My favorite date with my wife, Christine, is a late afternoon picnic on the shores of East Lake Tohopekaliga (Toho for short), located in the northwest corner of Osceola County due east of the mouse house near Orlando, Florida.

Toho covers an area of 11,968 acres and is almost five miles in diameter and 70 feet at its deepest point, making it the second largest lake in the county right behind her twin sister, Lake Tohopekaliga near Kissimmee. Linked by 31 canals, both lakes are the hosts of numerous fishing tournaments.

Christine likes to prepare a dinner we can enjoy by the lake. So I put my portable USC Gamecock table in the trunk along with a couple of folding chairs and a cooler of my favorite brew, a Yuengling lager…and we are off for a picnic.

Others are cooking hotdogs, steaks, chicken, pork or hamburgers on one of the many grills that dot the two miles of lakefront area the park features, filling the air with the most glorious odors your mind can imagine. Picnic tables provide a grand setting for the meal and the view of the lake is simply spectacular.

The park area features a playground, a beach area, a pier, a boat dock, a marina, a restaurant, a volley ball area and a beautiful sandy beach for my sweet grandbabies, Ashley and Ava.

There are also a couple miles of walkway for skaters, joggers, sloggers (slow walkers), skate boarders, roller bladders, granddads pulling the little ones in wagons, moms pushing babies in strollers and bicyclists, just to name a few. Even an occasional elder woman will pass on her tricycle with her dog propped up in the front basket.

Today’s entertainment features some wind surfers in wet suits. I get my exercise by watching them and frankly, I am exhausted after 30 minutes of this. Maybe it has something to do with the Yuengling or the fact that I am usually up at 3:30 am each day. I am literally whipped by the day’s end.

On other days, we watch children racing electric, remote-control cars on the sand or a sail boat, power boat, Jet Ski, canoe, kayaker, paddle boarder, or fishermen in their john-boats in the distance. Birds and other wildlife are plentiful. Occasionally one finds me as his favorite target after a successful day of foraging. Once in a while, a gator pops his head up from the neighboring lake grass.

Another fun thing is to watch my grandbabies over at the playground. It is too cold for them to play in the water spouts that are nearby but during the summer, they will have their bathing suits and it will be fair game along with a dip in the lake.

My son Christopher (affectionately known as Gutt for understandable reasons) is a Registered Nurse by profession. However, he occasionally returns to his old gig, working with the City of St. Cloud Recreation Commission with their “Movie in the Park.” He uses his pickup truck to haul a huge screen out to the park and kids gather to watch the movie of the month, usually a Disney flick, under a star filled sky.

With Palm trees swaying against a sun-soaked, late afternoon sky, the setting is perfect for the little ones. Parents replace the sunscreen with bug spray and they are good to go. As the sun dives into the western sky, the flick begins. Every now and then, we get lucky and something special happens.

For instance, one night just as the movie ended, NASA was about to launch a rocket just 45 miles to the east of us. Gutt alertly pulled up the coverage on the internet on his laptop, allowing the folks to follow the countdown on the silver screen. When the launch lighted up the evening sky, it was glorious for all to see, as kids and parents cheered it on.

Such is the quality of life in St. Cloud, Florida, a quaint little community founded in 1909 by William G. King, who was a real estate manager from Alachua County. He was given the responsibility of locating and developing a town which was defined as a “Soldiers Colony” for retired soldiers.

The land was bought by the Seminole Land and Investment Company. Many of our streets are named after other states from which Civil War Veterans had served and they retain those names today. On June 1, 1915, the Florida Legislature incorporated St. Cloud as a city. Next time you visit Florida, come visit Toho!