Is that a hearse??

Over the last couple weeks we’ve only visited Disney World once so not a lot to report there. However the day we did visit, we arrived at Animal Kingdom just before they opened. The day began overcast, and as we walked towards Kilimanjaro Safari, the Tree of Life was barely visible through the fog. But that didn’t stop the opening festivities…the arrival of Minnie, Goofy, and Pluto! The crowd is stopped at this specific point while the trio checks to make sure they’ve got everything needed for the safari, but golly, the “guide” was missing. Never fear, Mickey suddenly appeared in front of the Tree! The ropes are dropped and onward to your destination!









Overcast and rainy days are the best times to see animals on the Safari, and each ride through is different. We went twice this morning, and the first time saw no giraffes (an actual first for us cause you always see the giraffes), but the second time through the giraffe family (mom, dad, baby) were standing right alongside the road. As the truck approached, dad started moseying across right in front of the truck so the driver had to stop, and the baby was sniffing the folks sitting on that side of the truck! We saw lots of animals including the lions (many times they are laying completely prone and are hard to see) and one of the newest baby elephants.











Afterwards we decided to walk the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail where you can see gorillas, meerkats, birds, fish, and many other animals essentially from the backside of the Safari. As we walked through the Trail and the park, it was amazing how little of the English language we heard. There seems to be a lot of foreign tourists in town which should help the economy!




Then it was time to catch the next showing of Finding Nemo-The Musical an exciting and entertaining original stage show that brings the “Finding Nemo” movie to life, merging puppetry with live performances. Since the holidays are over, the crowds are smaller and we were able to get seats in the 2nd row even though we arrived only 20 min. before showtime…unheard of when it’s busy! Later we decided these were probably not the best seats because with the elevated stage you sometimes missed things that were happening on the other side, but we had seen the show a couple times before so it wasn’t a big deal. However I was able to get some good pictures since flash photography is not allowed. The show is very well done and lots of fun.

It had turned into a beautiful day, and though it wasn’t quite noon, we decided to head home. We arrived at the front of the park in time to catch the next tram, but just as we sat down, a cast member came and asked us if we’d like to be part of a magical moment. Sure! So we followed her over to a golf cart and were told that she was going to personally drive us to our car. She gave us a Walt Disney World “Where Dreams Come True” certificate that reads “Across the miles and over the years, you’ll always remember this Certifiable Magical Moment from the Walt Disney World Resort”. Then she gave us each a button that read “Honorary Citizen of Walt Disney World Resort...Where Dreams Come True”. She wasn’t going to be able to drive us directly to our car but only to the end of our row, and of course by the time she filled out the certificate and the paperwork and drove us over to our row, it would have been quicker to take the tram, but hey, then we wouldn’t have had this magical moment!

Since then we’ve been busy, and there’s been good news and not so good. The good news was from the IRS. Several months ago we received a notice that we were being audited for 2006. Nearly all our records were in storage in Baton Rouge, so we called to let them know we wouldn’t be able to access those records until the first of the year, but we did have the contract for our RV that we purchased that year showing the tax amount we had paid on it. By mailing a copy to them we hoped that would go a long way towards satisfying their curiosity and audit request. Bottom line is that when we called last week to follow-up and see what else they’d need, we were told the case had been closed and no further info would be needed. The not so good news was that a biopsy done on a small scaly patch on Russ’ left forearm turned out to be the early stage of skin cancer. It’s scheduled to be cut out on the 29th and that should take care of that.

We’ve become friendly with Paul and Anne who are staying here at Lake Magic till April 1, and they make regular trips to Tampa to visit family. On the way there is a place called Plant City, which sells among other things delicious, fresh picked strawberries. They picked up a quart for us a few weeks ago, and they were so good that we then offered to split a flat with them. Scott had them pick up a quart for him at the same time, and then proceeded to make some strawberry jam, which he shared with me. Yummy!

One of the funniest things we’ve seen in our travels was about a week ago on a trip to the Publix supermarket. Parked at the very back of the lot was a hearse with a ghoulish looking skeleton peeking out the side window! Turns out that it belongs to one of the guys who works in the meat dept. He used to park it closer to the store but was told he had to park it further away because it was freaking people out. What a hoot!

I’ll close this post with shot I took on Jan. 10th of the “biggest full moon of the year” known as a “perigee moon”. The moon’s orbit around the Earth is an ellipse with one side closer to the Earth than the other, and astronomers call this point of closest approach “perigee”. It’s a phenomenon that occurs once or twice a year making the moon appear larger than normal. I just wish I had grabbed my camera a couple minutes sooner because when it was just above the tree line, it looked even biggger and was the largest looking moon I’ve ever seen!