Busch Garden - The day we nearly froze to death

Once again we could not rouse ourselves out of bed early enough to get out of the house any sooner than noon. Considering we have nothing to do but get dressed, it is rather pathetic. We didn't really eat, maybe a yogurt for Edik and an apple, but Lori did burn through her pot of coffee to get going and that takes some time, that is one of the things I love about her, because I have to slow down and I do love to be
forced to slow down.

It was cold, usually I don't find it necessary to report on the weather but - it was cold!

Tampa is not that far away from Kissimmee, about an hour, the habitual cows that had grazed in the field beside the freeway for the past 4 days were absent, I was beginning to think they too were staged as everything is in the make believe places we have been visitng. The drive was a chatter box time noting the different types of cars that passed us (Edik) proclaiming, "Gator Ponds" (Edik and Beth), and noting what was a sketchy area and what was cool!

We always get hungry because we did not have much food at the Villa. By the time we left, we were in need of something to eat. We always drive past all the potential places and then not making a decision, once again this was true. Upon our arrival it ws windy and cool, there were very few "guests" visiting the park so we had our choice of a parking spot near the shuttle tram. The computers were down when we went to buy our tickets, they managed to produce us some and as we attempted to go through the you-scan-turn-style gates our tickets were rejected, the women at my turn-style was quick to accuse us all of using "used" tickets. It offended me that she would jump to conslusion and accuses us all. But I left the thought at the gate and proceeded to our fun day.

The unique thing about Busch Garden is the unnatural mixture of death defying roller coasters and zoo quality animals in manmade natural habitats. The "gators" were our first sighting, big lazy prehistoric killing machines. They looked charming and touchable as they slept. We saw all the baby animals and the snakes, spiders, frogs and stinky birds. The train ride bumped us through the make shift plains where we saw zebra, white rhinos, giraffes, gazelles. I think zebra wear the best outfits, they look sharp.


Brian and Edik braved the Sheikara ride. At two points the ride creeps to the edge of a straight down million foot drop and wait for it, wait for it(7 to 10 seconds each time, I timed it) wait for it, bam you are plummeting to your death, then it sweeps you up and throws you around and drops you again and flings you through some water. Here is the thing, I ride these rides purely to satisfy those that I am with. It is not for enjoyment, pleasure, fun or excitement, it is a strangling, fear for me that chokes me till I fear I will not be conscious, so I decided, I am a liberated Child of God who does not have to surcome to this incredible peer torturing. I proclaimed it loud and firm, when my small family chided me to come, "I am a liberated Child of God free from people pleasing pressure." I had fun the rest of the day.

The over head sky ride with the birds eye view of the park was a great tool to be able to choose where we wanted to go next. Swimming hippos will get me everytime. They are so graceful and interested in all of us and the things on the top and things on the bottom, I could tell because we were under water protected by glass, very cool. I had to think of my grand-dog Juno when I saw the hipppos hide. The lazy lion was pretty. The ring tailed lemurs were interesting in how they segregated themselves from the regular brown lemurs. The prairies dogs were comical and so cute to pose for us.

The roller coaster in Egypt had about 7 cork screws and that was just one too many for me. There was a net above us, I asked Edik what do you think the net is for? He said it is to catch the people that fall out. We roared with laughter. I asked him how many times he has fallen out? All the rides were walk on with no lines, no waiting, just get on and ride. So by the time Bruce and I had found the best place to take the photos of our crazy party, they were walking up behind us saying what are you taking a picture of?

This giant horse (Clydesdale) knew exactly what to do when taking a photo with me, I was standing too far over and he put his head beside mine and pushed me over into the right spot.



The flat roller coaster was fun for me, you zigzag back and forth feeling like your cart is going to fall off the edge of the track, it was good but there was one casualty, Lori's glasses jumped out of her shirt and flung themselves to a crackly death, she wanted to rescue these $5 glasses, the boys at the controls said to come back at 6pm and we will see if we can get them for you, we attempted it but decided the walk was too far.

