Gayla says she wants to hear more about my trip to Florida. Well, it just so happens that I have a few minutes to be on the net (what a switch!) and would just love to relive the warmth, humidity and fun ;-)

We arrived very late on Friday evening. The pilot said it was 83F as we were landing, so I was looking forward to a week of hot weather. The next morning, we all slept in and decided we didn't have time to go to Disney World that day, so we went to Sea World instead. After recuperating from the heart attack brought on by the posted prices, we decided to ask if there were any "deals" to be had. They asked where we were from, and told us that they'd accept the Canadian $ at par, and that the tickets (which were posted as single day tickets) were actually good for two days. Since the American $'s I bought before leaving home cost us $1.6189/$1, we decided that it was a pretty good deal, paid our money and went in. It was fabulous! Just what I went to Florida for. That day was sunny and warm (about 80F for a high, I think) and I got to watch the dolphins swimming! There was a little rollercoaster ride with a splash element that appealed to Jeff, Mim and me; Carla was holding out for the big rollercoaster, and never made it onto it, but was happy anyway. We spent about an hour watching the manatees, reading about them and what endangers them. We finished up by going into the killer whale show and getting splashed by Shamu. All in all we had a wonderful day there.

When we got back to the hotel that night, Jeff made the error of asking the desk clerk to recommend a place for a steak dinner. She sent us to a seafood house that served so-so food at prices that had to be seen to be believed. I worried that I hadn't budgeted nearly enough for our food (visions of snarly, hungry children flashed through my brain). Fortunately, we discovered later that Denny's and Ponderosa don't gouge the tourists!

The next day, we skipped church and went to Disney World. From our reading and advice from others who had been before us (thanks,Gayla!) we decided to start with Epcot center. It took us hours to get through the first few buildings where they have the techie displays. Eventually, though, we did get over to their Sea building where I got to watch fish and caught a glimpse of the dolphins. Very cool to watch the jelly fish, and they have some huge fish in what they advertise as the largest aquarium in the world. My kids and husband thoroughly enjoyed Test Track - the fastest, longest ride in Disney World. (I didn't mind it, as long as I kept my eyes closed :-). Then we had to check out a few of the country displays... I was disappointed to run out of time before we got very far. We saw Canada and one other, I think, then headed back to have supper with Mickey and friends. After supper, we took the time to check out the Shrinking Audience show (lots of fun) and finished up the day enjoying the fireworks. My pedometer said we had walked 11 miles, and since I had found it off several times through the day, I figure we probably walked closer to 15 miles, and stood for even longer.

So the next day, we slept in again. When we eventually got going, we went over to Cape Canaveral. We got there just as they were closing up the ticket office and decided we wouldn't go in for the 2 hours that were left until closing, but took a look around at some of the rockets on dispay outside before driving down the coast to Cocoa Beach. We wandered about on the beach and dipped our toes into the Atlantic Ocean (a first for me, too). We found lots of shells in various states of decomposition, and the girls each took a few to bring home to their friends. Then we continued south to Melbourne, narrowly being missed by a car that decided to start a police chase on the highway. We ate supper in Melbourne and drove back inland to Orlando, enjoying what we could see of the state in the dark.

Well, that's as much as I can write tonight... the rest of our trip will have to wait for another time. Maybe someone else could share a bit of a trip they've had that created some wonderful memories? hint, hint

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), March 03, 2002

Answers

Shameless bump

-- TC (j@t.n), March 03, 2002.

LOL! Girl, at that rate, it would have taken you 6 WEEKS to see Disney World. ;-)

Test Track is awesome! Did you scream at the 'mice' running through the theater in the Shrinking Audience show? :-) Glad you got to see Illuminations at the end. Can't wait to hear more!

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), March 03, 2002.

Thanks for the visual images! We'd like to take the family there, but we have no idea how long it would take to see various things. We have some who can't walk that far, so it's good to know we'd need a stroller.

More!

-- helen (taking@notes.please.proceed), March 03, 2002.

Oh, Trish, I wanna go to Didney Whorl!! I have planned to take Kit for about a dozen years, but we never made it and now his eyesight is so bad that he would probably not enjoy it too much.

