Spring Is In The Air

The Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival started a couple of weeks ago celebrating its 20th anniversary.  For those who don’t know, the Festival lasts 75 days and not only showcases all its beautiful flowers, plants, and over 100 topiaries but also includes special guest artists and gardeners giving demonstrations and tips, special events for the kids, special vendor booths, and of course the Flower Power Concert Series.

This year at the park’s front entrance is a topiary barbecue with a 14-foot tall Goofy carefully balancing the 20th anniversary cake while his pals Donald and Daisy play badminton in the background, Mickey tends the grill, Minnie relaxes on a blanket of

flowers, and Pluto’s made off with all the hot dogs.  Way too cute and clever! (Don't know the people in the photo at left...they were just in the way...tee hee.)

We got there when the park opened so we could head straight to our favorite ride, Soarin’, because we know how quickly the lines for it back up.  First thing was to get a FastPass to ride again
hopefully fairly soon after our first ride, and as it turned out we only had about a 30 min. wait afterwards. By the time we finished our 2nd ride, the FastPass return was for 3 hours later!  No photos are allowed on the ride, but this colorful pic is looking up at the ceiling in the building where the ride is housed.

The next couple of hours were spent wandering around looking at some of the sights including one of the new exhibits called “Welcome to Radiator Springs” from one of Russ’ favorite movies, Cars.  I was even able to get his picture taken
     with one of the movie’s stars, Lightning McQueen!  Of course, I also had to get a picture of Tow Mater ("Mater" to his friends) especially since he has his own interactive game for the kids within this exhibit.

We didn’t make it over to World Showcase on this particular morning, opting to save it for another day.  It was just a pleasant day to spend a relaxing couple of hours seeing the sights in Future World.

On our way home, we spotted these sandhill cranes along the side of the road with their baby chick.  I think these are one of the coolest birds, and it was the first time we’d ever seen a baby…very cool!  It really does blend into its surroundings.

Dance...Dance...Dance!

L-R: Linda, Angela, Miranda, me, Patsy

One of my best friends lives in Tampa, and when we’re here in the Orlando area, Linda and I get together at least once.  As it just so happened, she and her daughter, Angela, were going to be attending a national dance competition in Orlando where the daughter of Linda’s sister would be performing, and they wanted to treat me for an birthday present.  I hadn’t seen Patsy in about 5 years and had never met her daughter, and since I love dancing, it sounded like a great idea.

Miranda is a high school senior and has competed with her school for the past few years in the National Dance Alliance National Championships (http://nda.varsity.com/Championships.aspx).  It's held at the Hard Rock Live Auditorium at Universal Orlando with prelims on Sat. and finals on Sun.  I made plans to

 meet Linda and Angela Sat. morning at Patsy’s hotel so we could drive over together.  Prelims had been going on since 8am, but Miranda’s first performance wasn’t until 3pm so we weren’t in any hurry and spent some time tooling around Universal CityWalk

    including stopping for pics on the surf board outside this shop...such silly girls!

Once inside the auditorium the sound was deafening!  Not only was the music for each performance at full blast, but the cheering and motivation from the audience was pretty loud, too.  Just wasn’t used to that much noise during a competition!  LOL  For the next couple of hours we watched school after school perform in several categories with not much break in between groups.  Scores are posted and announced fairly soon after a couple performances so folks have a pretty good idea where groups stand.

First performance for Miranda’s school was Jazz, and we thought they were pretty awesome!  I wasn’t sure if photos were allowed so only snuck this one.  Unfortunately, the judges didn’t agree with our assessment, and we soon learned that they didn’t score high enough for the finals.  We caught up with the girls outside as we were heading for a late lunch, and they were crushed as Jazz had always been their best event.

After lunch at Hard Rock Café, we went back inside to watch more dancing though their next performance wasn’t till 7pm (yes, this was going to be a long day).  I discovered that photos were ok without a flash (and no videos allowed) so I got more pics of her other routines.   They had a

smaller group for the Pom Division, and again we thought they were awesome.  This time the judges got it right, and they would be competing the next day in the finals.

Linda, Angela, and I headed back to the car to grab some stuff since the girls’ weren’t on again until almost 11pm (told you it was a long day!), and slowly made our way back taking in the sights as we went.  Next up was Hip Hop and again…awesome!  But alas once again the judges did not agree so it

looked like they’d only be performing the Pom routine in the finals.  I wasn’t returning the next day but did learn that they placed 8^th overall in that division…way to go girls!

Also competing were a couple of schools from Japan who were so locked in and tight in their routines and placed well in the International Division.  Costuming for all
performances was quite varied by each school even within the same division with the biggest difference being in Hip Hop ranging from a kind of simple glitz to army fatigues to grunge to these skeletons!  Our favorite though were the “old men”, and I’m sorry I don’t have a picture but we were all so enthralled by their routine and laughing at their antics that I totally forgot.  It was one of those performances you would just have to see, and the great news is they won a well deserved 1st place in the large group Hip Hop Division.

I  didn’t get home till a little after midnight, but it was truly a great day spent with great friends.

A Day In The Jungle

February was another month of not much happening other than dr. appointments, a campground-wide yard sale where we made $37, and continuing to sell some of our stuff on eBay (which at times almost seems like a fulltime job!)  And I finally tried out my new sewing machine Russ got me for Christmas (the mending was backing up!)

