Leu Gardens

Leu Gardens

Exploring in my own backyard

Xamara Duarte

August 2, 2013

Movie Date Night

Like a mass migration, everybody was walking at different speeds, but all with their beach chairs, blankets, coolers and more to be at once by the largest outdoor screen in Orlando, to watch the "The Vow" for a date night under the stars.  We were part of the hundreds that wanted to take advantage of that once-a-month perfect romantic night. Being our first time, we did not know how popular this activity was among our neighbors, so we took our time getting there, thinking that just being on time at 8:30pm, the time that the movie was supposed to start, was sufficient.  But after seeing the avalanche of people walking to the park we concluded that being on time wasn't good enough! The parking lot at Leu Gardens for non-members was full, so the instruction given to us was to park on the streets close by.  The only problem was that there was no parking anywhere close to the gardens. While we were looking desperately for a parking space, we kept seeing more and more people walking towards the gardens with all the needed equipment.   Suddenly our little romantic adventure close to home begins to shift in another direction.  We even thought of leaving, but I insisted that we keep going. Now the curiosity invaded me and I wanted to know why so many people were here.  Is it worth the trouble for a romantic night? I was wondering if it really was going to be that romantic. Finally we found a parking space and after walking a while, sweating and fighting with bugs in the humid warm night we got to our destination around 15 minutes after the movie started. The place was packed! At that moment we started a new adventure of finding a place to open our beach chairs and the bottle of wine. Once we sat down I was exhausted.  After taking a deep breath, I looked around; all these people, under the stars, on their blankets like they were the only ones, opening their  bottle of wine, cuddling while watching the movie-it was so perfect that not even the heat and bugs could ruin their romantic night. For us, well, we joined the group and enjoyed our night too.  Next time we will be there early enough to make sure that it will be a perfect night for us too.

There is much to see and do at Leu Gardens.  For more information, and other activities, you may visit their website and look at their calendar. www.leugardens.org

xamlinnette