Florida Trip Part Three

There I was.............standing in front of Cinderella's Castle at Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom. I have been here before.....a few times......when the kids were small. This time.....I am with the grandkids. Life is good.

This place is so impressive that if you cannot enjoy yourself here, then you must be a miserable snot of a person that never has a good time. As it just so happened, there was a large contingent of contestants for a beauty pageant in attendance and we would see them everywhere we went.


As I approached the castle, there was a group of them standing together......maybe they were going over some instructions from their chaperone............so I did what Ole Signtopia always seems to do..............it meant that this was a perfect opportunity for one of my infamous "action photos".......hehehe. So I walked up to them and told them to raise their hands..........and voila!

Looking up at the castle.......there is so much detail to this building. If you look closely, you can see what appears to be netting. Initially, I thought maybe it was there to keep birds off......but we later found out the real reason.

You can't take your eyes off of the castle.............except when some beauty contestants pose for an action photo.....hehehe.

My grandson, the Mayor Of Simpleton, thought he could get the sword out of its place.

It ain't gonna happen, buddy......hehehe.

Everytime I looked at the castle, it seemed to have changed.............throughout the day.

From how it looks in daylight......to how it looks in twilight..............

.........and how it looked during the fireworks...........

........and then ultimately how it looked after the Fairy Godmother lit it up so that it looked like ice crystals covering the castle. It was when this occurred that we knew the real reason for that netting. There must have been thousands of lights on that building. The photo does not do it any justice.....you would have to see this for yourself with your own eyes. I am glad I got to see this......amazing and magical.

A must see at the Magic Kingdom is the nightly Spectra Magic parade. This parade is stunning and Disney pulls out all of the stops for this one. Everybody lines up the streets......crammed like sardines.....waiting for it to begin. Oh, and by the way.........nice Christmas decorations everywhere, too.

The parade began and it was stunning. I don't know how many lights they use....but I can tell you that there are lights everywhere....on the floats......on the people........everything in the parade.

Here's Chip & Dale at the piano.

You should see the faces of people as they looked at each float approaching.

Of course, this is Ariel, the Mermaid Princess. She also happens to be one of Princess Fartknocker's favorite Disney characters. Yep........she was in the parade.

This is Ariel's parade float................amazing stuff.

.........And you gotta have Minnie Mouse in the parade.........who doesn't like this?

At the end of the day......and it was an entire day.........we got on the tram to take us back to our cars. If you have ever been here, you know what this is like.

I have some more to share with you about my day at the Magic Kingdom and I will write about that in the next few days.

Stay tuned!

Florida Trip Part 1

We made it to Florida safe and sound.............we even arrived a bit too early and had to kill off some time. The villa would not be available to us until 4 pm on Saturday. Originally, we figured we would stop in Daytona Beach but I figured that we could head to the Kennedy Space Center and that would be perfect for a time killer. We had taken the kids to the Space Center when the kids were small and I thought it would be great to take the grandkids there.

After parking the cars, we walked to the entrance of the Kennedy Space Center and I was stunned at the site of the ticket booths...............it costs alot of money to visit the space center now. When we had been here before, it was always free of charge except for the bus tour that takes you out to the launch pads. I was disgusted...........well.......I was pretty pissed off about this. We all decided that this wasn't gonna flush...............

Number Two Son posed next to the price sign. As you can see, what was once free is no longer free. I always thought of the Space Center being our tax dollars at work. This property belongs to every citizen of the United States. We all paid our tax dollars for this. We already paid.......and we ain't gonna pay no more. This is just yet another form of raising tax dollars even higher. Since they have done this.........they will soon charge (if they haven't already begun to do so) for everything you want to visit in Washington DC........such as the Smithsonian, the Air & Space Museum, etc. Don't get me wrong here, I believe that the Space Center is a worthwhile place to visit. Obviously, many people think so as well. The Space Center always attracted a huge amount of visitors.............when it was free. I would bet that those numbers have dropped in a huge way now that they charge a fee.

