FLORIDA VACATION: Part II - Orlando

Thanks to Katie for letting us crash at her place for a while, getting us free passes to Disney, bringing us all over town, and just being a great friend.


Apparently, Charles Bronson is now the head of the Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services. Congrats!


I'm a wreck. Driving to Orlando after swimming in saltwater and sweating all over the place. It was grand!!!


Megan on the way to Orlando.


GATORLAND! This is a whole theme park dedicated to gators. This was a huge one that they caught in the Tampa area that was eatting people's dogs!


This is just a huge gator


He'd eat me in a second...


Look at me, I'm tasty!


Katie (our hostess and friend) and Megan looking at the island of gators.


A tank full of baby gators


Some kid petting an 80 year old (they can live to 150 or something) tortoise.


Piles of gators at the swamp


The view of the gator infested swamp from the outlook tower


Some kid pouting because he got into trouble.


GATOR WRESTLING! It was everything I thought it would be!!!


This guy almost lost his finger doing this.


He's lucky he didn't lose his face doing this.


Just like the hood ornament of a Rolls Royce...


Now to get ready to have people sit on it's back and have their picture taken...


"What a beautiful tropical paradise. I think I will sit on this rock..."


"GET AWAY FROM THE ROCK!!!"


You could buy hot dogs to feed to these guys...


I don't trust this one...


Those are my feet he's trying to figure out how to eat.


Just a nice day at the lake watching a few hundred gators...


The Gator Jumparoo Show! This is when they dangle meat (whole chickens) in the air so the gators will jump out and eat it.


Just another day on the job at Gatorland...


I wonder how much she get's paid an hour...


Does she get "stunt pay?"


This girl is actually tied down in the back so she doesn't fall or get pulled into the water with the 40 or so gators in the tank.


Me and Katie LOVE Gatorland!


For letting us raid her house, we got Katie Girl Talk Jenga. It goes well with Bailey's and/or vodka cranberry...


What a delicate balance...


Fun Spot was a bust... They were suppose to have the best go-karts in all of Florida. Craig's Cruisers is far more fun. They did have nice tracks, but the karts were slow and uncompetitive.


Hello darlin'... Megan at the alleged "World's Largest Flea Market." It was large, but only the size of the entire strip mall. I think Canal Street Market is bigger, but not as luxurious...


Katie and Megan looking over the fine assortment of dog keychain holders.


Katie finds the one she likes!


I quit my job and I'm still taking boat tours. This is of a lake in Winter Park, which is just east of Orlando. I saw Horace Grant's house (former center for the Chicago Bulls). Jim was a fun tour guide. "Look at those dogs in the kennel. Nice..."


A canal between a couple of lakes.


The lake.


Spanish Moss on the trees.


Suburban Jungle.


This is a sculpture garden. The trees and spanish moss were so thick that you couldn't see anything. That or Jim was lying to us. That Jim...


Megan and I on the lake.


I'm diggin' the Tropical Mike look....


A view from my seat.


One of many oversized homes.


This looks like the fake scenes they make for tropical birds at the zoo!


Kate, former architecture boat tour guide, couldn't be more excited...


I like trees growing in the water.


A cool building at Downtown Disney.


Megan and Katie warming up for a virtual reality video game.


I don't need to warm up. I WAS BORN TO PLAY VIDEO GAMES!


Megan on the Buzz Lightyear Astroblaster bumper car ride. It was a lot of fun. It was bumpercars that allowed you to shoot a cannon at other cars!


I've been ASTROBLASTED!


I am a great fake boxer.


Sending a nonesensical email to my former co-workers. Sorry about that! I could only choose what to say from a drop down menu. The FBI is not really after me at Disney (weird option though).


Whitewater rafting simulator!


Getting ready for the Pirates of the Carribbean (sp?) virtual reality game. You stood on the front of a little boat shooting cannons at fake boats.


Nice sunglasses!


Old skool rapper.


Man, I would have been a great DJ for the Fresh Prince in his hayday...


The Adventurers Club at Downtown Disney. It was a lot of fun. It's a bar with a super interactive improv show that goes on the whole night.


A mechanical character at the show. I love animatronics and mechanical people. Probably what I love most about Disney.


Entrance to MGM Studios


They already started putting up x-mas decorations...


We avoided anything to do with Soap Week because these people were insane. But, it was fun to look at the oddities surrounding the circus...


When my sister was at this spot last time, she snubbed Ben Savage not knowing who he was. My favorite Disney moment circa 1996


Megan and I not scared at the Tower of Terror (because this is as close as I got).


There's some ducks!


Waiting in line at the Muppet 3-D show.


I love that everything at Disney is now 3-D


Me with the Power Rangers!


Stunt car driving. This is a must see if you are there...


The vehicles from A Life Aquatic.


Optical illusion. The buildings at the end of the street are fake to make it look more like New York.


The Tower of Terror. One of many roller coasters and other scare rides I will not go anywhere near...


