Category Archives: animals
Gatorland
Gatorland was certainly a high point for the trip. Between you and me, my young guests said they liked it better than Animal Kingdom!
Gatorland gets you up close and personal and if you are into big lizards there are certainly enough gators and crocodiles to satisfy all.
Besides the gator wrestling show you have a chance to sit on a real gator in the ring just as if you were doing the wrestling. Of course your gator has his jaws taped shut for safely.
There’s also the feeding frenzy where handlers hand feed the big gators and even a few crocs. They send chicken carcasses on lines out over the gator pond to encourage the animals to jump for their meal.
Other gator ponds are open to feeding by the guests. You buy a package of hot dogs and break off pieces to throw into the ponds near the gators.
You try to get the hot dogs close to the gators because the birds will steal the bits right out of the gators’ mouths. They seem to have no fear.
The Secret Garden
You may have noticed the dolphin in my header photo. I bet you wondered what that had to do with January/February . You’re right, its no refection on Valentine’s Day or any other January/February holiday but it is from the Vegas trip.
Ok Next question. We’re in the desert. Where did a dolphin come in?
Well we had a lot of exploring to do on Monday. It ‘s our last full day in Vegas. We started the day off at the Hash House A Go Go again. Location and convenience counts for something. I skipped the pancake this time but tried the waffle. Not bad but the waffles at the Sheraton in San Diego were better.
After eating too much at breakfast we headed to the Mirage. For a desert, there’s sure a lot of water here.
In the Mirage was the Secret Garden. The full name is Siegfried and Roy’s Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat. There are 3 interconnected pools and the dolphins can be found in any of the pools. You can also do “downstairs” and watch through viewing windows. There’s no show per se but the dolphins are trained to perform some behaviors so the biologists can observe them.
I spend quite a bit of time watching the dolphins while JR went on to explore the rest of the Gardens. He found the Big Cats. He led me through the gateway to huge cages where retired cats from Siegfried and Roy’s shows now reside in leisure.
They appeared to be well taken care of but they looked sad to us. Still if they were free in the wild they’d be dead by now. Wild Big Cats just don’t live to be 20 years old. 🙁 We took most of the morning among the animals and then it was time to move along.
Vacation Planning
Ever wonder how I come up with my ideas for vacation? A former co-worker said she couldn’t imagine the things I’ve done and plan to do! Poor thing must not have much of an imagination because if anything, I have too many things I want to see and do.
I thought of this because my most recent issue of “Vacations” just arrived. What’s the Headline title? 83 Great Escapes for 2015! 83! Imagine that. If I were even interested in half it would take more than 1 year!
So lets see if there’s anything interesting on the list.
How about a tour of Costa Rica where you can visit a cloud forest, a volcano or a coral sea reef?
Back on the Big Island of Hawaii we could snorkel with the Manta Rays on the Kona side of the Island.
Or a river cruise up the Amazon.
Train ride…The Rocky Mountaineer crosses the Canadian Rockies with 5 routes to choose from. A Globus (that’s a tour company) offers a nine day trip from Denver to New Mexico and Colorado. Along the way you ride vintage railroads including the Durango & Silverton and the Pike’s Peak Cog Railroad!
Galapagos made their list and it’s on mine too. Some day I’ll get there!
For photographers…face off with a Bengal tiger or catch colorful clouds of butterflies. Natural Habitat Adventures helps capture these moments.
I don’t know who I was talking to recently but they said they had been to Alaska and to Yellowstone and they saw more bear at Yellowstone than they did in Alaska.
Another place I get ideas is from the news. This morning NECN (our local news station) ran a short story about an ice castle in New Hampshire. The castle is an acre in size and features tunnels, archways, an ice slide, glacial waterfalls and colored lights.
I want to see this! It’s a hike up to Lincoln NH. I vacationed there once and to appreciate the lights I’m guessing you go at night. More research is needed. I will keep you posted!
So I get vacation ideas everywhere, from a chance conversation to a 60 second news bite. A magazine cover might catch my eye or a story in AAA Horizons. The ideas are endless!
Let The Owl Prowl Begin
We pulled out of the parking lot onto a posted dirt road. The first 100 yards or so weren’t too bad but once that ran out you understood why you needed a 4 Wheel Drive to navigate. As we bumped and bounced from pot hole to pot hole we all laughed about the damage we must be doing to the suspension on the vans.
We were traveling along a narrow peninsula that runs from Duxbury to Plymouth. At the tip is Gurnet Light marking the entrance to Plymouth Bay. The homes located out here are all private and access is restricted. The length of the peninsula from the Powder Point Bridge to Gurnet Light is about 5 miles.
We hadn’t gone too far when Dave pulled off the road into a little turnout. He told us all to get out of the van while he ran around to the back to take out a spotting scope. Sally’s van was pulled up behind ours and she was busy getting out another scope. Once they were set up Dave told us to take a look. A snowy was sitting on the bank of ice with the water just behind him. Without the scope it was really hard to see the little fella. Dave confessed that he knew it was there because they had seen it that morning when it caught a duck for its breakfast. He’d checked just before he picked us up to be sure it was still there. It was a long way out but the scopes really made it pop out. My best guess photo wasn’t so hot.
Can you tell which snow chunk is the owl? He’s just left of the building in the background.
Here it is a MAXIMUM ..that gray blotch is the owl. He was much clearer in the spotting scope.
We stayed there taking turns with the spotting scopes until some of the less hardy souls began to drift back to the van. Once about half of us had left Dave announced it was time to move on.
Back in the van Dave was chatting about the owl when he spotted 3 little birds setting down in the grass on the dune. While he was concentrating on that I let out a shout..HAWK!. It was diving right toward us! It wanted one of those little birds for lunch. They took off and the hawk swooped right past us, Dave identified it as a Cooper’s Hawk. That was exciting. Almost as good as seeing the Snowy.
A bit further on we stopped and piled out of the van again. This time the spotting scope showed us a flock of snow buntings scratching in the dune sand for seeds.
They paid no attention to us and once again we watched until about half of our group had returned to the van. Still no great photo ops except for the scenery but I was having fun.