Bruce, Lori and I all did the bumper cars, it was a slow go but there was some good bumping and I proclaimed myself the victor. When we were reunited with you know who we all did the bumper cars and once again I proclaimed myself the winner. Edik was very perplexed
when he asked how I won. As we walked away Edik was imaginitivly chased by a green tiger, and then shocked by a huge walking stick that suddenly came to life as we passed by. The pink bird larger than life sized puppet was intriguing. Edik said she was lovely, she batted her eyes and flirted with him. He reached up and loved on her and hugged her, it made tears come to my eyes, his ability to quickly love and his odd sense of reality.

The tigers were amazing you could go up in a lookout tower if a tiger were there you would be under him looking through a piece of glass at him. Lori got some amazing photos and was so excited and entertained by them. I love seeing everyone enthralled by the animal of their choice. The orange orangatans were fun to watch, one of them would go to the big steel door and sniff under it, I would assume that's where his food came from, then he would go to the corner and hug on an old orangatan by the door. They are couriously familiar.

As Brian and Edik cheated death again I bought souvenirs. In the dark we found our way out of the park, walking past things we did not get to see. Starving again because we never really ate, just a muffin and popcorn, our navigator Bruce used his Iphone to locate, at my request, an Outback and it was good!

Did I mention it was cold? when we got home we turned on the heat and cranked up the hot tub, Lori and I sat in it for 2 hours, later to be joined by our men, but only after they wooed their mistresses, (their computers). We had our last great chat time, just like old times, it made me wish we lived closer, but we always just pick up where we left off. Our goodbyes' and hugs were done because they were getting up too early for us, their flight was at 8 am.

It was a great trip, I have no complaints and wish it had been longer. I do miss my family and the dogs, so it is good to be home. But it is cold, did I mention that Oregon is cold.

Island of Adventure

Once again we started out with POOL TIME. Edik loves being a fish. Bruce

is teaching him how to dive and to stand on his hands with his feet out of the water. He is getting the hang of

it.

Today was Island of Adventure, it is all the comic book

caracters and Dudley Do Right, the Hulk and lots of others.

Dr. Seuss area was really cool, lots of color
and some of my favorite book characters. I loved Thing One and Thing Two. Brian felt that he related the most

to the Grinch. I think he was just sore that we did not ride the Incredible Hulk ride continuously.

Brian and Edik wrote the Duling Dragons ride. As Lori and I were walking up we chickened out. I just hate feeling dizzy and the ride made too many turns for my


likings. We stood at the viewing area and watched Edik and Brians dangling legs wiz by.

Jurasic Park water ride was a sampling of getting wet, but there were no lines so we did it again. We saw a high flying dinasour ride that we raced over to ride but were shut down as it was a ride just for parents of little
kids, Edik did not qualify us. There was a giant play area that was a series of nets and passage ways that we could run through, it was fun.

But the call of the Canadian wild was after us. We had to do the Dudley Do Right ride. Now it got us wet, my hair was soaked Edik was drenched. We all looked for ways to dry off. There were Human Dryers but they cost $5 and we did not want to spring for that so we got paper towels. We next

rode the ride that finaly drenched us and we were all soaked to the bone. There was a blower dryer in the mens room and one in the ladies, we tried to save our hair and shirts but decided it was not worth it so we walked around wet for the next hour. These are burgers we ate after the ride.

We raced through Spiderman again, Edik, Brian and Lori did the crazy shoot you to the top and drop you ride and once again the Hulk ride.

Grabbed a cup of coffee, raced home to change and go to the show. But a quick dinner at Cracker Barrel. Oh it was sooooo good. We ate lots of comfort food. We raced off to Cirque Du Soleil.

The only thing I can compare it to is the Moscow Circus. That was an incredible show but this one was amazing. The athleticism was incredible and the costumes were outstanding. We had second row seats thanks to Bruce and Lori's generousity!