We do go on the road next week for about 6 days, though. Out to west Texas then down in the valley by the Mexican border. Then when we get back, my brother (the one with cancer) and I are taking my other two sons to Costa Rica for about 2 weeks. He never got to spend much time with them when they were young, and now he wants to make this a special trip. I think we'll go whitewater rafting on the Pacare river and do a canopy tour by the Arenal volcano. I will really, really try to write snapshots.

----------------------------

-- Lon Frank (lgal@exp.net), March 03, 2002.

Somebody git this boy a laptop!!

-- helen (wants@instant.snapshots), March 03, 2002.

Speaking of travelin' ....

I will be in Biloxi, Mississippippissippissippi ...... (When does that state stop?) beginning Friday this week, leaving next Thursday.

Its a top-level conference, but since I'm not top-level (as far these guys are concerned!) I can probably be free almost every evening - and most of Saturday/Synday.

Can ANYBODY get down there for a couple of minutes to say hello?

Email me - I'll get you hospital (oops, hotel) directions and whatever info I've got.

-- R. A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (racookpe@earthlink.net), March 04, 2002.

Tricia, your trip brought back memories of a trip I took in the early 80s to attend a computer conference in Lake Buena Vista, the Disney- owned town on the other side of the lake from Disney World. At that time, Epcot Center was just being constructed.

My favorite Disney World attraction was the old West saloon populated by robotical bears. I doubt if there were many dry eyes in the audience when Trixie had finished the haunting "Tears will be the chaser for your wine".

Also went to Busch Gardens (especially liked the African wildlife) and Cape Canaveral, where we saw an enormous machine used to transport rockets (top speed, if I recall correctly, was 2 miles per hour).

-- Peter Errington (petere7@starpower.net), March 05, 2002.

Peter, you're referring to 'Country Bear Jamboree'. It's still there, and Trixie still sings that song.

When my kids reminisce about that show, though, they always sing, "There was bloooooooooood on the saddle...." :-)

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), March 05, 2002.

Robert, I'm so sorry we won't be anywhere near Missississississippippippippi while you're there.

-- helen (never@gets.to.meet.anybody), March 05, 2002.

Robert, if I could get to Mississippi, trust me, I would. It's gotta have nicer weather than us. Our (laughingly called) high today was -16 (about +2F, for the old fogies on the old fogie temp scale ;-) and surely Biloxi has better weather than that!

On the other hand, there's a new few inches of snow, so everything is bright and white. I went for a walk (my usual weekly amble) with my friend along the river and the trees stand like stark sentinels guarding against spring.

Peter, I'm glad you have happy memories of Disney World. I wish we had found the Country Bear Jamboree, I think we got distracted by the parade and the view of Tom Sawyer's Island by river boat. That was on a later day than the ones I've written about so far, and unfortunately I don't have time to write more tonight. Hopefully this weekend :-)

Anyone heard from Rob lately?? He seems to be in the Dryer's Socksland. I hope all is well!

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), March 06, 2002.

Tricia, I was asking the same thing on another thread. We haven't heard anything about Alexander Lawless lately... you don't suppose????

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), March 06, 2002.

Rob got sucked up by an alien axis...?

-- helen (axis@of.evil.aliens), March 07, 2002.

Well, Gayla, I dunno if it's real or just wishful thinking, but I smell a story!

Helen, with Alex the Lawless, ya never know ;-)

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), March 07, 2002.

Warm, tropical breeze
Waves crashing on the seashore
Spring break in Texas!

-- Gayla (dreaming@of.the beach), March 12, 2002.

It's so good to read that post card... ah the memories. It's still not as warm here as it was on the coldest day we had in Florida!

For Gayla (and to spur on Lon - that was a great postcard about the street actors in Costa Rica, Lon!) I did promise to write some more, so here goes:

On Tuesday, we went back to Disney World, this time to the original part of it. We enjoyed wandering around seeing the characters interact with the children. There were more "munchkins" that day than we saw any other day, and I think that area is more designed for younger kids. We had a great time going on all the rides; we weren't even too disappointed that splash mountain was closed for repairs, 'cause it was too cold to want to be wandering around in damp clothes. I skipped Thunder Mountain to sit quietly and watch the birds. There were certainly lots of them! And varieties that we just don't see here in Edmonton - the heron was the only one I was pretty sure I recognized. I treasure the memory of sitting happily in the sun and seeing how close I could lure the birds by not moving (one narrowly missed pecking at my foot). We loved the closing fire works, and went back to the hotel to rest up for our excursion the next day.

