The Villages Town Squares

Many years ago we attended church in Wood River with Donna and Pete. They recently retired to Florida, and today we drove to Fruitland Park to visit them. They have a beautiful home there; we would love to have one like it some day. We look at a few homes in that area, then Pete drove us all to The Villages. In March Brenda and Woody showed us part of the Villages, but because we went to Goodwill first (which was an excellent decision), we didn't see the whole thing.

I don't actually think it's possible to see the whole thing in one day, so today Pete just drove us to the town squares. It turns out there are three town squares in The Villages. Each one is designed with a different theme, but all are based on the past. Brownwood Paddock Square has a Western motif. The movie theater is a great example; it's a barn, and the marque is an old-style water tower. 

And the performance stage in the center of the square is a log cabin!

The second town square is Lake Sumter Landing Market Square. Its theme is an old-fashioned waterfront landing, and the retail buildings are painted in soft beachfront colors of blue, pink and yellow. And although it's not near the ocean, it does have a waterfront landing, on Lake Sumter. To make the scene realistic they anchored some small boats in the water, and even crashed one of them against the dock.  

The attention to detail here is amazing. Even the power lines have old-fashioned glass insulators.

The third square is Spanish Springs Tower Square, representing an old Spanish town. Very pretty.

Our thanks to Donna and Pete for a wonderful day; they seemed to enjoy it even more than we did!