Let The Magic Begin!

The rest of the drive to Florida was uneventful, and we arrived safely at our destination of Lake Louisa State Park in Clermont.  This would be our “home” for the next couple of weeks while we checked out some of the area RV resorts and figure out who had the best deal for the winter.  Plus it was still
    close enough to Disney World…the place where the magic begins and dreams come true!

 

With our still valid annual passes we can spend all day at the parks or just a couple of hours, which is generally what we opt to do.  Late

    one afternoon we headed to the Magic Kingdom checking out some of our favorite spots…Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise (renamed Jingle Cruise for the holidays), Haunted Mansion, Hall of Presidents, and topping it all off
with a yummy Dole Whip just to name a few things.  We caught a couple of stage shows and even stopped by the Club 626 Dance Party to watch Chip, Dale, Stitch, and Pluto dance the night away with kids of all ages.  We watched the Castle light up with over 200,000 twinkling lights draped over the towers and steeples, and stayed to watch the spectacular Wishes fireworks.

 

A couple of days later it was off to Animal Kingdom, one of our favorite places to walk around just people and animal watching.  Of course, saying it is one of our favorites is almost redundant since each one of the theme parks at Disney World has its own uniqueness and special things and places that we love.
 

The centerpiece of this park is the Tree of Life, a 145 ft. tall, 50 ft. wide structure with about 325 carved animals that make up the trunk of the tree.  Underneath the tree is housed a theater where several times a day It’s Tough To Be A Bug is performed…definitely
     one of our favorites!  We also had to catch performances of the 30-minute Broadway-like Festival of the Lion King and then Flights of Wonder, the 25-minute show featuring exotic and not-so-exotic
      birds flying throughout the outdoor theater and onstage while a cast member describes them and their habitats.

 

Greater Kudu

Of course no trip to Animal Kingdom would be complete without a ride on the Kilimanjaro Safari!  This ride through the “lush African savannah” is always enjoyable, and you never know which animals you will spot making every trip special and unique.


 

Ankole Cattle/Giraffe

Mandrills



Ostrich - female

Ostrich - male guarding eggs

Addax

Cheetah

 

Our stay at Lake Louisa was nearly up, and we’d decided to spend our winter once again at Lake Magic RV Resort.  Not magical like Disney World but a nice place to stay and not far from the most magical place on Earth.

Hands of Friendship

Next stop was St. Louis for a brief visit.  We parked ourselves in the Hollywood Casino parking lot (hollywoodcasinostlouis.com/) located just north of the city limits where we spent a few weeks last year as you may recall.  We weren’t sure how long we’d be able to stay here but figured we’d make the most of the free camping until they kicked us out or it was time for us to move on.

As with all of our St. Louis stays, we were busy every day with one or both of us catching up with friends plus Russ was even able to fit in a round of golf.  I caught up with “the bowling team gals” on Halloween and enjoyed some yummy treats that had been
      brought for all to share.  Six of us went to high school together but only one is on the bowling team, the others just showed up to see me!  Pam had to leave early but I was able to snatch a picture of us with Gloria.
 

   Of course we made our usual stop at Lombardo’s Restaurant (www.lombardosrestaurants.com/) to see Carmen and Angelo and enjoy some of the best Italian food around.  We also were able to attend the 60^th birthday party for some of Russ’ high school mates
   that was being held at the San Bar Tavern in the old neighborhood.  Lots of good food and of course lots of beer!  And we met up with Bob and Mike one afternoon at the VFW for a few more brewskies and enjoyed their fish fry.

 

   The main thing I was looking forward to this trip was a visit to the Missouri Botanical Gardens (www.missouribotanicalgarden.org) known informally as Shaw’s Garden, which is how we always referred to it growing up.  I was going to meet Gloria, Diane, Diane, Dana, and Pam there so we could visit the celebration of life brick
engraved with the name of our dear high school friend, Ellen Culliton, who passed away nearly 2 years ago.  They had been trying to meet up with her sister to do this for some time, and we decided to do it when I came into town no matter what.  As it turned out, her sister and at the last minute one of the Dianes couldn’t make it, but we ventured on and had a great time.

