Nature Connects: a LEGO display not sponsored by LEGO

Soooo... for my birthday... Jeff took me to the Leu Gardens in Orlando to see the Nature Connects: Art with LEGO Bricks display. We had been to the gardens a few years prior but after finding out they were having a LEGO event... He knew I wanted to go check it out.. So fresh off the plane from my own birthday gift to myself, a whirlwind trek across Southeast Asia.. We headed off to the gardens! (listed on the National Register of Historic Places!)

The 'event' features 16 sculptures in 13 displays all made out of LEGO's, some 450,000 bricks... placed all around the 50 acre garden. Even with the provided map showing the general area the models were placed.. some of them were harder to find than others...

So yeah, Nature Connects: Art with LEGO Bricks!
(woo)

Gardening Grandfather with Granddaughter
46,940 bricks

Peacock
68,827 bricks

Ant Mosaic
12,990 bricks

 Galapagos Tortoise and Darwin Finch
23,317 bricks
(by far the hardest model to find... we even found other people who were lost looking for this one!)

Birdbath
14,802 bricks
(I love the little LEGO squirrel!)

Giant Pansy
29,314 bricks

Roseate Skimmer Dragonfly
 7,788 bricks

Wheelbarrow
29,900 bricks

     Hummingbird and Trumpet Flower
61,107 bricks

Giant Corn Spider
16,492 bricks

Monarch Butterfly on Milkweed
39,708 bricks

Buck, Doe and Fawn
84,442 bricks
(aww)
((also, I guess I missed getting the Buck in this shot... so lets make that 15 sculptures in 13 display, oops))

And last, my favorite....
The LEGO Bonsai Tree! Built with 9,143 bricks...
(And I would totally buy this as a kit!)

Yup

Uh... Pig on the Pond?

Uh... So there's this thing called Pig on the Pond that been happening in Clermont, FL for the past 20 years... And... I had never even heard of it until a few weeks ago... But since there was a carnival midway.. I felt the need the check it out.
 (Maybe a bonus coaster? hm. but sadly, there was none to be found.)

So uh, yeah... Pig on the Pond.
Oink?

The event was surprisingly busy.

And featured live music and BBQ....
as well as a small ride midway.

Was my first time seeing a 'full size' Expo Wheel.
Having only ridden the slightly smaller version of it a year ago at the Lake County Fair.

Wisdom built Silver Streak mini Himalaya.

ARM built Rock Star.

Wisdom built full sized Himalaya.

Sellner /Larson built Funnel Force.

and... a Hrubetz built Round-Up

woo.

 (hey look, an update... after like... half a year of me being lazy, sorry about that. Not like anyone really sees any of these.. ha)

The Vue at 360

The Vue at 360, or... The Worlds Tallest StarFlyer!

I'm not sure why Orlando needs a second StarFlyer... uh, basically a block from the first American one at Magical Midway... But whatever, I-Drive 360, Home to the Orlando Eye decided to go ahead and build what will be the tallest StarFlyer ride in the world, standing some 420 feet tall and I'll be sure to ride it!

Once it opens, supposedly next spring, it will replace the New England SkyScreamer at Six Flags New England by 10 feet or so becoming the tallest swing tower in the world.

 Having 'been in the works' some 3 years now... It was almost a surprise to see ground work actually start on this project.

(Unlike say, the Polar Coaster that still hasn't done much of anything, a block away)

 Ground work for a building. 

Assuming this will be bathrooms and tickets.

 The ride foundation has been placed and loading area paved.

What looks to be the queue has also been marked off.

 There was active work going on, despite the rain, while I was there.

 After 3 years, it was nice to see work progress.

Orlando has a bad habit of things being announced and never, ever happening.
I had almost forgotten about this project until I saw a photo showing off ground work! ha

Woo?

A quick visit to Sea Life Orlando

Since it was raining and I didn't wanna go to Epcot.... I made my second visit to Sea Life Orlando. I hadn't been since the place first opened and not much has changed. The place is nice but its small and extremely overpriced for what you get. They also seem to no longer use the odd 360 movie when you first enter, before you get to all the fish tanks. Hmm.

So, uh, Sea Life Orlando
(and now for a few random photos of fish and stuff)

See, fish.... and uh, stuff.

Jellyfish, also, I hate them.

But I liked this little orange fish.

More fish... and more stuff?

Oh look! Even more fish!

I think this diver was being attacked by these fish.
maybe?

But also, Seahorses <3

And lastly, these fish.

Yup

The 2017 Marion County Fair!

AKA, There's more than corn in Indiana!
(oh wait. wrong place)

Woo! The 2017 Marion County Fair!
My first County Fair outside of Florida and my first fair in Indiana with a ride midway provided by North American Midway Entertainment (NAME)

I don't know... Isn't this some sort of symbolic reference.
Fields of corn in Indiana and then suddenly....rides? 

