Solomon's Castle

We traveled to Ona, FL (Population 739)  yesterday to visit a castle in the middle of a swamp.  There is not much of anything in Ona but Solomon's Castle.  Solomon's Castle was created by Howard S Solomon, King of his Castle, built in 1974 when he bought a piece of property literally in the middle of no where.  He did not realize at the time that most of the land was swamp so in order to built a big house he would have to build up not out.  So he built his castle to be 60 ft tall and 12,000 square feet.  In the castle is the living quarters, a bed & breakfast, Stained glass studio, main entrance hall, galleries exhibiting Solomon's "found object" sculptures, gardens and a nature trail.  Solomon is a very creative man and uses anything for his creations.  He is a very talented Stained Glass artist.  There are over 80 stained glass window in the castle and the outside of the castle is covered by printing plates that were discarded by the local weekly newspaper.  This is what makes the castle shine!  He built a boat in his moat and it became the Boat in a Moat restaurant.  We had lunch there and it was pretty good.  Tim had a pulled pork sandwich and I had chicken salad.  Like I said, it was alright but the prices are very reasonable especially since it is the only place to eat.  They do have homemade pies that looked good.  I loved what he called the restrooms "Rooms to go".  The staff is very friendly and Solomon and his wife love to socialize with their guests. 
It was a fun way to kill a few hours.
Today is a travel day.  We are headed to Clermont, FL where we will be staying for two weeks.  Of course we will be going to Disneyworld a couple of times and I am sure we will work in Downtown Disney too.  There are a few other "touristy" things I want to do in Kissimmee while we are there.  Tim is going to take a couple of days to do some general maintenance on the RV so we will have some down time too.  I like the Clermont area after all, there is nothing better than listening to the nightly fireworks from the Disney parks.  Sometimes you even get a climps of them too!