Dancing the Day Away
We love looking for fun places to go dance to live music! When we first started dancing, it was never easy trying to figure out where it was okay to dance. We looked for event locations that had websites showing people dancing, but we found that was actually pretty rare. It was also hard to even find details on where live music was! But experience made us a little bolder and now we look for new unique places and just give them a try! This is how we’ve found many of our favorites (including Lake City Pub!) and today’s new location- Mill Hause in Eatonville.
First Stop: Lemay Museum at Marymount
Today’s first stop was an event we’ve been trying to make for a couple years now- the Wine, Spirits, and Chocolate fest at the Lemay Car Museum at Marymount. The Lemay Car Museum is a local favorite, with some great unique exhibits. It made for an incredibly fun atmosphere to shop and taste some from local wineries. We actually went on both days, taking in all the sights, sounds, smells, and most importantly tastes, that the place had to offer! Many of these events choose to have local musicians play to add to that atmosphere. Unlike most restaurants where you pick a corner and work with the space you have; these event centers often have wide open space! Getting to dance without watching for tables or people that we could bump into is a special treat!
This is our first time without our videographer joining us (who also happens to be our daughter). We purchased a tripod for my (Zeek) phone so we could get it propped up to take videos while we dance. You can tell I am checking on it a couple times to make sure it stays up. But it works great and let us get perfect videos of us having a great time!
Because of how the event was set up, the band was almost in a separate room. While you could hear the music in the main space, this area was separated with tables for folks to take a break to eat and listen to music. But it meant there wasn’t a lot of activity in this room with the band. Grit City Pickers provided excellent music, and because people were congregated in the other space with vendors, we had a fun back and forth going with the band. It is always so nice to hear that others not only don’t mind that we dance, but actually enjoy seeing the liveliness it brings. At the end you can even hear us chatting and laughing with the band members.
Second Stop: Mill Haus Cider Co.
By the time we were done with day 2 of the Wine and Chocolate fest, we weren’t done with the day! I (Denice), was just a couple glasses in and feeling great. Neither of us were ready to call the evening over.
On our way out we discussed what was next, maybe one of our favorite bars in downtown. Zeek suggested Mill Haus Cider Co. out in Eatonville. We’d looked at this location a few times, but hadn’t ventured out yet due to not knowing much about it. But there was lots of daylight left in the afternoon, and we decided better now than never!
The location was great! And even the weather behaved which is rarely the case. Expertly curated grounds made for a welcoming and relaxing atmosphere where friends and families were enjoying the day sipping cider and playing games.
I (Denice) am not even normally a fan of cider… However, the Mill Haus cider was flavorful but dry and reminiscent to me of my favorite bubbly wine!
The food was great too! So great we forgot to get a picture before we thoroughly enjoyed every bite… We are still reminding ourselves that we are taking pictures of things like this for our blog. It is a new experience for everyone!
But just trust us and use your imagination to picture delicious grilled margarita flatbread with a honey drizzle. The flatbread plus the dry cider was a match made in Heaven!
But the best part, they had live music on the lawn! This local cider house has been having live music almost every night for months! And the place was filled up. We got a table towards the back at first and danced to a couple songs. Before long we spotted a table opening up towards the front. We grabbed our drinks and made our way to a better spot, right behind a wide-open grassy patch in front of the musician perfect for dancing.
Turns out we had gotten a seat right by the owner! He turned to us and told us excitedly that we were the first people who had danced there during the music. It still astounds us how rarely folks take advantage of spaces like this to get out and dance when there is live music. While we do practice regularly, we didn’t start dancing at this level. With even a little practice any couple can get up and have a great time dancing to live music. And with time and practice you can incorporate more fun moves and gain confidence!
It is great to hear this type of reception when we dance at places. While we don’t do it to entertain or gain attention, we love hearing that we are welcome and even add to the atmosphere and energy. The musician loved it too, just as Grit City Pickers had! We will definitely be back and can’t wait to bring some folks along!
So for now, cheers to getting out of our comfort zone and finding new great places to have a great time dancing the day away!