Once inside the odd side gate I ended up parking next to... I found myself in front of the Fair Cafe and Market Place.
But also, next to the animal areas!
(Somehow Rob... Who was basically following behind my car the whole way to the fair... ended up in the main central parking lot and I ended up on the other end of the fairgrounds... haha)

Lala llama

Yeessssssss!!!
<3 quack quack <3
🦆 🦆 🦆 🦆 🦆 🦆 🦆

Hello, Mr. Camel

Oh... and some Chickens!

It happened to be Dollar Day on the day of our visit. Not knowing what the ride lineup was gonna be, this was rather exciting since it meant we could cover a large number of rides without spending a bunch of money. Sadly, the midway was rather lackluster although not overly shocking as the Indiana State Fair, also held in Indianapolis runs about a month later... So in the end we got a 10 pack of tickets, 5 rides between the two of us and we still had fun.
(I don't know... I feel like it needed to be noted... So at the end of this post there is a somewhat long ramble about fate and trip planning)
With our tickets in hand... We quickly made our way to the first of two coaster credits to be found on the midway today <3

Behold this lovely... uh... Wacky Worm
NAME owns three of these beasts...
and now I've ridden two of them.
(And about 30 of them... overall)

But hey, plus one? Oh and look...
The row ahead of me has the lap bar zip-tied open...
(and the row ahead of that... and ahead of that)

But don't worry....my row was DOUBLE tied... open.

The second coaster was this Orient Express.
NAME owns five of these!
(two that I've ridden, haha)

Its very impressive, I know.
Edit: Rob thought I should mention that when we rode the Orient Express after going around a few laps some children were too scared and wanted to get off... they kept us on, and sent the train around like 11 times in total. "Too many"

This was my second time seeing the KT Enterprises Twister. I had seen it in Miami nearly 10 years earlier but had to skip it due to time limits...
We rode it here in Indiana... But the ride was clearly not being run properly. What you see it doing here, is all it did.
(the entire ride platform is supposed to rise at about a 60 degree angle, seen here in an older video)

This Kamikaze/Sky Master type ride by the name Screamer was closed. I would have used my Twister tickets on it, had it been open. :(

The older style Round-Up looked rather nice... Although since it was placed in the ride clearance area of the Ferris Wheel... it stayed flat the whole cycle, and never raised.
(hmm, a trend here?)
Skipped!

The Chance Yo-Yo also looked nice. I don't think I've ever seen so much Pink/Green/Yellow used at a single fair. haha

And yet, the Chance Ferris Wheel was so..... basic?
But we had to ride it, had to.

Hey look, Downtown Indianapolis

Overview of most of the midway
Not really a bad/small lineup.. Although a bit less than what I was hoping from a County Fair in the states Capital.

An older style Ring of Fire, with the lap bar train and going by the name Firestorm.
(or what Six Flags now calls a coaster.... hahahahahha)

Fun House themed to 1950's style classic cars.
Infernal Combustion.
Never seen one like this before

And back to lots of yellow and pink, this time on a Sizzler.
...Pretty sure this was the first time I'd seen a pink Sizzler.

...And before heading out to make our way down to Louisville, Kentucky where our hotel was that night (just under 2 hours drive) we had enough tickets for one last ride

Used on this lovely KMG Freak Out <3
One of my favorites

And... uh, it wouldn't be a random blog post if there wasn't a photo of me in it somewhere!
(fun things are fun)
Woo

*Long unnecessary ramble*

(But I guess it is my blog so I can say what I want?)

 So back at the end of last year, or the start of this year... When Rob and I were first talking about doing an Ohio/Indiana coaster trip.... There was a plan/idea to do the trip we ended up doing in the end of June, at the end of July and start of August... So we could line it up when both the Indiana State Fair and the Ohio State Fair overlap. I had issues getting time off from Disney in that time frame... So June it was (Typical I take a week in June and a week in August) as luck would have it, Rob found that while we were in Indianapolis, the Marion County Fair would be going on and we quickly added it to our itinerary. June comes and goes and we have fun at the fair.... But then the end of July comes and a shocking and horrifying (disturbing) event happens at the Ohio State Fair, on its opening night. It was pretty eye-opening to us both and we quickly chatted about our original trip plans. Not to say it would have been us, or that we would have even been there that day or whatever... But it was still just... a thought. damn.
Since that incident I haven't come across a KMG Afterburner again in my travels, although if one does appear in Central Florida again. I would still ride it. It truly is one of my favorite rides and I genuinely feel safe on both amusement park and carnival rides, having ridden Afterburners hundreds of times over the years.