Innnnverness, Florida

My brother and his family flew to Florida for a week this past Easter. They stayed at Disney and spent most of their time there, but they did take a day trip up to our old home town of Inverness, where we grew up. (Not to be confused with Invernesssss, Scotland - where the emphasis is at the end of the word, not the start.)

While he was there he drove past our old house on Inverness Blvd. I was kind of half expecting it to have been bulldozed and replaced by a new house by now, but it's still there. He said it was pretty sad, the front porch was full of junk and it looked awful. Here's a picture he took from the woods across the road (I think he was afraid they might come out with a shotgun if they saw him taking photographs).

It was never the nicest house to be honest, but I grew up there and I have a lot of fond memories of the place. I can still imagine the old gold Chevy Malibu parked out front on the grass, and the basketball hoop and horseshoe pit in the back yard.

He also drove past the old Crown Hotel, where he and I and my Dad used to work, and where Dom, Wayne and I stayed in 2000 for our 10 year reunion. It still looks pretty good, although it's no longer the 'Crown Hotel'. It's now a retirement home called 'Crown Court'. Well, at least they kept part of the name, guess it made sense. I wonder if they still have the replica crown jewels in there. Hmm.