Category Archives: Florida

Always Something

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It won’t be long now before I’ll be in the air and winging my was south to warm weather. My 2nd annual winter migration to escape the snow and cold of New England. Cat sitter has been secured. Extra cat food, treats and kitty litter brought in so at least the furry children will be well cared for in my absence.

My own preparations have been a teeny bit more challenging. My tripod wouldn’t fit in my suitcase. Why bother you ask? Because the 2nd half of my trip is the Florida Everglades and if I want to use my telephoto lenses I need a tripod for stability. I haven’t mastered the monopod yet but it makes a great walking stick. So it was off to the store to find a 27 inch suitcase instead of my 25 inch.

Next step was to log onto Carnival Cruise line’s web page to do my online check in and set up my “on board account”. Carnival is “cashless” while on board. That part actually went pretty smooth until I got to the part where I had to print the documents. The luggage tags printed , the cruise documents printed but not the boarding pass.

I thought it might be because my sailing partner had not set up his on board account yet so I sent an email off to him to get going on his docs. Good thing I did. Apparently the Carnival web site has issues. When he tried to access his booking it told him there was a problem and to book again. As he struggled with Carnival I went back into my account and could now print my boarding pass so I was all set. Not so my buddy. It was 2 full days before they told him the problem was corrected. I haven’t heard yet if it really was.

Tomorrow I’ll check my flight to see if that’s all set and finish packing…carefully…so I don’t get a furry stow away.

To be continued…..

I can’t believe it’s April!

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I can’t believe its April 9 already. April Fool’s Day is behind us. Passover was Friday and Sunday was Easter and it’s still cold! After that mild winter I thought we’d be in a heat wave by now. At least it’s been sunny most days.

Still the problem with that is that now we’re having brush fires. The fire danger alerts are all at critical…in the red! And it’s only April! Some of the area is considered to be  in a drought because there was no snow melt and, in stark contrast to the spring of 2010 when it rained so much we had flooding everywhere, each day now dawns nice and sunny. A few passing clouds may drop a few sprinkles but nothing near to what’s needed to wet down the soil and brushland. This is New England! Not Texas or Arizona which have been struggling with drought for the last few years. What is going on with the weather?

I feel like I’ve been neglecting this blog a bit since I came back from Florida. Trying to launch my little side business has been time-consuming. I have to laugh because I set up that little store at dustyroadsphotos.etsy.com and I am getting visitors to the site but so far no orders. What I’m finding is it’s all local folks that are checking it out to choose the cards they want and then they just tell me. That’s ok by me but I hope the word starts to spread beyond my “inner circle”.

I’m going to be adding custom decorator  pillows and some prints to the line. I’m waiting to get my sewing machines back from the shop. I hadn’t done much sewing in the past few years so I wanted to have the machines cleaned and checked before I tried using them again. I am really excited about this idea so am quite anxious to get started.

When I was in Florida I was given a 4 day cruise for 2  from my time share. There were two hitches. 1) I have to pay the port fees (around $185.00 per person) and 2) The cruise has to be used within 18 months. I’ve been toying around with my schedule and vacation time and so on and  I’m going to try to secure a date for next January. My friend Joe aka JR will be by cruise companion. We’ll be leaving from the Port of Miami and going to Cozumel. Once this is actually booked I’ll share more info on the itinerary.

I just got approved for some time off in July so I’m going to take a mini vacation in Maine. Just have to book the hotel. I’m looking at Portland as my “Base camp” for the 4 day get-away.

Late September is also in the works. I have approved vacation then to go to upstate New York to visit family and friends. There’s a hot air balloon festival in Glens Falls the weekend I’m going and my sister mentioned the Scenic Railroad trip through the Adirondacks. It’s still early in the planning stages.

And the Big Alaska Cruise is back in the works. Goal for that is now May/early June of 2013. We want to see baby animals so spring is the time for that.

