Yesterday I went to Disney World's Animal Kingdom with grand-daughter Megan and her friend Melissa, and today, after church, we all went to Gatorland. I took about a kazillion pictures on those 2 days, but of course, have been unable to get to them yet, so we'll just look at pictures from the last couple of weeks for now. Anna and Rylee, I hope you will enjoy the pictures and maybe even learn a little something. First, I will show you some pictures from around Celebration, a small town where we do a lot of biking.
This little Snowy Egret was having a lot to say for himself.......
.....as was this noisy Limpkin. The Limpkin likes to dig around at the water's edge to find shells. He must have a very strong beak, because he pries the shell open and eats what is inside!
Anna and Rylee, you both live on the street right behind me, so I am quite sure that you have squirrels in your back yard as well. The squirrels here are much smaller than ours!
Do you remember the Anhinga? Why does he sit in the sun with his wings outstretched like this?
This big ugly/beautiful bird is called a Wood Stork. Why do you think he is called that?
The Great Blue Heron is quite a regal and pretty bird, and very graceful when he flies.
We have not seen very many alligators yet this year, probably because it has not been very warm. This big fellow was out on one particularly warm and sunny day.
There are lots of plants and flowers that grow beside the many ponds, lakes, and waterways in Florida, but this is by far my favorite!
This little bird flits from bush to bush and is hard to catch in a photo. He is called a Yellow-rumped Warbler.
There are a LOT of Muscovy ducks around here, and this one has some young ones with her. They seemed awfully big to have fluff instead of feathers!
The hibiscus is another beautiful flower that we see here a lot.
And yet another alligator.
Often when we go biking in Celebration, we stop for a picnic lunch. Sometimes, we are lucky to be able to sit in the rocking chairs by the lake and read for awhile.
One day, while biking by the lake, my front wheel got caught in a wide crack in the sidewalk, and I took a header! I was able to ride on home, but I must admit, it slowed me down for a few days.
We always see a lot of Boat-tailed Grackles when we sit by the lake in the rocking chairs. This is a female, who has quite a bit of brown on her. She was getting a drink of water.
And this is the male, who is a shiny black in colour, and quite a bit bigger than the female. He is enjoying a bath in the lake! Could you girls try googling Boat-tailed Grackle and learn one thing more about them?
This was a tiny little alligator, and I probably would not have seen it if some people were not stopped looking at it.
This fellow was painting a lovely picture of the bridge in the distance at Celebration.
Anna and Rylee, I think you would both enjoy cooling off in this "fountain" in downtown Celebration!
Our Grand-daughter, Megan (right) and a friend, Melissa, came to spend a week with us in Kissimmee. Here they are at the airport. Megan is taking a year off after high school, and is working in a Disney store in Edmonton, where she lives, and was able to get 10 park-hopper passes for Disney World, so she and Melissa were able to spend 5 days at Disney parks! Weren't they lucky?
One day, while they were at a park, Paul and I went to Disney Springs, formerly called Downtown Disney. In the Christmas store, I found a display of Dalmatian puppies, and you know how much I love dalmatians!
Paul was quite taken with these amphibian cars. Anna and Rylee, I would like you to see if you can find out what an amphibian car is.
This was another thing that I found fascinating. It is a saucer-shaped hydroplane, built in 1966, and is powered by a 40 horse-power outboard motor. It can pull a water-skier at speeds of up to 35 miles per hour. There is no steering wheel, and is steered by the driver standing up, holding the rail, and leaning in the direction he wants to go! Sounds to me like an accident looking for a place to happen!
I was sitting on the knee of Irishman Patrick Kavanagh, a poet who wrote the poem, On Raglan Road in Dublin, Ireland. The bench and the figure, along with his hat on the bench, were made of bronze, and he was very shiny in places, which means a LOT of people have sat on his knee! He is sitting outside an Irish restaurant called Raglan Road in Disney Springs.
There is a Lego store in Disney Springs that has several life-sized Lego works of art outside of it. This one is by far my very favorite! It is huge, and right in the water.
Well that's it for now, girls. You have a few things to find out and answer in your books. Good luck! Until next week.......
Friday, we went to the Osceola County Fair, which is not as good as the Port Hope Fair! Luckily, since we first bought tickets for the rodeo at night, they gave us free tickets to get into the fair. It has a HUGE midway, but not a whole lot of anything else. I sure loved the pro rodeo later, though!
Here I am tackling these two bulls!
And this is Sally, the camel - pretty, isn't she?
Guess I never really looked at the back end of a zebra - even the tail is striped!