We also went to Animal Kingdom one day mainly to try out our new camera. Russ had found a great deal on eBay for a brand new in the box camera that came with two lenses, a tripod, a camera bag, and other goodies.

We figured Animal Kingdom would be a great place to try out many of its features, and the day we went couldn’t have been more perfect with its overcast skies. We got there early and immediately headed for the Kilimanjaro Safari in Africa, getting a FastPass before boarding to ride again without
having to wait in the long lines. In our open-air safari vehicle and the dreary day, we saw more giraffes at one time than we ever remember seeing before, and it seemed like there were many more animals out in abundance. You can see by the photo above left how close the animals can get to the trucks.  Sometimes they even cross the road right in front of you, but other areas have hidden barriers

that keep for example the lions from getting too close.  We also had the best view of the cheetahs we’ve ever had.  On our second time through I switched lenses and put on the 55-300mm one to try shots at greater distances, and got some great ones including this beautiful lioness and the cheetahs.

After the safari, we went next door to walk through the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail. Lots more animals to see like this cute little meerkat who was on sentry duty, and the baby gorilla who was entertaining the crowd on the other side of the glass.  She was having the best time climbing, rolling around, and playing with the hay.  Thanks to the continuous shot feature on the camera, I was able to get some great ones (only posting 2 here).

   As we made our way over towards Asia, we came upon a crowd who had been watching DiVine “entertain”.  DiVine is a performance artist who appears throughout the day as a living vine, covered head to toe in leaves, vines, and even clusters of grapes.  You could walk right past and not even know she was there, that’s how well she blends into the surrounding landscape.  Performing on stilts, and without words, she becomes part of the jungle forest as she gracefully twists,
bends, and then begins to walk.  She has startled many a visitor!  As we approached, she was just finishing, and I was able to get a close-up of her beautiful face as she passed.

   In Asia we wandered through the Maharajah Jungle Trek which is supposed to resemble the ruins of an ancient palace inhabited by exotic animals like this Komodo dragon and the mighty Bengal tiger.  There are actually several tigers in separate areas…
   napping, pacing, or just wetting their whistle.  Incredibly beautiful, majestic creatures!  Plus there are several other critters on this self-guided tour, mainly birds and some cool bats but I couldn't get a good pic of them...too many people in the way.

There are also more than 50 different species of exotic birds flying and just milling around amongst the foliage and the people in one area of the Jungle like these two variations of pheasant. The vibrant colors on
     many are incredible and so vibrant and like nothing you've probably ever seen.

The camera performed superbly, and it’s just going to take time for
       me to get comfortable and confident enough with it to take the shots without having to think about it so much.  Want to be ready for Yellowstone this summer!

Gators Chomp Tigers

Not much happened during January mainly because we’d both been under the weather with one bug or another.  However, we were well enough to attend a Missouri basketball game in Gainesville, FL, about mid-month at the University of Florida.  Located about 2 hours north, we’d have to leave early since we were unfamiliar with the area and would need to find a place to park.  Game time was set for 1pm so it was going to be a long day, and thankfully our friend, Amanda agreed to come by to check on Abby.

As luck would have it, the parking lot on campus directly adjacent to the Stephen C. O’Connell Center where the game would be held had plenty of spots available when we arrived.  Our first mission was to find a restroom, and the closest was across the street in the Ben Hill Griffin (Football) Stadium, affectionately called “The Swamp”

since the early 1990s by those in Gator Nation.  We were surprised at how small the interior of the stadium appeared even though it can hold about 90,000.  The steps seem to go straight up, and there’s just no extra space around the field like many other stadiums we’ve seen.

 

Outside the stadium is a huge bronze alligator with the inscription “In honor of the 2006 Football National Championship and members of the Bull Gator program” along with the names of those members. 
A little further down on the west side of the stadium are some plaques immortalizing former students who were enshrined in the Football Hall of Fame and 3 large bronze statues of former students and Heisman Trophy winners Steve Spurrier, Danny Wuerffel, and Tim Tebow.
 

   Since we still had time to kill, we walked back across the street to the O’Connell Center, continuing around the building to check out the surrounding campus. Once inside we stopped by the pre-game rally designed to get everyone pumped up with games, music,

  balloon animals, autographs from the ladies' softball team, and you could even get your picture taken with the Florida Gators mascots, Albert and Alberta.  These young Mizzou fans had no issue with that!

 

   Inside the arena both teams were busy warming up, and we hung out for awhile behind the railing of the lower level to watch. It was still an hour before game time, and the student section (known as the
            “Rowdy Reptiles”) was already nearly full and would periodically break into working on their cheers…or should I say jeers at the Tigers?!

 

   Our seats were a few rows from the top of the arena so getting any decent photos during the game proved difficult.  The best I could do was when both teams lined up for the national anthem because the one I took at tipoff blurred!  The ladies next to us were very nice and obviously alumni.  They were really into the game and
knew all the cheers including the Gator Chomp.  Quite a number of Tigers fans were in attendance (probably a couple hundred), but it wasn’t enough to propel our team to victory.  Going in we figured it would take a miracle for our team to win, and the Gators dominated from beginning to end with a final score of 83-52.  Despite the loss, we had a good time, and always enjoy visiting other college campuses and soaking up the atmosphere.