2012 Florida State Fair video... in HD :O

Yup, that's about it....

 

So many good flat rides... And most of them are so much better, at night.

COW DUCKS

They don't quack..... they moo.

 Happy Leap Year / Leap Day!

 ((I know, I know... I keep saying I'll have a real update sometime soon... But this time I mean it!))

Osceola County Fair, for a few minutes

Osceola County Fair, my first visit although I'd passed it a few years ago. Didn't see what I was looking for and kept on my way.... This year would be the year I'd finally make the stop. Kinda odd having  just left the Florida State Fair not even 20 hours earlier!

Ok, lets do this..

Osceloa County Fair, woot. Doesn't have much going on for it..
but.........it has this.

The ONLY reason I'm here....

TOP SPIN!

(see how happy I am for once?)

having seen it SBNO 5 years ago or so.. And then having it be a 'No-Show' at the past say... 12 Strates fairs I've haunted... I tracked it down in Kissimmee. Damn. (but it was worth it for a well run Huss ride!!!)

From what I was able to find online it had really just come back on the road/rails last summer in Augusta, then it had a 'news worthy' incident at the New York State Fair... And it's made it way back to Florida.

So with that taken care of, it was time to stroll the midway, well, the part that still had power. It seemed like 4 or 5 rides were all powerless but were up and running later in the night.

 One of the two tracked dark rides at the fair, Ghettolovely.

Midway games and such...

 Musik Express was at the back end of the midway, we skipped it.
(had done it at the Seminole County Fair)

Hey look! Something Florida State Fair DIDN'T have for some reason this year.....

Zyklon was here, although was closed most of the night due to off and on rain.

Once it did open briefly, Jeff and I were on the second loaded car. Ha
Oh hey, and Strates new-ish Zamp Sky Flyer was here too, although rain ruined our chance of riding it, we had just ridden Reithoffer's last night

[RANT]Why have a wheel with 24 cars if you're only gonna load THREE per cycle, with at least 30 people waiting in line! Everyone was commenting on the horrible operations. Many even left the ride after 2 or 3 cycles of only moving up 10 feet in line[/RANT]
But the new-ish LED's look great on it...

Midway overview from the wheel, sadly EVERYTHING would close after we got off it.. Due to a massive rain storm that blew in. had we not waited 30 minutes for the wheel I may have gotten to ride the Zipper, Fireball, After Burner,  Sky Flyer, and the Top Spin a third time..... Oh well :(

PWNT

Yeah.....
 So that's about it... Even with the rain closing the fair way too early and not getting all my rides in.. I still got to ride a Top Spin run better than any other I've come across in the past 3 years or so. I miss when even my local Six Flags would run it well.. Now most parks run them with some craptastic one flip program and call it a "thrill ride", whatever.

 NOT AMUSED

A very MARTA moment

Thanks to the Megabus GOFREE sale, I ended up in Atlanta for the day (by day I mean...8 hours)... And during the day (8 hours....) I ended up on the MARTA and in College Park (Via WIKI, in 2008 College Park had the highest crime rate in Georgia.) I also had a lovely walk past "new" World of Coke, the Georgia Aquarium, CNN Center, Five Points, the Under Ground, "old" World of Coke, the State House, and then by car a trip to Hip and Trendy 'Little Five Points' (not to be confused with regular Five Points, heavens no.)

Anyways... Here's a very MARTA moment for Deka....

 YAH YAH YAH! I'ma do mah THING, welcome to the MARTA

Trainsssssss!

And planes too. I guess.

 [RANT]

Can we please, please, plleeeassseee get these signs for the Monorail? 

BEING STUPID = DEATH!

[/RANT]

Mmhmm

Lions, and Hippos, and Bears..... Oh my?

Ah, taking a trip back home..... That could only mean more Zoo's and an Aquarium visit!
So I took a weekend trip back to Melrose to visit my family for the holidays... and made sure to make some time to visit Franklin Park Zoo,  New England Aquarium, and Stone Zoo. Woo, ANIMALS! I hadn't been to Franklin since the year before I moved, and NEAQ I hadn't been since the year I did (Stone was in fact the last blog post I made :X)

So... onto the photos! yaayyy.

Day 1?

 Franklin Park Zoo, Boston's Zoo, wooooo

Over the summer of 2009 the move Zookeeper was filmed here, although it wasn't released until 2011.

And as most Zoo's should.... there are animals here :O... 

Like this Wildebeest

And this Lion!!

And this crazy-ass-Vulture! (Ka-Kawwww)

The Capybararara was not amused. Moving on.

!!!

(((Sleeeeeeepy Hippo!!!!!!)))

And we'll leave the zoo with this photo of the beautiful Wood Duck!

quack quack quack

Uh... Day 2.

Ok, next stop on my whirlwind Boston Adventure!.... NEAQ!

Woo, the New England Aquarium!

So much had changed here in the past few years since my last visit. I had no idea about two of the biggest changes.... The first being this.

They now have a Ray and Shark touch pool where the Jellyfish wing had been.

Its pretty big and seemed popular.

Although down stairs where the rest of the Jellies had been is now kinda depressed.

Not much going down here anymore, they even removed the color changing light tank. my favorite part down there... Oh well.

Back upstairs the Penguins were doing their things... Like swimming, squawking, being majestic on the rocks... You know, Penguin things.

EPIC BLUE LOBSTER!

Out back is where I found the other new expansions/revamp

The Sea Lions now have a pretty big area, although it seems the River/Sea Otters have been removed? The area still looks great, much like the new Touch Tank area. So I guess Way to go NEAQ.... 

(although you should bring back the color changing jellyfish tank)

So yeah... Now its the last day of my trip and I have an afternoon flight some.. So once again I find myself taking a short trip to the Stone Zoo before heading back to Homelando

Day....three

Wasn't I just here like... 3 months ago? Well, whatever.. Its all good, they have bears here!!! :D :D :D

Don't harass the animals?

:3 Rawwrrrr :3

(When you type "Rawwrrrr" Firefox spellchecker asks if you meant "Strawberry")

<3 bears <3

Hey look!

It's a Puma, I mean.. Mountain Lion, I mean... Cougar.

(Eh, same animal, different regional name)

Although...........

This one is named Zeus :)

And with that it was time to head over to the airport and head Ho-Ho-Home... But first we have time for just two more......

BONUS DUCKS!!

So yeah, fun little trip home.. Got to see my friends and family, and some bears, ducks, a hippo...Woo.

(At some point I'll get around to posting my "Car Tribute", started over a month ago... And at some other point I'll toss up my year-end-review....thing. And coming in late January there may be an Atlanta post (or two, we'll see) )

quack quack.

Bears at the Zoo! :D

See, I'm still updating this... WITH BEAR PHOTOS!

(here's a few photos of the Black Bears at the Stone Zoo from back in August when I went home for the weekend but there was a hurricane so I couldn't go to Six Flags or Lake Compounce or Luna Park or Scream Zone or.......... Well, at least Quassy was open!)

BONUS DUCK

Quack quack quack

(((I'll have a real update again soon... From Atlanta, or Legoland, or something.. I don't know)))