We had an included "character" meal with our package, so on Wednesday, we went to the "character" restaurant at MGM and enjoyed our all you can eat buffet seasoned with visits from Goofy, Minnie, Chip and Dale. We have lots of pictures :-) Then we went to see everything we could squeeze in. We rode the Star Wars shuttle - that ride was about my speed! :-D We thoroughly enjoyed the Muppets - twice :-) My family went on the timeline of the movies ride, and I took the chance to sit and enjoy the sun some more. Then we saw the Indiana Jones special; I loved that - I'm a big Indiana Jones fan! (I haven't yet seen a movie starring Harrison Ford that I wouldn't see again, and again, and ...) I really enjoyed the tour of the site, and was quite happy that we ran out of time before going to the terror house. Although I could have sat some more in the sun while my family went, they decided they'd rather see the Muppet show a second time. We finished our day with a swim in the hotel pool - a great way to relax.

On Thursday, we headed up to Daytona so that Jeff could do a tour of one of his favorite places - the race track. Unfortunately, we had timed our trip wrong by a week, or he'd have had whatever tickets he could have gotten his hands on for the 500. Still, they were starting to prepare for the race and he got to see some interesting (to him :-) sights. They had an unveiling of a statue of Dale Earnhart the day we were there, so we got to be some of the first to see it. We missed the actual ceremony, and wondered a bit at why there were so many TV type folks around. We had supper at a wonderful Mexican place and drove back to Orlando and our hotel pool, again. The next day, we went for a couple of hours back to Sea World (had to use up the second day of the tickets ;-) and the girls went on a tour and petted penguins while Jeff and I went to the walrus/seal/otter show. It was great - I laughed so hard! Actually I think the funniest part of the show was the mime they had greeting people as they came in... he'd smile and greet them, then behind their back, he'd caricaturize them - hilarious! One couple came in and he waved them on towards seats on the other side of the theatre. Then he was making oo la la motions at her back, which he smoothly turned into an abduction of her, when she turned to see what people were laughing at. Her partner's face was priceless when he got to a seat and turned to find her... missing! My kids wanted to see the next show of it, but there wasn't time, we had to get to the airport.

What a priceless trip it was. Memories forming ties with my kids that none of us will relinquish.

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), April 21, 2002.

Does Lon need spurring?

Or do you just like to ride? 8<)

-- R. A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (racookpe@earthlink.net), April 23, 2002.

Tricia, thanks for the new postcard! It sounds like you had a blast... we always do. I wanna see pictures!!! :-)

I LOVE the Muppets. The 3D special effects are fun and the characters coming into the audience help make it seem real. Gotta agree with you on Harrison Ford! :-)

The last time I was at Sea World, I went for a coke before that show started. As I was walking back in, the mime started following me. I turned around and kissed him on the cheek. He was so stunned he didn't know what to do. LOL!

Steve was transferred to a job in Tulsa. We got an apartment in Owasso (Indian word for 'end of trail'.) We are out in the country (compared to Houston) and love it! The birds are awesome! Come see me! :-)

I'm still in Houston part of the time because of the kids. (Spent 3 days this past week in emergency rooms with Eric... he has Mono plus sinusitis.)

You'd LOVE the heat here! Tomorrow will be in the 90's. Thanks again for the postcard... I enjoyed reading about your trip!

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), April 28, 2002.

90s!!!!

:'(

Today it was cool and rainy. "Cool" means if you breathe out hard, your breath is visible. I don't think we've had a night with an above freezing temperature yet. The geese are back, and swimming in lakes with as much ice as free water. The robins are back - I'm not sure if they've turned to cannibalism yet or not, there certainly aren't too many bugs for them to munch!

I sure hope Eric is feeling much better very soon! I've added him to my prayer list until I hear from you.

-- Tricia the Cancuk (jayles@telusplanet.net), April 28, 2002.