A good day at Mt. Dora with Esherick and Nakashima

Today we joined Pete and Donna to visit Mt. Dora, where the first order of business was lunch. We decided to try the Cuban "Las Palmas" restaurant, mostly because it was close to where we parked. Donna's cheeseburger and Pete's and my Cuban sandwiches were pretty good, but Randy got the best lunch. The sweet plantains, fried onion rings, and mixed rice were tasty, but the pork hiding under all those grilled onions was amazing!

Then we went to the Modernism Museum, where I was very disappointed that they don't allow pictures. Bummer. We were there to see their display of Esherick and Nakashima wood pieces, with a little Wendel Castle in the corner. 

Wendel Castle didn't move me. My thought was that they would fit right into the movie Beetlejuice, either as furniture or as Delia Deetz's "art". 

Wharton Escherick considered his wood pieces as art first and furniture second so I don't know how practical they were, but they were all very beautiful. He made a lot of chairs and cabinets, but he is probably most famous for his big staircases.

George Nakashima's pieces were a little sterile looking, except for his big tables, which were absolutely gorgeous. He used large book-cut slabs of beautiful woods with natural shapes, joined them with perfectly-inserted butterfly joints of contrasting wood, and polished the whole thing to a natural-looking shine. They were amazing!

Afterwards Donna and I walked through part of the town, looking into the cute shops, but we didn't find anything we couldn't live without. So we met the guys back at the car and went home, stopping at Sonic for something cold to drink along the way.  What a good day.