was lost.  It basically said we traveled and arrived here at Recreation Plantation. 

THE VILLAGES:
This morning, we headed over to The Villages.  If you've been to Disney's Celebration, Florida (www.celebration.fl.us) or Disneyworld itself, then you understand the feel of The Villages.  It is a planned community (present pop: 85,000) seniors only, and they are in process of developing an additional Village...they say it should probably be done by next year.  There are many villages within this city/community called The Villages.  Each are actually gated communities.  I believe everything else is accessible to the genereal public.
 
Golf carts seem to be the main mode of transportation.  Some of the homes even have separate little garage doors for their carts.  There's a whimsy about the golf carts scooting along on their own roadway.  They said there were 90 miles of paved roads for them, with 40 tunnels under the regular roads to avoid constant crossing in regular traffic.  Also, there are 40 golf courses and if you are a resident, then you are automatically a member of them all.  

We were impressed with how clean it all was and the landscaping was beautifully kept up.  Within the city limits were about 100 upscale restaurants.  There's lots of entertainment and things to do.  The residents should never be bored.  You can even take hundreds of college courses for a nominal fee.

We found the one hour free trolley tour was entertaining and informative.  (It even had padded seats and was air conditioned!)  I was expecting the Villages to be a kind of corny senior environment but found, instead, a creative and interesting place to socialize and develop talents and interests.  I think we both were quite impressed with what we saw today.

We had lunch at VKI Japanese Restaurant.  www.vkirestaurant.com  Stan had eaten Japanese before, but not I.  It was quite enjoyable...no sushi though!  see photo below

There are two shopping squares.  We shopped at Market Square today.   We had a great day there and are considering going back again...maybe a little shopping at Town Square/Spanish Springs next time.

Update:  We decided to return to Market Square again tonight, just for fun.  We found lots of people hanging out...shopping and enjoying a couple of live musicians at the gazebo.  We had a milkshake at Johnny Rockets, where we sat at an outside table and watched a young Jack Russell work his turf for tidbits of his owner's meal.