We ended our evening with chocolate and

Mickey Mouse rice crispy treats. I have no complaints about this perfect day!

Gentlement Start Your Engines!!!

NASCAR DAY! After a long play in the pool we got in our not so much of a race car and zipped an hour over to Daytona Beach Florida. We had a nice sandwich in the Starbucks at Barns and Nobles, Then it was off to the races or maybe just the race museum.

What a great place, and I am not even a fan. Edik was in awe of all the cool cars. We saw a photo of how the cars use to race on Daytona Beach and on the road. There was a man with a dream to have people come and watch the races as a family. Thirty men got together at a local hotel and for 3 days hammered out the foundation of what now is the largest spectator sport in America, NASCAR.

THERE WERE INTERACTIVE THINGS TO DO. THE GUYS ALL DID A DAYTONA 500 RACE SIMULATOR. THEN BRUCE AND I HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO WORK IN A PIT CREW. THEY DEMONSTATED HOW AND THEN WE WERE IN COMPETITON WITH THE REAL PIT CREWS TIME OF 16:30 SECONDS AND OUR FIST TIME WAS 18.20 SECONDS AND THEN WE DID IT AGAIN AND GOT OUR TIME DOWN TO 16.32 SECONDS. IT WAS FUN TO SEE WHAT TWO MEN IN THE PIT CREW DID. BRUCE WAS THE SUPERSTAR IN OUR TEAM!



We did a tour of the race track and really got to drive on the track, it was not at a high speed but none the less it was on the track. The banking ends of the track are at a 31 degree incline, very intimidating. The crazy thing was that the stands hold thousands of

fans. One side holds 50,000 and the other side holds 85,000 people. I had to ask where do all these people park, beause there really was not that much parking around the park. They park along the International Race Way Blvd. which runs along the ocean, they park in the Home Depot parking lot and any place they can find. then they walk to the park. The question also comes where do they all pee? They bring in thousands of Porta Potties - mmmm honey bucket city.

The girls in the gift shop told us the day of the 50th anniversary the gift shop was wiped out with in the first few hours of the day. There were leather jackets in there that were $1600 and they sold all of them. That is amazing!

Photo of where the winners stand and get sprayed with champagne!

We are all winners for having done this great tour! We drove back to the Villa, tired from our last few days. We decided to not do anything but order take out and get to bed before midnight. We were successful at that.

Disney Hollywood Studios - Take 3

Brian charged off after only 4.5 hours of sleep to his conference. It was well worth his time and he enjoyed every minute that he was there.

Edik on the other hand had his usual 12 hours of sleep. I was awakened by screaming, pleading kids playing in a pool next door. I moved to one of the other bedrooms to finish out my precious sleep. I think the lack of sleep

caught up with us we were kind of dragging today or maybe we really are just grama and grampa material now.



the park is decorated for the holidays already but they did not turn the lights on. We saw the strings of lights and thought that it would be so beautiful but no go.

Edik loved the roar of the engines and the squeel of the tires on the car demonstration. Herbie the Love Bug even showed up and did a splitting preformance. We rode the new attraction, Toy Story Midway ride, that was an interactive spinning ride, we got to shoot at targets in competition with each other. I think I won with 101,000 points Brian with 98,000 and Edik was 89,000. I am not going to lie it felt good to beat the men! No I am not competitive. It pained Edik to be beaten by his mom, a girl.

The Rockin Roller Coaster with Aerosmith was the first thing we did and the last, what a rush. It was fun, but my throat always gets dry and I

feel really afraid the first time because it starts out in a crazy cork screw move at about 1000 miles and hour. It was a rush and Edik was paniced but then decided he loved it. In all we did it 3 times today!

Disney did the Chronicals of Narnia so there was a back history on that and Edik and Brian got to go in and see Prince Caspian.


