Mount Dora

Saturday, February 25, 2012

We woke up to just another beautiful day! We have been so blessed with the weather. It is not something that we take for granted.
Today, we went to mount Dora. We first stopped at their large flea market



And then went into the beautiful little town. Much like Niagara on the Lake, but on a much smaller scale. The interesting thing about here is that it is not flat. In fact it has enough changes in elevation that they said they actually experience a fall season here with the leaves changing color.





This CRAIG CAT was parked in town.



Saw one of these before on display at an airport.  It looks like it would really fly!




We stopped at a tea house for a light lunch, looked through a few more stores and then walked down to the park at Lake Dora.......

 

...........a beautiful and tranquil spot.





We then went on to Leesburg and then made a brief visit to The Villages where almost everyone drives a golf cart.

Another fabulous day.

Happy Birthday Bear!

Friday, February 24, 2012

Today is our son Terry's birthday. We won't tell you his age, but if you've been following our blog, he is one year younger than our anniversary that we just celebrated! 8O)



We decided to celebrate Terry's birthday with a trip to Winter Haven (never been there) and see if we could find Legoland. Legoland is on the property of the former Cypress Gardens and we had excellent reports from brother Bud when he was there earlier this year.
We had an interesting drive along the way. Lots of cool looking lakes. Now I've heard about kids having to go while their on the School Bus, but this is ridiculous!!





We stopped at a Really cool McDonalds (so Chris could do the same thing as the kids need to do on the bus). It was all done up 50's style.  They had a cool juke box similar to the ones Chris used to have in her garage at home when she was a kid.



Besides the Blues Brothers, they also had an Elvis and a Marilyn Monroe. It was all the old stools and period tables. The coolest McDonalds I've been in.



Of course we have to stop at these every time we see one!



We finally got to Legoland, but it was getting dark and they were closing (we weren't going to go in anyways).
Winter Haven is a very pretty town with lots of lakes and lots of small town feel.  We'll definitely come back to visit again.

Rather than go home, we decided to go to the Disney Boardwalk for the evening.





The lobby as usual is always impressive.



We enjoy watching the buskers at the Boardwalk.  This guy had me personally inspect his sword before he swallowed it.  I don't know if he really swallowed it, but I couldn't find anything phony about it.



Shortly after taking this picture the guy extends the pole at least 3 times longer than it is here and still drops the ball off the tiny backboard and into the basket!!!!



If you look closely you can see the Crescent Moon along with Venus and Jupiter in a straight line above it!



We split a sugar free cheesecake and a tea to celebrate our little boy's birthday and to bring a close to another awesome day!

Saratoga Springs

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Back to pleasure Island for another Discovery day.

 

Today we are taking the boat to Saratoga Springs, Disney's first and largest "Vacation Club" (timeshare).





 
Another beautiful and scenic resort with lots of pools.








We took a long and winding path back to Disney Marketplace stopping along the way to enjoy the view.

 

We enjoyed some more music at various places along the way and stopped at T-Rex for a photo op.


We were on our way back to our unit around 9:00 pm when the fireworks started at Epcot. We turned off the main road and found ourselves on the Cast Parking Lot, an excellent new viewing point to watch the fireworks!!

  

 Another fabulous and memorable day.

Cal & Marcelle's

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

We set out for Clearwater today to visit Cal, Marcelle and Sherri who is staying with them until Friday. crossed the causeway, this is our first view of the Gulf side this year.  I always get a kick out of the fact that they warn you about making sure you have gas to get across the causeway, but in Texas they don't have any warnings when going 500 miles from San Antonio to El Paso!




Sherri looked like she'd been enjoying the sun while she's been down here. 
Although I was there last year, their unit looked so much bigger.  Maybe because I was subconsciously comparing it to the unit that we're staying in at Outdoor Resorts.



The girls enjoyed a few margaritas....



Cal's dog Tiffany was putting on a show for everyone.

We went out to Georgie Boys for a great dinner.  It was great to see everyone again.  We had a great visit and didn't get home until after 2:00 am.
Before we left we made plans to get back together again next week.

42!!

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

That would be years......... as in our 42nd Anniversary today!!!!
Where better place to celebrate than........ you know where!



Started out with a drink from the Margarita Bar.....



.....with a little music to relax to....this guy played an 8 string ukelele and steel drums....

I decided to take my Sweetie for a boat ride in one of Disney's Sea Rays powered by a 9.9 Merc, governed not to exceed 5 mph!!



We passed by one of the ferries that we've been taking in recent days.



And headed for the canal that lead to Port Orleans.



Here's a short video I shot from the boat.

Evidently we exceeded the maximum weight by a few pounds and that in combination with the tapered bow allowed the wake from some of the ferries to run up said bow and occupy our compartment with us......resulting in a very wet ass!!!!  :)



We decided to enjoy our Anniversary dinner at the Rainforest Cafe along with screaming Apes, Elephants and periodic artificial Thunder Storms.






All the blue you see in the picture below is an aquarium that the fish can swim through.



These guys enjoyed hovering beside our table and watching us eat.






Here's a sample of the atmosphere.
Far Out!!

Another fabulous day!
Thanks for stopping by.

Olive Garden

Monday, February 20, 2012

Today we went to our favourite Olive Garden on International Drive.  It was another beautiful day, so we decided to eat outside.  This one is for Julie 8O)

 






























This little guy decided to hang out and watch the proceedings.

 

Everything is starting to bloom and things are even more colorful these days.