More Music & Fun!

Occasionally we did go over to Epcot during the Flower & Garden Festival not to see any of the musical acts but simply to enjoy the park, and this was one of those days.  First stop was a journey through Spaceship Earth (the big golf ball J).  The ride exits you into an area called Project Tomorrow where you’ll find several interactive games and activities that are meant to entertain and educate.  Sometimes we stop to play, and this time Russ tried Innervision
which tests your memory and hand-eye coordination.

 

It’s so beautiful this time of year with all the flowers and topiaries, but of course I needed to make a stop at one of my favorite places, the Butterflies On The Go pavilion.  Besides all of the flittering

butterflies and lovely plants, there

are lots of educational signs about the migratory habits of butterflies, the different varieties you might find, what attracts them, their life-cycle (which can be seen in this display where you can see actual cocoons in different stages of development), and so much more.

 

  We also made a stop at The Seas to catch Turtle Talk With Crush and got to see the new rendition that includes some of Crush’s new friends from the new Disney Pixar film Finding Dory.  It’s always fun to hear what questions the little kids will ask of Crush, and some of them are priceless.

 

A couple of weeks later it was back to Epcot for the final musical act of the Flower & Garden Festival, and what better group to close out the season than The Spinners and what a show they did!  One of the greatest R&B and soul groups of the ‘70s with such hits as Could It Be I’m Falling In Love, Then Came
   You, and Working My Way Back to You just to name a few (evidently they don’t have a website).  Backed by a 5-piece band, this group was high energy all the way including Henry Fambrough (age 78), founder and only remaining original member of The Spinners (below). We were there for the
2nd and 3rd sets and both ended with Rubberband Man.  Towards the end of the song they bring out these huge white rubberbands, playing, dancing, and just having silly good fun with them.  The coolest thing was during the last set when it was darkest, they turned off most of the stage lights and only had a strobe light going which really gave such an awesome effect.  This photo (bottom right) doesn’t do justice to the effect!

Closing out the month was some work related fun.  Twice a year, our front office management team gets folks from other departments to fill in at the front desk, switchboard, and bell service on a slow day and takes the entire staff (no family) out for a fun time somewhere.  This time it was a picnic at nearby Lake Louisa State
Park.  The boss had rented kayaks and provided a volleyball net (waaaayyyy too hot to play!), corn hole, ladder golf, music, and lots of good food and drink (no alcohol allowed in the park).  Folks took turns grilling, we did a little line dancing under the gazebo, and one of the guys brought his fishing poles and was teaching some of
our J-1 interns how it’s done.  Towards the end of the day it began to pour for a bit, and some couldn’t resist getting soaked as you can tell in this photo taken as the rainbow came out right at our site!  Though not everyone made it, those there had a great time and got to know each other a little better.