We drove about an hour down the road from Lake Wales to Plant City, FL - home of the Strawberry Festival and in the heart of strawberry growing country. Everywhere we drive are acres and acres of ripe, red strawberries hanging on their vines over elevated and irrigated rows of plastic covered dirt.
We got here in time for the last weekend of the Strawberry Festival! John just could not wait to take me to the festival grounds and to eat strawberry shortcake! (if you believe that, then you don’t know John very well - wink, wink!) It was a lot like going to the Missouri State Fair except that there were fewer cows and lots more food concessions with about every other one selling something with strawberries. There were strawberry shortcakes, pies & shakes, strawberry hamburgers, chocolate dipped strawberries, strawberry sodas, jams and candy. There were strawberry themed displays, strawberry shoe-box floats and a strawberry King and Queen. Of course, we walked down the carnival midway and perused the many booths selling ‘stuff’ just like any fair. The music venues featured country western music and tribute bands. We spent a whopping 3 hours and then said “This is enough!"
Plant City has a nice train museum right on two active tracks that cross at a 90º angle on two sides of the building. A specially built viewing platform draws a lot of visitors. This is the only place in the state where train tracks cross in five different directions. We tried a Florida winery which didn’t have any grape-based wines only blueberry, strawberry or key lime wines as well as their own brewery. The beers weren’t too bad except for one that was jalapeño and blueberry flavored - I almost spit it out onto the floor! OMG - it was horrible! According to Trip Advisor one of the cannot miss places to visit in Plant City was an outdoor market where you could buy fresh fruits (yes strawberries), vegetables and strawberry shortcake.
Just thinking about all those strawberries is making me hungry for shortcake!!
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