We did the back lot tour Edik was really terrified when the bridge was giving way under us and the torrents of water were coming at us and over us. He recovers quickly but still having a hard time determining what is real and what is pretend. You should have seen him squirming in his chair during the 3D presentation of Honey I Shrunk the Audience. It was a good oportunity for me to comfort him.

One of Ediks favorite movies is Cars, we lucked out and were able to get a photo shoot with them. I think Mater is so cool. Which reminds me I am trying to teach Edik to say, "Gator Pond" in a Getter-done-voice, he can't quite muster the gutteral grrr sound and its pretty cute. I have him convinced to teach Bruce and Lori how to say it. Every time we spot a body of water I belt out "Gatttor Pond".

As you remember the tree was just decorated in our first photo and here it is all lit up in its holiday splendor.

It was a fantastic day, we were worn out but knew what would revive us. Cracker Barrel. We had a piece of chocolate Coke cake that was amazing.

Lori and Bruce showed up around 10 p.m. with numerous texts about food, they showed up at the house around midnight and so of course we had to talk until 3 a.m. Brian wonders why he did not go to bed earlier when he had to wake up at 7 a.m. and go to his highly informative classes, the reason we came to Florida.

EPCOT-did you know they teach Evolution?

Day 2 - Epcot

How should I do this a laundry list or a diatribe?

1. Swimming in our own private pool

2. Speed game of Air Hockey

3. Odwalla Bar breakfast

4. Epcot

5.Cracker Barrel (Oh my Goodness I love this place)

I think I should have been born a Southern Gal.

6. Home to our Villa to tuck in our little boy and catch up on school work for Brian and keeping up with what we did for me.

I will elaborate on Epcot: First of all this is my third time coming, Brian's fourth and Edik's first (he got to wear a button saying so), the teaching themes are very obvious this time, save the earth and evolution. I don't have a problem with either one. I agree that man needs to protect and keep and subdue the earth that was entrusted to him by our God. And I love evolution, I love the science of it, the creativity, the theory and the fact that it is a beautiful opening to talk about Creation and what "we" believe.

I love Ellen Degenerates ride through her dream where she is learning about energy. It starts off with "The Big Bang Theory", the loud noise and flashes of light literally frightened Edik, but I think figuratively as well, he was confused about what they were say and what he had read in his school books. That was a great segueway into talking about creation.

At the end of the tour it talks about that the only renewable resource we have is Brain power. Another quote I saw during the day drove it home, "Creativity with knowledge is power". How true is that - that when we understand how things grow and what makes them grow, then we can be creative about where we want them to grow and how much crop we want them to yield and in that solve problems. I love the little ride that takes us through Disney's hydrophonic garden, and it talks about all the unconventional ways of growing food, now that is creativity with knowledge!

Enough of the educational stuff. We got a fast pass for Soaring, but it would not be until after 4pm and it was noon. We did the test track speeding car ride (total of 3 times). Brian and Edik did the simulator to outer space. I could not bring myself to get in that tiny simulator, I am sure I missed something amazing but ehh no biggy.

I did a entire recycling circuit that taught me about how much garbage Brian and Edik produce and how I have to recycle it all and put it in the right place. It let me burn some of the garbage so we did not have to put it in the landfill. It helped me build a golf course, (I named it Methane Greens, in honor of the gas it produced) over a full landfill. It was a really cool process that I hope people are really using.

While I was being "Green" Brian and Edik were creating their own ride in a robotic simulator, Edik has the card with the program on it so they could ride it again. We went and did the Finding Nemo ride and looked at all the cool fish tanks afterwards.

We did not eat much because we were busy but we got a sudden fatigue so we dashed off to Germany for Bratwurst and sauerkraut, no adult beverage however because of our young charge, but we longingly looked at other peoples beverages (Did I mention that it was international food and wine show?).

We saw a funny Japanese street performance then we saw some wondering English (they were real, bad teeth and all) minstrels and street theater.