What a beautiful bird is this parrot! Amazing how the colours overlap each other. I love how God made such wonderfully colourful creatures such as this and the zebra!
I was able to go inside a big cage filled with dozens of budgies. Apparently I could have purchased some food to take in, but I didn't. They all flew right at me until they figured out that I didn't have anything for them.
This is "Papa Wheelie". Cool name, eh?
This car was the result of someone's choice to text while driving. The sign says "If you're texting, You're not driving".
There was a man sitting in a booth with a few of these cute little animals. The sign said "Sugar Gliders, the Perfect Pocket Pet". Anna and Rylee, could you look these up and see what kind of animal they are? They sure are cute! And the man had them in his shirt pockets.
This lovely creature is someone's "pet" It was in a glass terrarium, and was actually resting its head on a pillow, and was covered by a blanket.
Once again, I was able to go into a screened area with butterflies. This is the prettiest of the ones that I saw. Anna and Rylee, see if you can find out what kind it is.
I loved this pink police motorcycle which is to bring awareness to breast cancer. The officers who were there assured me it is on the streets every day.
This weird-looking chicken looks MAD! Glad he was behind bars!
Several of the cages with chickens in them had eggs in them. I was wishing I could collect them and take them home!
Beautiful orange blossoms in a citrus display area.
I didn't know that peaches are grown in Florida. I wonder if peaches, like citrus, have blossoms on the tree at the same time as the fruit when they grow in a warm climate like this. ???
This was a fun show, and we were made "honourary cousins" to the Sweenies, who claim to be swamp-billies, rather than hill-billies, since they live in Florida, where there are no hills.
This sweet little rabbit was sipping from his water bottle.
We watched a lumberjack show called the "Paul Bunyan Lumberjack Show" Anna and Rylee, see if you can find out who Paul Bunyan was.
There was a mechanical bull that you could pay to ride. This little girl did really well. You can tell that she has probably been to a lot of rodeos.
Have you ever watched pig races? Believe it or not, the treat that they are running for is Oreos!
Pot bellied pigs do NOT run! They lumbered around the track, with their bellies dragging on the ground!
I think this is the funniest looking chicken I have ever seen. At first, we thought it was losing its feathers around the neck, then we noticed the name is " Naked-necked Chicken" - weird!
And now to the rodeo! It is a professional rodeo, and went on at the "Silver Spurs Arena" for 3 days and nights. Always at the beginning of the rodeo, the Florida Rodeo Queen rides out with a flag, the emcee prays for the safety of the contestants and the animals, and then they sing their national anthem. I'm always amazed by the praying part!
Have you ever heard of the "Dueling Violins", where the devil challenges the professional to a duel?
Well, they played the song, but it was the "Devil" versus a cowboy showing their skills with lariats. Fire, fireworks, and all! Exciting, and well-done!
My very favorite part of the rodeo is the bull-riding! There were several Canadian boys there as well.
Another event is called steer wrestling.
This is another one I like watching - Bareback riding. This is Kody Lamb from Sherwood Park, Alberta.
And this is Kyle Bowers from Drayton Valley, Alberta.
This is called Tie Down Roping - also fun to watch.
Saddle Bronc Riding is different from the Bareback Riding in that these horses have saddles and bridles, and the others didn't.
Everyone had a good laugh about this! The horse stepped out when the gate was opened, and just stood there!
Of course, the cowboy got to have a re-ride, and he won with his re-ride. He was a Canadian called Clay Elliot, from Nanton, Alberta.
The rodeo clown, who claimed to have no knowledge of motorcycles, took this "Wild Child's" motorcycle for a spin, and of course, she was quite upset.
She stomped out of the arena, and the clown proceeded to ride the bike around the arena, and over the truck and trailer! Hmmm, methinks it was planned!
Girls, I think you would both have been involved in this activity! All the kids in the audience between 7 and 10 were invited to take part in the "calf scramble". They turned loose 3 calves with ribbons tied on their tails, and the kids that got the ribbons off their tails got prizes. What a scramble! Friday was called "Rodeo Day", which is a holiday in Osceola County! Go figure! No wonder there were so many kids at the fair and the rodeo!
Anna, I know that YOU know what a zamboni is, so maybe you can make sure Rylee knows as well. I guess that's what you would call this tractor in a rodeo arena!
Finally, we have something that the cow-GIRLS can participate in! The barrel racing.
These horses really go fast, and you can tell that they love it - they know just what to do! And while they are waiting, they are just prancing, so eager to go!
Well, that's it for today. Good luck, Anna and Rylee finding the answers to my questions. See you next week. Have a good one!
