We freshened up after our Legoland visit and drove from Winter Haven to Lakeland, Florida. We went to Skate World to meet up with my cousin, Chanel. A little about Skate World- when I was a baby, my paternal grandfather bought and opened a skating rink and named it Skate World. My parents worked there when I was born. I was skating by age 2! A few years later, my Uncle Adonis bought the rink from my grandfather. Uncle Adonis was Chanel’s father. When I was a teenager I’d spend the summers in Lakeland and work at the rink. It was SO MUCH FUN!!! Back then there was orange and blue shag carpet on the walls and orange booths, also a real DJ booth where the DJs would spin actual records. During our breaks between skate sessions we’d play all the classic video games like Centipede and Ms Pac Man. It was an 80s DREAM!!! Uncle Adonis created a safe place for teens to hang out and became a beloved fixture in the community.
Sadly, Uncle Adonis passed away quite a few years ago. Chanel, his daughter, took over the rink and in recent years did a big renovation on the building. I was SO excited to see the rink and show CSP the updates!
The rink was closed as they had just wrapped up a private party, so Chanel gave us a private, VIP tour. It looks AMAZING!!!! I’m so proud of her! It’s so modern and bright and fun!!!
All new neutral booths! No more shag carpet on the walls!
The skate floor!
The game room is so modern now. No more quarters needed!
The prize counter.
The party room with standard lighting…. and below- with the black lights!!!
Chanel designed the wall mural too. SO cool!!!
After our tour we went to dinner with Chanel at Spice Thai. SO yummy! We spent over 2 hours catching up. It was a lot of fun and was so good to spend time with my cousin!
After dinner we drove back to Winter Haven and our hotel for bed. Tomorrow…. WILD Florida!!!
Bless Your Heart 