The homes are amazing, with the large gardens. Oh Royal English Swans now that's special indeed. Oh you were high school sweethearts, that's so lovely. The ongoing family links and history is lovely. You have 'sold' Lakeland beautifully. The city promotions office needs to send you flowers and say thank you. Isn't building art wonderful...I love it. So enjoyed all the local information and historical events. Loved you enthusiasm Cara. 🤩 🙏 🇳🇿 🙋♀️ 🇳🇱
What a beautiful area to live! You showed us some fabulous historic houses. Good old Queen Elizabeth donating the Adam and Eve of swans to your neighborhood! 👍😃 Love the cute school photos of you both 💕 and hearing about how you met. Wow, what great memories of the music venue you have. Thank you for sharing all this with us. It was such a fun and informative video 😊❤
You were an adorable couple back in the day, and you are an adorable couple now! I'm from Florida, and love Lakeland and Polk County. Thanks for this video. Kudos.
I have a son that attends Florida Polytechnic University and had the opportunity to spend some time. We are also considering relocating to Central Florida and Lakeland is at the top of the list. Really enjoyed your tour and your personal history. 😊
@@JohnandCaraRetiredTravellers That is Awesome. I have been here most of my life.and thank you for sharing your videos I love here but I love watching them you both do a Awesome job be safe out there God Bless
We're so sorry we're tardy this week John and Cara!!! Loved seeing Florida through your eyes as a fellow Floridian! One of our favorite surprises when traveling home from Tampa one day was stopping into the downtown of Lakeland. Such a beautiful place and the lakes were so nice!
@@JohnandCaraRetiredTravellers we would love that!!! We’re just hunkering down past the craziness. Thankfully we both work from home so we’re just trying not to get sick.
What a cool tour of your hometown! The weather is so similar to here in Durban 😅 Loved seeing your schools and the cute flashback photo of you two 🥰 Looks like a beautiful city to live in!
Lakeland looks like a really lovely place to live, my cousin and her husband lived there for a few years and I can see now why she said she was sad to leave.
Very nice video. I’m originally from Lakeland, born in the early 1950’s and lived there until I relocated for work in 1977. Lakeland holds a special place for me and will always be home. Many similar things with you both. I met my wife when we were at LHS. She worked at the public library after school. I went to Lakeland junior high and she went to SW middle school. I remember as a kid getting nickel cherry cokes at the Kress soda fountain. We had many date nights at the Polk theater. My older sister went to the Elvis concert at the Polk theater. My wife was in a couple of plays at the Lakeland little theater. I lived off lake hunter and she off lake Hollingsworth. I’ve driven by Dixieland elementary probably hundreds of times. My family has worked for Publix and I went shopping at south gate many times. So many more but I will stop here. Now living in north Florida.
Bob thank you for watching and sharing your memories with us. Hope our video brought you back to those fond memories. We did cover most of the areas you mentioned. ~ Cara 😊
Enjoyed your tour of Lakeland John and Cara. the weather sounds lovely and the city beautiful! We enjoyed seeing you wearing one of Anna and Trevor's sweatshirts. You know that's where we first met you. In one of their live streams. Seems to be plenty to do and we loved seeing the Polk Theater where Tommy Dorsey, Elvis and John played! We also love community theater and support ours here in town. As we said beore we loved the tour. Thanks so much for bringing us along!
Hi, sorry I'm late in responding just seeing this comment! That's funny we love Anna & Trevor they are a huge inspiration. Thank you so much for watching if you find yourselves in our town let us know we'd love to give you a personal tour!
Amazing place, next time i spend some time in Florida, i will have to visit Lakeland. Very good presentation and thanks for sharing.. like 39. Have a beautiful week.
Hey again guys! YES show us your beautiful backyard - I've never seen much about Florida before. Lakeland looks absolutely beautiful - and so accessible to all those amazing places. Aww you guys have such a connection to all those schools and you've known each other SINCE THE 7th/8th grade!? OH MY GOODNESS! I thought I recognised that sign and carpark and it turns out I've seen both of those movies before. You have so many connections to Lakeland, it's so wonderful. Your love of this place is so infectious - it's making me want to move there haha. Thanks so much for taking us around!!
Enjoyed the video. You guys’ “kids” pictures added a nice touch for me and my family. Seems like a very nice town. My sister lives in the Destin area and as a native Houstonian, I don’t mind the Florida heat or humidity.
