Airboat Ride in Kissimmee, Fl

13 Dec 09--Went to Kissimmee today to take an air boat ride at the headwaters of the Everglades. The weather was even nicer than yesterday when it was probably in the high 70s. And 2 days ago when we were at Universal, it was probably about 62. Today's high was 85, so it was absolutely gorgeous out on the boat. Here we are awaiting the captain readying the boat!




We found alligators lounging around in no time. This one is probably 6-7 feet long, and although aware of us, basically ignored us. I took this 3rd picture off the front of the boat so you could see how close we were...no more than 10 feet. The captain said that alligators spend 80% of their time laying around motionless, and in the winter won't even eat...like now they won't eat again till springtime.



This one is a female, and she has babies around we were told, but we didn't see any of them. The captain told us that alligators are not like crocodiles, who will attack you. They will go after small animals (dogs) and children, but he said people swim in some of these waters all the time and they are basically left alone. Can you imagine????




Once we saw a few alligators, the best part of the tour was when we going really fast on the air boat. It was really loud, but the feeling of flying over the water was great. Look at my eyebrows in the 3rd picture...the wind is practically pulling them off my face! And look at the
birds in the water trying to get out of the way of the boat.



Most of the forested area looks like what I would expect the Louisiana bayou to look like. Great spot for a scary movie.



We stopped out in the middle of the water to pay for our trip. Do you see the guy with the US flag on the back of his shirt? He is in the Army and just returned in November from his 3rd trip to Iraq. I can't remember what brought it up, but after hearing this, the guy on the far left of the picture paid the fee for the soldier and thanked him for his service. I thought that was really, really, nice. I was a little choked up.



There were all kinds of different birds around the marshes and even at the shoreline where we boarded, so if there are any bird lovers out there, I took a few pictures for you.



And just in case anyone is missing Fluffy and Jabba, here are a couple pictures I took today when we got home. Can you see that Fluffy now has a little waist? Unlike me, she has lost 2 pounds since we left San Antonio.

Universal Studios

12 Dec 09--We went to Universal Studios yesterday, and for those of you who have never been there, it is actually a 2-park system made up of Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure...And as far as Universal Studios is concerned, YOU HAVE MISSED ABSOLUTELY NOTHING AND IF YOU ARE CONSIDERING GOING IN THE FUTURE CHANGE YOUR MIND FAST!!!!

What appeared to be the best ride in the park, this roller coaster looked like it went the length of the park, was closed for maintenance, so we will have to go to it when we go back to see what Islands of Adventure has.



The Revenge of the Mummy ride was the only ride we went on that we would consider to be a 5-star ride. It is an indoor roller coaster, where you are in the dark and can see very little, and has some great drops and twists and turns.

At about 2 1/2-stars were the Shrek and Jimmy Neutron rides. Shrek was in 4-D (thus the glasses) and Jimmy Neutron was one of those that because of the shape of the theater you feel like you a flying thru air (slowly) while actually just sitting in your seat. These would be preety good for little kids, but it was a stretch for me and Cathy to say we liked them.

We also went to Men in Black, Disaster, and Twister "rides" (I don't know what I did with the Twister picture.) These didn't even rate one star! Twister was the 1st thing we went to in the park and pretty much set the tone for the rest of the day. It was a total rip-off. Basically you waited 10 minutes to get in, spent the next 10-15 minutes in a dark room standing up listening to Helen Hunt and Bill Paxson shout over loud special effects talking about twisters and making the movie, and then entering another room for about 3 minutes of a fake twister experience...including the flying cow that you could see the 10 ropes it was swinging on.

And Disaster was an audience participation thing where they got about 8 people to volunteer to act a little foolish and then we all went on a fake bus/train ride where they jerked us left and right and had fake fire and rain on the outside. Pathetic!!!

The park is really just a giant place for restaurants and novelty shops to sell their gods...of course all of the so-called rides let you off inside their particular specialty store.

The bottom line is this--If I had actually paid admission to this park ($100 for adults/$90 for kids) I would have been totally and completely pissed off...I don't know how it has stayed in business all these years. And to think that most people are going here during the summer when it is 100 degrees and the lines are over an hour long, I am surprised someone hasn't gone postal on them. I only took so many pictures because Ellen and Hallie told me they wanted them (haha). We will be going back to go to the Islands of Adventure park...it looked like it had a few rides that were better than here, so we will let you know.

Creepy!

11 Dec 09--After beautiful weather for our travel day, yesterday was cold and rainy, so we just went downtown to some of the tourist shops to look around. On the way, we happened upon this buzzard scene, and I thought that if I was the homeowner here, I would be thinking "What do they know that I don't?" I certainly wouldn't be in any hurry to come out of my house!

They were actually going after a dead possum...see the tug-of-war over what appears to be the ribs.

It is not supposed to rain today, but still only in the mid 60s, so we are going to chance it by going out to Universal Studios. Neither of us has ever been there, so we'll let you know later how it is.

Now We're Talkin'

9 Dec 09--So we found out that Disney World and Universal Studios were giving out free tickets to military and retired military folks, so here we are just outside Orlando...they tell me I am only about 15 minutes from Disney and a half hour from Universal Studios. We'll be here for 2 weeks. Arrived at the RV place late this afternoon...86 Degrees and a beautiful breeze...but I don't know what it is about alligators...check out this sign.

And then check out the water they felt they had to warn me not to go into!

Supposed to head to Universal Studios tomorrow, but I heard they are calling for rain, so time will tell.

A Little Fun!

8 Dec 09--Went to Brenda's house for dinner Sunday night, had some great smoked chicken and steak. After dinner we played a few games on the Wii machine. Cathy's parents had never tried it before, so we especially had a lot of laughs with them!

Chelsea has definately played before.

And Eleanor certainly gave it the old college try! But Ed? Other than moving his knees, he didn't seem to really want to throw his body into it like Eleanor did! But he says he might want one of these machines to play at home, so he may be a sleeper!

Brenda and I are giving it our best shot...while Cathy calmly masters the board!

We are heading to Orlando tomorrow for 2 weeks and then coming back here for Christmas and the New Year. Merry Christmas everyone!