The Soaring ride was over California and it was so fun, to smell the ocean air, the orange groves and the pine forest.

Most of the time we would introduce ourselves to someone standing in front of us, and strike up a conversation. We met a man from New York, who worked as a telephone switch technician for 35 years, he and his wife were from Brooklyn. There was the couple from Minnesota who owned a car rental place and rentals. The car rentals were high end sports cars, his main clientele were the Arab people going to the Mayo Clinic for treatment. Ardie from Cuba, living in Miami, he was our age and was born in Cuba but lived and worked and raised his family in Miami, he was an insurance sales man with a brokers license. Very personable and intelligent man. He was so excited to meet Edik, our little Russian. He mentioned that Cuba and Russia had an alliance at one point, I did not say that it was a scary one but I thought it.

I probably forgot to mention this but this is Ediks 2nd year anniversary of being our son. We are celebrating the whole week and reminding him of how blessed we feel to have him as our son. He has matured and is getting the hang of being in a family and learning what it is to be a real boy. We are having so much fun with him and just loving having someone who is in awe of everything to share our amazing country with! He got to say a Russian hi to a beautiful Russian girl at Epcot today.

Now just wait until tomorrow!

...and we are off to Orlando

You would not believe the amount of work it takes to get ready to go on a trip. It is resolving a weeks worth of real estate that might happen while I am gone, reassuring people that I will take care of them from afar and organizing my paper work so someone else (my buddy Jim Snell) can deal with my files while I am away. It is as mundane as buying dog food and cleaning house so the house sitters/dog sitter (Peter and Amy) aren't grossed out by our dirt, we are not even going to talk about the measuring cups in the sink. It is texting my other son (Andy) so he knows I love him just in case our plane crashes. There is the laundry, the packing, the remembering, the deciding what we need and what we will take. There is Edik's stuff, school, sharper minds and his packing. That is just my stuff.

Brian has to do a board report 2 weeks in advance, do a weeks worth of school work (he is getting his MBA), Go re-set a toilet at the apartments and rent the apartment. Plan the fun we will have while we are gone and get the rental car. Plus a myriad of other minuscule details that would take too much time to explain to me but I know he takes care of them.

At the airport we fly Delta and it shows - we have big smiles on our faces because we are going to the second most happy place on earth, Disney World (this is per our Amy). The flight is good, Edik reads all the airplane literature and tells me all the details of the wing, the take off and what the sounds are. He watches the Bee Movie in Russian for the 30th time, he watches Tom and Jerry for the 20th time and still laughs. He is a great traveler and holds my hand through the airports and stays close. I read a Criminal Behavior book, very good read. Brian does you guessed it - School Work.

The craziest thing happens in Atlanta when we are moving through the airport to our next flight. I see young (I mean young) kids with crisp, starched, just out of the package Sailor Suits on. I think you don't see that everyday. My dear friend Debbie's son was graduating this weekend from Navy boot camp and she wanted to be there but couldn't so when I saw them all dressed so cute I thought of her. I heard one of the young Wacs say "is that music, that sounds so good". I turned and looked up at her as we were riding down a long escalator and said, "did you all graduate this weekend?" She replied, "yes we did." I was curious if maybe she was at the same base as our friend Zac Barber, so I asked her where she graduated from and she told me it was from Lake Michigan I was dumbfounded. That is where Zac was at. I just blurted out, "Do you know Zac Barber?" all up and down the escalator all eye from our boys and girls in blue were on me, all replying we know Barber. What and incredibly small world. They told me a funny story about him and then I thanked them for serving our country and said our good-by's, but we had a nice conversation as a group at the bottom of the Atlanta escalator!

The rest is just flying and landing and being lost and then found. We got to our amazing Villa with the heated pool and Jacuzzi and the 4 master suites. So at 2 a.m. Florida time we fell asleep. It was a long but good day.