So as you can see, there is some travel in the planning stages. My local jaunts have been curtailed a little by car issues and the demands of the new  business but that was to be expected. Still I love my aroundustyroads.com blog and don’t want to neglect you either.

Thanks for hanging in with me during this slow posting period.

Epcot

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My visit to the sunshine state is winding down. Tomorrow morning I’ll be winging my way back to Providence and home. It’s been a full and fun vacation filled with new experiences. But there’s still one more evening before I pack up and leave and I’ll be spending  it at Disney in the Epcot Park with my good friend Joe.

It was just about sunset when we reached Epcot. My old legs and feet were complaining but Joe promised I would not be disappointed.

Epcot is different from the other parks. It’s more adult or maybe sophisticated is what I’m looking for. It’s educational.

We admired the fountains and what I like to call the Epcot Golf Ball as the twilight deepened.

 We passed the Nemo exhibit which has a fun little ride where you learn about the sea.

My favorite Sea Gulls must have been motion activated because they set off a chorus of “Mine, Mine, Mine” whenever anyone passed by.

They even have a Manatee in a huge tank.

We went on a futuristic ride that was a gentle coaster through the millenia. You get to see the timeline of human advancement. It was a really good ride. In the beginning you enter some basic information about yourself into the console computer. At the end of the ride you see yourself on a huge map of the world based on the information you entered.

At Epcot you get to visit many different countries in the world. Each little section is created to replicate a small section of the country you are exploring. We were working our way to “France” for dinner because I wanted escargot.

The wait at the restaurant wasn’t too long. It was very loud inside. I kept asking our poor waiter to repeat himself. He thought it was his accent. I still say it was the noise level. But speaking of accent each waiter was really from France so their accents were authentic.  Their name tags not only gave their names but also where they were from in France.

The waiter recommended a nice Merlot wine. It was  very expensive even for a glass but we are in France are we not? So of course , mais oui, I will have a glass. It was exquisite! So smooth. It was like silk!

I got my escargot in a light garlic and white wine sauce for an appetizer and chicken for my main course. Everything was wonderful. We skipped dessert as Joe wanted to go to Germany for that.  We strolled along the lighted streets passing from one country to another. I think we finally stopped at the Swedish kiosk for hot chocolate and a pastry. I passed even though they looked wonderful.

By then it was about 8:30. The fireworks would begin around 9pm so we began to look for seats along the waterfront. Even with a slow week, any seats were going to fill in quickly.

Before the show started the lights were lowered on the streets and huge torches around the lake were lit.

The buildings were outlined in lights as well. This alone was beautiful. Then minutes before the fireworks started the torches went dark as well.

Bam! The first volley was off and for the next 30 minutes the lake surface and sky above it were filled with lights and flashes and smoke.

At the end of the show the park closed so everyone made their way back to the tram for the ride back to the parking lot. Seems so long ago we parked the car and entered another world.

We had one more stop to make. We’d been looking all week for a couple of gifts for my friend’s children and we hadn’t been able to locate them. We were going give it one more try at Downtown Disney. It would be our last chance.

We almost missed Buzz again but as we passed the display I somehow spotted the words “talks” on the box. Joe was ahead of me but returned when I called out that I thought I had one.  Now we just needed the Princess. Joe led me to rack after rack of Cinderellas, Snow Whites, Rapunzels and Ariels. It was almost overwhelming. I selected a Barbie Sized doll and crossed my fingers that it would be the right one.

We’d been in this store 3 times looking so I don’t know how we missed them before but we could now put Mission Accomplished to this search. A perfect end to a great vacation.

Animal Kingdom ~ A Few More Pictures

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As I mentioned in my last post on Animal Kingdom, I love this park. As a result I took loads of pictures here. I couldn’t fit them all in the last post so here’s a few I skipped.

I have to thank Joe for some of these pictures.

 I may have taken them but he’s the one who saved the day. I always carry an extra camera battery and SD cards. I brought both with me to Animal Kingdom but in an effort to travel “light” I left my camera case in the car. You guessed it. I filled my card and didn’t have another one with me! My extra cards were in my camera bag back in the parking lot! Joe saved the day because he had a pocketful of them. Thanks Joe. I wouldn’t have half these shots if you hadn’t come through!

