Third blog

This is the house we toured. It was pretty nice in the inside, but I really liked the porches best.

We saw this building while we were driving. I thought it was broken, but it was built to look like it had fallen from the sky and landed upside down. If you look close you can see the light fixtures, windows, porch, and trees are upside down. That was certainly a surprise to see while driving down the street.

After the tour we went to the Cheesecake Factory (my first time) and this is what I ordered. It was a chicken dish of some kind and it was really good. I figured you all would be impressed that I ate something exotic. Isn't it pretty? Then Patty and I got one slice of cheesecake and took it home and had half last night and the other half tonight.

Here is the bald eagle we saw on the airboat ride. He was awesome.

We are playing cards now and having a drink and taking it easy. If it is not raining tomorrow Patty and I will go to Epcot Center and if it is raining then I am not sure what we will do, but I am sure we will find something to do.

Alligators and Flowers, cont.

We went to the Henry Leu Gardens and the azaleas were starting to bloom, but the camillas (is that right?) were blooming and they were just beautiful. Here are a few shots along with a working flower clock that was on the grounds. We also toured a historic home on the grounds that was very interesting.

We just got back from Cirque du Soleil and that was absolutely wonderful. There were four little girls that did an incredible job and there was so much going on on the stage that it was hard to follow it all. I would go again. Will send another blog with a pic of the eagle and a plate of food you all won't believe I ate.

Alligators and Flowers

I am not sure how this is going to work out, but I am going to do two blogs because I can only download so many images at a time (especially since I don't have D'Lynn helping me). These pictures are from Wed. morning when Patty and I went on an airboat ride through the swamps of Lake Kissammee (Margaret didn't go because she had already done one). We almost didn't get to go because of rain and they even called to tell us that it was pouring where we were going (one hour away), but we were so close that we decided to go on and at least look at the place and then it stopped raining and we were able to go after all. We took the 1 hour 30 minute ride and it was so neat. It was like riding through a pasture, but it was water in stead of a road. This is a pair of sand cranes (I think that is what he said). There were all kinds of birds and there was even an eagle nest with a pair of eagles. Maybe I can put a picture of them in the next one or so because they were really pretty.

This is "Bubba" who is about 40 years old and really big. It is kind of hard to see him, but he did not move a muscle when we went by. He kind of acted like he didn't have anything to worry about (which he didn't since he is king of the swamp). He was about 17 to 18 feet long.

This one was not too happy with us as we disturbed him. He looks like he is glaring at us which he probably was.
This is the airboat we were on and it was so cool how it skimmed across the water, weeds, little bushes, waterpads and all.

I am going to see if I can either add to this one or do another one so if you see this one then the other one will come later and then you will understand the flower reference. We are leaving now to go get some food and go see La NouBa Cirque Du Soleil. That should be beautiful. I have heard a lot about them so I hope it is as good as they say. Later.

More Florida

Wow, we thought that going through the Kennedy Space Center (NASA) wouldn't take all that long and then we could spend the rest of the day at Cocoa Beach, but we were way off base. We got there in time to take the 10:00 shuttle bus and here we went. The bus tour was at least 3 hours long and took us to three different facilities. One was the Apollo program and then the space shuttle program and then the space station program. While we were driving on the bus we saw the shuttle that just had flown in the night before. Had we know that we could have watched for it, but it was very cloudy so I don't know if we could have seen it or not.



Since we couldn't see the shuttle come in we decided to see what it is like to be in the shuttle when it takes off. That happened in the building below. What a ride. You get shook up, pressed against the seat and the noise is incrediable. Thanks goodness they don't simulate the big ball of fire that the astronauts see when it does go up. I also got to see my first 3-D movie about the Apollo missions (I know, I need to get out more). I kept jumping when the stuff came at me.


We then drove to Cocoa Beach and walked along the beach for a little ways and checked out the Atlantic Ocean. It started to rain a little bit so we didn't stay long and then went to eat (since we hadn't eaten since breakfast we were starving).

We found this place on the end of a long pier so we had an ocean view and the food was great. I also got to see my first orange tree with oranges on it and Margaret took a few and we tried them when we got back to the resort and they were really good.

Man my hair got beach whipped. Sorry about how awful that looks. On Tuesday we are going to take a historic walking tour of Orlando and check out some gardens. Blog you later.

Flordia

We made it into Flordia in one piece and you would not believe what happened at the airport in San Antonio. We were getting some tea to drink before we boarded and I heard a familiar voice next to me and I looked at her and she looked at me and suddenly she said "Martha" and I said "Sandy" and there was Sandy Woods (used to be Sandy Meier, Lester Meier's exwife) and she is a flight attendant and she was going to be the flight attendant on the plane we were taking to Orlando. What a small world.

Here is the bed in the master bedroom at the resort. It has two bedrooms, two baths, a full kitchen, washer and drier, three TV's and had just been refinished. Most of the appliances were new so that was nice.

This is the living and dining room and there is a pond outside the window with a fountain.

We went to downtown Disney Village on Sun. and this little girl along with lots of other little girls had been all fixed up as princesess and mermaids and whatever other Disney characters there are and we found out it ONLY costs $189.00 per little girl. What a money maker.

The sea monster below is made out of Legos so that is pretty cool.

We bought tickets for Cirque du soleil for Wed. evening so that will be interesting. We will also go to Epcot Center one of the days. Tomorrow (Monday) we will go to the Kennedy Space Center and maybe to Cocoa beach and then to Daytona beach on Tue. The weather had been great. In fact, Patty and I went swimming (in February mind you!!) in the resort pool, which is heated. It was really nice. They told us that we could see the fireworks at Disney World from the resort so we are going to make a drink and go out and watch.

Later.

Dallas Road Trip

We had a great time in Dallas. Here are a few of the highlights. Patty treated me to a pedicure on Friday which was really nice of her and felt really good. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with my chair because it felt like it was trying to throw me out and Patty asked if I didn't just love the massage chair and that is when I figured out what was going on. You can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl.

Friday night we went to a club and I am sure glad I don't have to do that and even if I was single I wouldn't do it (well no one would want me anyway). It was fun watching all the interaction between the singles.

The second picture shows us getting ready to go to the Davy Jones/David Cassidy concert. The woman on the left is Amy and then Lisa (we stayed at her house), Patty and myself.

Here is Davy Jones making fun of his "man boobs" and thinning hair. He was funny and told a lot of jokes and of course sang the songs we wanted to hear.

David Cassidy had a lot of technical problems with equipment, but he sang pretty good although not as many of the songs from the Partridge Family as we would have liked.

I also got to see my first hockey game as Lisa's son plays and a pep rally at a really big school as her daughter is a cheerleader. I didn't know there could be that many kids in one place.

Anyway, it was fun and a different experience for me to say the least. Next stop Orlando, FL.