The Crayola Experience, Orlando

(There's a crayon in my brain?)

The Crayola Experience, Orlando.
Located along the backside of the Florida Mall is one of Orlando's newer tourist attraction. Taking the place of what was a 70,000 SqFt Nordstrom, the Crayola Experience has been open for about a year but we had yet to experience it, Jeff was able to get passes from a Team Member day and we set off to check the place out. I had wanted to go since it opened but just... hadn't.

Well, uh, here goes nothing!

Woo, The Crayola Experience, Orlando

Part giant gift shop, part discovery center.

Pick Your Pack in the gift shop lets you make your own box of crayons picking from 99 of Crayola’s most popular colors.

Art on the wall showing the Crayon Factory...

History of the boxes and colors within, sadly this is the only real 'historical' part of the experience.
And while I get its geared more to kids, a few more displays like this wouldn't have hurt.

Different colors in the Crayola family.

The "Color Playground" Uh... I didn't climb up in it....

But I did make custom named crayons at the Wrap it up! station.
(Shout out to the SMAC Food Truck)

 Inside of the Crayon Factory you can watch how they make the crayons. It was pretty neat.

I made a Poop Emoji at the Art Alive station, but it failed to get put on the live wall.. haha

Drip Art was probably the coolest thing in here, its pretty much spin art made with melting crayons.
I made this lovely blue and green one....

And... Jeff made this yellow and orange one.

That's pretty much it. I'm glad I got to check out the place... but I did so for free. They say you should plan to spend 3 or 4 hours in here, I doubt I could have, even as a kid. There just didn't seem to be enough to do, and there seemed to be a lot of empty space. Also, at $19 person it seems a bit over priced for what you get inside. Maybe more will be added in the future. Online they claim to had 25 different attractions within but I could only count maybe half that.

Woo?

The Orlando Cat Café!

Heaven, in Clermont?

Oh man, the Orlando Cat Café!

I mean... Where else can you get a piece of pie and play with cats at the same time?!

(Season Passes are available!)
The cat room is said to have 12 to 15 cats roaming around in the Cat Play Area/Adoption Area at any given time... but by roaming, they really mean being lazy and napping <3 ...and for those who just want to see the cats without going in the cat room itself, there is a viewing window from the cafe area. It was so hard to not walk out of there without adopting most of the cats in there... but I guess that's the overall point. While its nice to just play with the cats... the overall goal is to find homes for all the cats inside <3

Ok, lets do this....

Ooooooh man! The Cat Café!

But first, snacks and drinks!
And it all goes to help the cats!!

Mmm, peanut butter pie... <3

But even better, the cat room!!!

Where there was this napping cat.

And this cat trying to hide...

And this sleepy cat :D

And this cat too!
(!!!)

This lovely boxed cat

And this cat, my personal favorite of the day!
Yeesssssss

Although this might be my runner up....
Awww <3 :D

Also, also, this TOWER of cats!

And this pretty cool climbing feature...
but I didn't get to see any of the cats use it.
yay, Cats!

Montani Semper Liberi, Charleston.

Well, since I only just drove past it some seven years ago......
On my way home to Florida from Ohio, I made a quick detour to the West Virginia State House in Charleston, West Virginia.

Since there wasn't anywhere to (legally) park... This was a fast photo-n-dash stop, sadly. I would have liked to stop and maybe spend some time touring around.. But the only parking spots I saw for blocks were 'reserved' despite all of them being empty...  I just took my few photos and left.

Woo, the Capitol Complex

Map of the area.

Historical marker in front of the building.

The State House.
Built from 1925 to 1931 and listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Annddd.... at a height almost 300 feet, it's the tallest building in the state.
(or shorter than at least six roller coasters I've ridden!)

Hey look! I'm in West Virginia, willingly.

The Abraham Lincoln Walks At Midnight statue

The Capitol is built right along the Kanawha River, a tributary of the Ohio River.

...and there's also this Zero Mile Stone marker there.
Uh, the West Virginia State Capitol Zero Mile Stone, its used for all highway measurements in the state.

Yup, checking off another state house visit. :D
(woo)