We passed Pelicans on the safari.

But there were lots more birds in the aviary. As you can see, they have first class bird houses.

We also made a detour to Dino land.

Here are a few more shots from the Lion King.

And Finding Nemo

Anyone  want to wrestle a Komodo Dragon? It’s real not a statue even if it stayed pretty still.

Another Tiger stalked the grounds.

One look at these riders on the Mt Everest Coaster and you can see why I stayed on the ground! 🙂

Animal Kingdom, My favorite Disney Park

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No offence to Minnie & Mickey’s Magic Kingdom or Adventure Land or any of the other parks in the Disney World universe but I love, love, love Animal Kingdom. The only thing I would like better is if the safari ride was longer.

In fact I would just spend the day riding it over and over but Joe wasn’t buying that.

We actually met up at my condo so we could use just 1 car. We checked out the breakfast buffet at Sizzler…only $4.99 and quite extensive and then it was off to the parks. On the way we stopped in front of the big Disney World Sign so for a photo opportunity.

 Of course there were signs everywhere that said  “No Stopping” but I just pretended I couldn’t read. Joe did the honors.

Once in the parking lot we hopped on the tram for the trip to the park.

As we were entering Joe spotted some of his co-workers and stopped for a chat. He  spent a “tour of duty” in Animal Kingdom before he was moved to the photography cast and assigned to the Hollywood Studios Park.

We wandered the various “countries” looking a the different animals. I loved the tigers but they weren’t being the most cooperative for pictures. I managed to get a couple through the glass side of the enclosure.

What gorgeous cats.

The bird aviery was really cool too but finally we reached the  Safari Ride.

 Joe was right about it being a slow week. We had no line. The trucks were going out without being full.

I was on the right side of the truck on this ride and it seemed like all the cool animals were on the left. Just my luck.

 There were hippos and crocodiles..or was it alligators, I forget which, pelicans, rhinos, giraffes, spring bok, wildebeest and other antelope and lions. Of course lions. What kind of safari would it be without the “King”?

And yes, Hippos do get sunburned.

You had to shoot fast because the truck doesn’t stop so good shots were a challenge with the motion of the truck exaggerating camera shake.

After the safari Joe said it was time for a show. We headed across the park to the theater where the show The Lion King Celebration was presented. We got  some pretty good seats. Loved the music! Hakuna Matata! The sets were amazing as only Disney can pull off!

Lunch time and we visited the open air snack bar. We both opted for Sweet and Sour Chicken. Not bad for fast food.

 There were birds every where begging for tid-bits and snatching up dropped food. A mother duck and her brood were trying to get from the pond to the picnic area but a cast member kept shooing them back to the water. They were very persistent.

The chimps were really going all out in their enclosures. Swinging around the tower in the center of the enclosure. That was pretty amazing to see.

About that time Joe said it was time to go see Finding Nemo the Musical. Ok so we were off to another show. This was just as good as the Lion King. The funny thing is that if Joe hadn’t been with me and insisted we go, I would have skipped both shows in favor of the real live animals and that would have been a shame. Both are outstanding shows and worth taking the time to see.

I saw the Mt Everest coaster ride but was content to just watch and of course there was a parade! 🙂

Animal Kingdom closes at 5pm and the afternoon was winding down. I begged one more ride on the Safari. When we got there it was almost empty but once again my place in line was about to put me on the right side  in the truck. I asked the gate attendant if I could please sit on the left. Since it was slow he said yes and directed me to a different row.

This time our driver actually stopped to give us time to take pictures of the animals. I am sure it was because it was the end of the day and not many people were taking the ride. He didn’t have to worry about a little delay.

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After this ride it was time to leave this park but we weren’t finished with Disney yet. We were headed over to Epcot for dinner and to see one more night of fireworks.