Guys, this was such a great and informative video!! We love visiting Florida and have been all around Lakeland, but never there! Now I'm bummed. Mostly, love your family history there. How cool that you two have known each other since grade school💞 Loved the pictures of you guys from those days💕 I'm so jealous that you got to see Elvis!! But more jealous over your sweatshirt 😜😜 Wonder if they ship to Italy 🤔 Love the Delightful Travelers 💞 This was such a fun video, honestly. Can't wait for your next adventure! 💞🇮🇹 Debbie
the best thing I did was move from this city nothing to do, I live in Hallandale Beach Fl which is close to Miami and Hollywood Beach Fl the night life is great it's a lot of jobs that's available and paying good.
I can't believe in your description you never mentioned that Lakeland is where the Detroit Tigers have their spring training, the Famous black swans of Lake Morton, the great small museum , or the wonderful formal garden on Mirror Lake.
In the video we talk about the history and show the swans filming on Lake Morton as well at as the Hollis gardens on Lake Mirror. We did not get the opportunity to head north to the Tigers training field. ~Cara 😊
Lake Parker ia a beautiful park too. Very soon a new park will be open Bonnet Spring Park. Also, Lakeland has several Christian Privet schools! Thank you for your presentation!
Thank you Paul, it’s funny before Lake Parker had an official park John & I would visit there and fish. Yes, our son was Valedictorian of his class at Geneva Classical Academy in Lakeland. We love this school. There are so many choices which I think is appealing to many new residents. Thank you so much for your comment and watching! ~Cara 😊
Thank you for watching! John is from Berea OH, about 20 miles from Cleveland Heights OH! We love Ohio and the Cleveland area. Appreciate your support! ~Cara 😊
Kelly and I loved this video. It brought back so many memories. By the way, I work at Southgate Publix so it was nice to see that in your video. Kelly remembers when you went to go see Elvis. I also was at the Kiss concert when Ace Frehley electrocuted himself on stage but I didn't know the song "Shock Me" was about that night. Lots and lots of good memories about our town that we dearly love. For the longest time I've been waiting on a video about Lakeland because I knew that it would be well done...Scott and Kelly
Thank you both so much!! It was fun to make and honesty one of the longest videos to create! I had so much more to share but it would have been an hour! 🤣. It was fun going to all the “back in the day” places. I didn’t know you worked at our Publix we’ll have to look for you next time! Thanks for your support. ~Cara 😊
Hi Cara. I’m a friend of Wills & Rachel’s from the Chicago area. I didn’t know you had a channel. They should have promoted it! My first time in Lakeland was 1981. I played Lakeland College in a baseball game and took a fastball to the mouth. 16 stitches and all day at the hospital. That’s my memory of Lakeland! 😂🤣
As a person that grew up in Lakeland I don't see why everyone wants to move here besides we have the best sheriff in the world! Lakeland can be great as long as you avoid the West side and Combee road! But everyone moving here is making people like me who grew up here but be able to afford to live! I've always thought there isn't anything to do here but maybe that's because I'm from here and bored 😂
Appreciate you watching! I’m a second generation Lakeland’er, but also being military we moved around the world for 35 years. Moved back after retirement. There’s no place like home and I hope we were able to highlight some of the positives of Lakeland. ~Cara 😊
Years ago I worked on an environmental job there in about 1998. I think the name of it was mulberry phosphate. I could be wrong. Anyway I might have missed out because I don’t remember it being as nice as you’re now portraying it. Albeit we did rent a nice house in a gated community. Had a lake at the back of the house. I
Hi Tom. They have done an amazing job over the last 20 years restoring the downtown. Yes the phosphate industry was (still could be not sure) a large part of the economy. Mulberry is south of Lakeland. Today the cities have merged with growth, you drive down S.Florida where there once was pastures and don’t realize you’ve reached Mulberry. Thank you for watching. Appreciate your comment. ~ Cara 😊
It certainly can be, there are many golf course communities etc. There are also many large corporations like Publix, Amazon Geico etc for job opportunities. ~Cara 😊
@@Maria-fz1mu absolutely! There are colleges & universities, community theatre, nightlife, restaurants close to gulf coast beaches, Walt Disney and other attractions. 😊
Ha! We had jumpers on mostly because the wind was chilly in the morning and evening taping. We started about 8 am & it was chilly. We were comfortable, but did put the A/C on in the car. Appreciate you watching! ~Cara 😊
Wow what a beautiful highschool girl! John would have had a problem with me about you if we went to the same school. I moved like the Greatest of all times (Muhammad Ali) during those days.😂😂😂😂😂😂