So this is all that my grandkids got to see. These taxpayer funded museum pieces of history sit within view of all who approached the entrance. As it turned out, I really needed to visit the men's room and fortunately for me there were facilities near the entrance. I looked inside the front doors of the attraction and saw what you would see at every airport...........scanners and checkpoint charlie.........people had to remove their shoes and empty their belongings into bins for "security purposes". Now I was furious about this whole situation. I told Supernurse...."This men's room had better be clean or I am gonna dump a huge load right on the floor of this place!." Supernurse started to laugh but she knows I was serious and would actually have done such a thing.............I did this once at a gas station/convenience store halfway between Nashville and Baltimore. Fortunately for everyone involved, the restroom was very clean this time......hehehe.

Because we had lived in Merritt Island for some time awhile back, I pretty much knew my way around and decided that Cocoa Beach was a very short drive away.........so we got into the cars and headed to the beach to kill off some time.

When we lived here, Cocoa Beach was never a place that we spent time......we had other thing to do.........but I do remember it as being a place that surfers enjoyed. We headed for the pier area and yes......there were surfers there. Unfortunately, the weather was not ideal.......it was very breezy and cold. Yes, it gets cold in Florida sometimes.

I am surprised that the pier is still here. After spending the majority of vacations lately in the Caribbean, this beach almost hurt to look at it.

Apparently nobody bothers to remove the seaweed that washes up onto the beach........and I got the impression that not many folks bother to use trash cans. Oh well...........this was gonna have to do for now......so we walked around and picked up alot of shells.

Number Two Son and his friend Dave were analyzing the situation.

They watched the surfers in the water..........and the few brave souls that dared go for a swim. The water was rather rough.

My grandson, Mayor Of Simpleton, roamed the beach for shells.

It looks to me that underneath the pier, you can see that things ain't very straight. You can rest assured that this might not be here too much longer...........if a hurricane has its way with it.

As you can see, not very many people were out on the beach......way too cold.


Princess Fartknocker was busy getting shells........she seemed to enjoy herself except when one of the seagulls came near her.

I love the beach........but I was not loving this one. This was dissappointing.............the USA could do better than this.

One last look before we headed west to Kissimmee.

We arrived in Kissimmee.......and we immediately found a Krystal burger place. My daughter just had to have some Krystal burgers. After we feasted on Krystals, we finally arrived at our destination.

Whoa..............this is the "villa"..............nice.............this beats staying at a hotel.

Here is a look beyond the rear wall behind the house. Nicely landscaped.

And there is a really nice built-in pool and it is screened in to keep all of those notorious Florida bugs away.
But it is too cold for a dip right now......we will have to wait for the pool to heat up in a day or two.

There is a small kiddie pool and a jacuzzi!...........exactly what we needed.

I will put up the pictures of the interior of the "villa" in the next installment..............you know you want to see inside.

We all settled in and got plenty of rest after the long road trip. Sunday came and it was Game Time!..............all of the boys and men must see the Ravens game and we went to a place called Beef O'Brady's to watch the game and eat. Of course the Ravens won!.........it was a nice treat to start off my birthday.

Later that day, we all loaded up the cars and headed to a place called Angel's for dinner. Lobster........all you can eat!

The place was pretty interesting.............lots of neon and memorabilia.

Imagine that..........Number Two Son had essentially the same coat.

My grandson, Signtopia Expansion Pack 2.1, was ready to gobble up some food.

Princess Fartknocker, is obviously in a state of bliss in anticipation of seeing all of her favorite characters at Disney............uh........maybe she was in heaven because they had macaroni and cheese here...............oh well...........

This dinner was very special for me. My daughters wanted to take me somewhere special for dinner on my birthday and anytime you can have seafood, including lobster.......all you can eat.......well........that is pretty special......................but for me, what is more special than that is,........that they were with me. I could have been just as happy sitting on a curb eating a hot dog as long as they were with me on my birthday.

