Hot air balloon's near Disney World

Yup.... Here's a few.........

Thrilling!

Really, Irene?

Story Time! - So I've lived in Orlando, Florida for two years now and there has yet to be a Hurricane... the ONE weekend I get to come home to Boston and they're the ones about to get hit by one... The first in 20 years... Back in 1991, before I was even in Kindergarten, Hurricane Bob hit Massachusetts... The only Hurricane I've ever "been" in. Now I'm stuck here waiting for Irene to make her moves.... And shes doing a pretty good job at ruining my trip but at least day one went off without a hitch.

OK, lets do this... Yorks!

Childhood memories from 20 years ago!... aww
(hey look at that... something else 20 years in the making)

 It's a Zoo Amusement Park Fair

Quack, quack, quack... Moving on!

((because))

After 15 years or so without a coaster..... The Zoo/Park has added this!

Wacky...Mouse

 Got my $2 in ride tokens... (thanks MOM)

And........... Cha-Ching? #665 I believe..... and certainly worth the 1,200 mile trek.

Oh hey and they have......

A Scrambler

And a Round-Up

After all that excitement I took a lovely stroll across the street and into York Beach, Maine.

An old New England seaside town? It'd be pretty if not for all the power lines.. everywhere.

Ah, much better! And so different looking/feeling than the Florida beaches I've been to this year.

Uh, or not.

FUN O RAMA

(That can only mean one thing!!!)

Cake flavored Ice Cream.

And some pretty beach side houses before Hurricane Irene destroys them

(like she destroyed the rest of my trip)

Ah, a nice 2 hour trip to Maine... Because nothing is better than being at work till 1.45am, being at the airport by 4.30, getting to Melrose by 11, and then sitting in a small car with your entire family for a few hours just so you can ride some stupid-ass-little-kiddie-coaster that you've already ridden at least 20 others of already.... but not this one and you needed to mark it off on Coaster-Count so your life could be complete.... and to top if off Not 1, nor 2, but 3 of your flights back home have been canceled due to the first Hurricane to hit New England in 20 years! [/RANT]

And a photo to leave this post with...

Disney's Pocahonts King! Yeah...

Who knew Tampa was more than just Busch Gardens?

And that we'd get lost......

So Nick and I went to Busch Gardens after weeks of trying to plan a trip out there.. After being rained out of the park we decided it would be a good idea to try and find downtown Tampa... In the process of that we kinda ended up at an Air Force base, oops.... And then some random little pier/park thing, Ballast Point.

Yup

Ballast Point Park, thrilling.

 I'm sure......

Hey look, a pier. It seemed like a good idea to walk down to its end, during a thunder storm...

So a-walking we went.

And what did we find along the way??? well...

Fishing poles...

A bucket with blue crabs in it?

And some fish that got cut the fish up

"It's hauntingly beautiful"

d'oh! Its not even the Gulf :( just Hillsborough/Tampa Bay
(maybe next time....)
And with the storms rolling back in.. and me not wanting to get my camera anymore wet than it already was... we ran back to Nicks car. yay
Oh yeah, and Tampa is like.. a real city..

See?

...or get off the pot.

So.. pretty much from the second I moved here... Jeff told me we were gonna go here someday because he had never been and it was something I'd like to do as well.......... Two years later we made it to Bok Tower // Bok Mountain Lake Sanctuary and Singing Tower (two years and a few nudge-nudge-jokes)

Random filler text stolen from Wiki - Bok Tower Gardens (also known as Bok Mountain Lake Sanctuary and Singing Tower) is a botanical garden and bird sanctuary, located north of Lake Wales, Florida, United States. It consists of a 250-acre (1 k2) garden, the 205-foot (62 m) tall Singing Tower with its carillon  bells, Pine Ridge Trail, Pinewood Estate, and a visitor center. The tower is built upon Iron Mountain, one of the highest points of peninsular Florida, estimated to be 295 feet (90 m) above sea level.  It is a National Historic Landmark that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. - Yup, now I don't need to fill in the back story...