 

I thought it would just be engraved with something like “in memory of”, but it was a replica of her actual signature. Can’t tell you how much that moved me because it was such a personal reflection of her. We wanted to get a picture of all of us with the brick, and someone came up with the brilliant idea of taking a photo of our hands encircling and touching it.

 

You could spend hours at the Gardens, but we knew we’d only be there for a short time this trip.  Turns out it was the closing weekend for the Children’s Garden that we passed along the way, and since none of us had ever been in there, we decided to check it out.  It’s really a cool little area, very educational, informative, and fun for kids of all ages as you can see by these pictures!  We had a blast and know that Ellen would have enjoyed our craziness. 
After walking around for a little while longer, we decided to eat lunch at the Sassafras Café located right there at the Gardens.  It was truly a wonderfully special day with beautiful weather and great friends.

Of course we couldn’t be in St. Louis without a visit to Russ’ brother and his wife.  They live in the city of Wentzville, and it’s always a nice drive to get to their farm.  Ron greeted us by videotaping us as we got out of the car (what a character).  We had a
      great visit over the next several hours and I managed to at least get a picture with Jackie because Ron had already left to go check on his cows.  A farmer’s work is never done!
 

 

   Diane and her sister were hosting a Bunco party while I was in town, and naturally I added it to the calendar.  This was only my second ever Bunco party, the first having been at their house 3 years ago.  It's a pretty simple dice rolling game, but basically it’s just an excuse to eat, drink, and be merry!  Since a few had either
never played before or it had been awhile, Pat was great at explaining the rules, and if you didn’t understand, you could catch on pretty quickly with the help of your tablemates.  And while I was having fun with the girls, Russ and a couple of buddies checked out the casino…good times!

It’s funny how last minute changes in plans can be such fun.  My Sunday was unexpectedly free, and Gloria was the one person who was also available last minute to go exploring.  We were staying only about 5 minutes across the river from historic town of St. Charles, Missouri’s first state capital
      (1821-1826), and though it’s pretty cosmopolitan now, there’s a great little historic Main Street area with brick lined streets, old buildings, unique specialty shops, and plenty of restaurants/bars.  Plan to do a lot of walking if you go because parking is at a premium,
      and the shops go on for several blocks.  Gloria said that a mutual friend had started working at a place called Thistle & Clover, and though she wasn’t working that day, we thought we’d check it out which took us into the small world category.  I knew that one of our
   campground co-hosts in Yellowstone this summer lived in St. Charles but wasn’t sure where.  Lo and behold Marilyn works at this exact same shop!  What a wonderful surprise to run into each other!  Gloria and I spent the next
several hours checking out many of the shops, sightseeing, chatting, and just hanging out.  We found a great little “hole-in-the-wall” place called Lloyd & Harry’s Bar & Grill for lunch, a lively place with really good, cheap food and drinks.  We each had a burger and fries along with a good sized Bloody Mary, and our entire bill was $11 plus tip!!

 

Before leaving town we met Judy, Jim, Patty, and Steve for dinner at Favazza’s Italian Restaurant (www.favazzas.com).  It was a lovely evening though we’ve now learned that Jim cannot be in charge of taking photos.  The one he took of us girls was so blurred that we are unrecognizable, but here’s a nice one of the guys…hanging on Steve’s every word. J

 

We crammed a lot into such a short stay, and this doesn't even cover watching Cardinals baseball (they lost the Series L)and Tigers football games either at the RV with friends or at Steve and Patty’s (and a special thanks to them for letting us use their washer/dryer!).  The weather cooperated for the most part and was beautiful though one night it did drop to 28 degrees, and with no hookups, it did get a little chilly in the RV.  Guess it was time to head to Florida!