So we continued the celebration of my birthday by heading back to the "villa" for some cake..........yes.........chocolate cake.......mmmmmmmmm.

And there I was................it was a darned good thing there was only one candle. With all the hair on my face, it isn't a good idea to be anywhere near 53 flaming pieces of wax.

The adventure begins...............

Happy Birthday to ME!

Yet Another Milestone

Damn........sometimes you wake up and come to realize where exactly you are. I shall explain.......It was January 13th, 2008. Not just another day.....but another milestone. This was one of those days where you are flagrantly reminded about time. As it was......it has been a long road........but I am happy and am wealthy in so many non-financial respects.......I guess I can say that I have succeeded way beyond anyone's expectations and odds.

On January 13th, 1986 our fourth child was born in Baltimore, Maryland. A few months prior, we were living in Florida..........specifically Leesburg, Florida. What many do not realize was how difficult that particular time was. As it was..........Wifey-Poo was very pregnant but this pregnancy was a bit different. At one point there was a bloody discharge...........what?.....what is going wrong? I didn't understand all of this pregnancy stuff......even though we were already three children strong........."is the baby moving around?". Gosh......I even remember words being said....."stomach is hardening"......."cannot detect a heartbeat". I guess this was the first time I experienced that feeling of impending doom. The second time I felt impending doom was when I suffered a heart attack several years later. I did not understand any of this....something was wrong and the doctor did not seem to be able to give us solid answers.........certainly not the kind of answers we wanted to hear. I remember hearing "there must have been twins and one was rejected".......huh?.......and....."this one too shall pass in its due course".........what the in hell is that? Needless to say, this was extremely traumatic to hear......we were stunned. This cannot be happening......it isn't possible.

It is times like that which really tests your faith in a Supreme Being. This is cruel.

So time passed........all the while we anticipated what we had been told. Imagine what my wife went through........carrying a fairly fully developed infant inside her.....being told that there is no heartbeat.....and that she would have to wait for it to pass...................THIS is not acceptable. No way....no how. Miracles do happen though...........as it was.........everything we were told was seriously flawed................somehow a heartbeat happened.............the baby was alive and well!

It was at that point I decided that the family would move out of Florida and return to Baltimore. My thoughts were.........there are not only more hospitals there.....but far more doctors. We no longer had any trust in the doctor in Florida. Baltimore was home for me.........it is my comfort zone. (even as bad as it sometimes is there) I quit my fairly decent job.........and hustled up alot of interior graphics work to get enough money for us to move. We rented a small U-Haul trailer, hitched it up, loaded it up.....and headed north. So there we were......in Baltimore........and this baby is coming quickly............and thank God that Wifey-Poo and baby were doing fine.....so far so good.

And then on January 13th, 1986, our son BooBoo was born. Whew!

I guess we will never really know for sure if he was supposed to have been a twin........all we do know is how close we came to losing him. In the years that followed, he had a fairly normal childhood............barney rubble feet, using same for brakes on his big wheel.............my buddy ole pal............I have to smile as I look back.

But on this particular day, it is my Buddy Ole Pal's birthday.........BooBoo is 22 years old!

You cannot imagine how delighted I am on this day. Miracles DO happen........and this should be a testimony to that fact.

So here I sit, today..............I am a blessed person. I have raised the family that I always wanted..........my children are all of legal age now............it has been a long, long journey. I know that there will come a time......one day.......that perhaps I run out of time. It pains me deeply to even consider any thought of any possibility of being without my kids. Sure, I know that they grew up and they have alot of life to life.......even raising their own children..........and they are fully capable of surviving in this world. Yet, the inevitable will come one day.

One thing I DO know for sure...........my children should have no doubts in their minds how important they are to me..............aside from Supernurse, they have been my life.

I am proud of each one of my kids...............if I have made any mark on this earth, they are it.

BooBoo, you have turned out to be quite a great guy. Happy Birthday!