So here we go... Bok Tower Gardens

Little model thing that shows whats inside the tower... America's Taj Mahal apparently.

 Little map of other 'singing towers' (Woo, New England!)

Yup, we just drove like an hour from Orlando to look at flowers....

 Oh hey, and to hear this tower sing

And to see the lovely view from one of the highest points in Florida. (haha)

 Holy crap, Lilly-Pads!

 And a big scary Spider...

And a kitty with one eye.

AND A SQUIRREL!!!

Oh yeah, and like.. gardens and stuff. Pretty eh?

 Heh, what a loser......... 

Someday I'll have a dragon headed fence around my house too, just you wait...

(Neat, eh?)

But I really do wanna try something like this with Tillandsia at my house.

(Eww, they're related to the pineapple!)

So yeah, that's about it.. Bok Tower is cool.. But its kinda far from Orlando. Once Legoland opens down the road maybe it'll be worth a revisit, although that's not to say it wasn't worth a visit in the first place, it was. And it was one more thing to mark down as 'Real Florida' on my ever-growing list.... 

(and thanks Jeff for a fun filled day)

Then I'm walking in Memphis, oh wait.

Memphis, Atlanta? Uh, ok.
So all good things must come to and end eh? After visiting Iowa, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas for the first time (and revisiting Missouri) hitting parks like Worlds of Fun, Adventureland, and Fun Plex... Annddd going to Zoo's, Waterfalls, and sketchy motels all over.... It was time to head back to DES and fly home to Orlando, by way of Memphis. But first! One last zoo, the state house, and uh.. a sleepy red panda? Ok, lets do this.

Des Moines, Iowa... Capital City and most populated in Iowa, very exciting. Since the Zoo didn't open till 10 I took some time to explore downtown.

Hippo checks out the State House. Thrilling (hey mom! Hippo could use a new vest :P )

And here we are.. Blank Park Zoo (that's Zoo #3 if you're counting..)

There's a lot of construction activity around the zoo with 2 new areas being built, sadly I missed the Australian area by just a few days.... :(

Across the Zoo (and kinda splitting it in two during construction..) is the new Sea Lions pool area. The Zoo is having this crazzzzy contest where the winner will get a chance.. TO SWIM... in the pools! (kinda bad ass if you ask me)

Oh wow! a Chance C.P. Huntington Train...

I had to ride it... And it had a tunnel!
Oh yeah, and it is a zoo after all... so lets see some animals...

Awww, BABBY Swans :D

A Hippo! (well, kinda..)

Fish, inside the neat little 'Discovery Center' at the main entrance.

Sleepy...red...panda! :D

Annddd a sleepy Snow Leopard too!

And... a not so sleepy Tiger, doing his thing.

Another day another Giraffeosaurus-Rex...

 Speaking of Rex's... they had this awful DINOSAURS thing... in the back (I wonder if this is the same crap Kings Island got)

Yeah.... moving on.

From fake Dino's to fake Cows!

And real Penguins :) (having lunch!)

Awwwwwwwwwww! Serval!!!
 After contemplating smuggling it out in my backpack..  it was time to leave and make the short two mile drive to the airport.

Ah, DES... To MEM I go..... how silly of me for thinking that.

So much for Memphis... ATLANTA.... But I got to go to Great Wraps.
(and wait hours upon hours for my connection to Orlando)

Ahh, back home in Orlando. Everyone is starting their vacations here.. And I'm ending mine.
Sorry this update took so long. Having gotten home so late I just kinda passed out.. And then I had car issues..and then photobucket had issues... and then I had work.. So yeah, sorry.

And for a quick recap... I was in Florida, Illinois, Iowa*, South Dakota*, Nebraska*, Missouri, Kansas*, and Georgia.. Drove over 1000 miles in less than a week.. Visited 3 Zoos, 3 Amusement Parks, 2 Arcades with a coaster, 1 Family Fun Center, and a Water Fall... I wonder where my next vacation will take me?