Why, it's Honey Darling! This is our friend Katie! She's a character at Disney. There are "superfans" at Disney that take millions of photos and videos of characters and then give her a copy on DVD. It's an interesting culture.


Watch out Hollywood!


Papparazi!


Honey Darling is from Honey, Pennslyvania


"Hey Silver Fox."


Megan with Honey Darling!


Honey Darling enchanting a crowd


This family LOVED Honey Darling. I've never seen so many adults mezmerized by a Disney character!


MONORAIL! Disney, your bus system sucks. Please expand the monorail to the rest of your parks. Thank you.


The Mickey Float at Magic Kingdom!


The villian float.


Cinderella


Beauty and the Beast.


Megan, I mean, the Little Mermaid...


Megan at the most magical place in the world!


I can't contain my excitement!


Main Street USA!


The teacup ride at night


The nighttime parade


Main Street Disney at the end of the fireworks.


Cinderella's castle.


The Tree of Life from about 30 miles away...


Our tour guide on the Safari at the Animal Kingdom. It was the best zoo exhibit ever!!!


Giraffe!


Come closer!


Look at this animal. I was so close to it I could have jumped out and rode him!


This must be a Disney animatronic thing. These can't exist in the real world.


I'd love to see these at a rodeo.

..">
Awesome!


Elephants!


tell us about the elephant poachers, tour guide man!


"They weren't too impressed by us..."


more rhino butt...


BABY RHINO!!!


Zebras and gazelles co-existing...


Me with a gorilla. Is this a Disney character? If so, from what? It's the only character I could get within a mile of because he jumped out of a tree at me. No kidding...


THIS WAS AMAZING! I've never really been into theatre because it's usually boring and poorly done. BUT THIs WAS AWESOME. It was all around you, no time wasted on set changes, interactive, and well performed. Just to see this would be reason enough to visit Animal Kingdom. $80 for this an the park is a bargain when it's just $80 a ticket to see this on Broadway. Oh yeah, it's Finding Nemo: The Musical. I got too excited just thinking about it.


Dinoland!


That's a huge artificial mountain rollercoaster ride. Megan is showing what people look like as you hear their screams throughout the park.


Kimoto dragon!


Large Asian bats!


Freaky


Some weird cows.


Flamingos!


Kangaroo!


The Tree of Life. This is awesome. It's a friggin' huge artificial tree that you can see from miles around. It has all these animals carved into it making up the bark of the tree. This is far better than the other icons at the other parks (ie - Cinderella's Castle, Tower of Terror, the Golf Ball at EPCOT).


A robin!


A rhino!


An eagle saluting America! USA! USA! USA!


Some crazy bird.


Close up of some crazy bird.


Termite mound


I've been to tons of zoos in my life. This the only times I've ever been to a zoo and didn't know what half the animal were. What the hell is this? It's a half-giraffe/half-zebra thing. Next we'll see a Liger...


This was a cool hippo. It was surreal. He just floated in the water with his head resting on the rock.


What a great life...


MEERKATS! I know what these are!


This will be the cover of my next rock and roll album.


More gorillas!


This guy seemed to be pondering the meaning of life.


All that thinking makes you thirsty...


This guy was pretty tired.


Playgirl Gorilla Photoshoot.


EPCOT Center.


There was a Wine & Food Festival going on at EPCOT when we were there. Megan enjoyed her Moroccan meat pie with chutney.


The Genie!


Alice!


Miniature statue exhibit at the China Pavilion


I had no idea that each on of these had a unique face. I like this one.


Golf ball at night.


Katie performing at SAK, which is an improv theatre in Orlando. That lady in blue was from the audience and just came over from the Magic basketball game all surly and trashed. She was a great addition to the show. Especially when she was trying to go topless...

Thanks again Katie! We had an AWESOME time and we miss you in Chicago!!!

To everyone else, I'm back from the vacation, unemployed, and basically hanging out. So, I will talk to you all soon. Plans for T-day?

xoxo,

Mike

Gilana Alpert 1981 - 2007

Young Holocaust activist dies at 26
Posted by Susan Harrison Wolffis November 05, 2007 11:20AM

In Hebrew, her name meant "Joyous Song."

Gilana Alpert. But it was more than a name.

It was a legacy that followed Gilana Shira Alpert wherever she went -- whether she was on stage or television, in the classroom or at Temple B'Nai Israel in Muskegon where she worshipped as the oldest of Rabbi Alan and Anna Alpert's three children.

But on Sunday afternoon, her voice and life were suddenly silenced.

Alpert, 26, died after suffering a series of strokes caused by what doctors believe was a rare reaction to medication she was taking for chronically severe migraine headaches.

Alpert, who was living and working in Chicago, was found Thursday by her landlord after co-workers became alarmed when she didn't arrive at work. Doctors and family members theorize that she fell and sustained a serious head injury in her apartment when she had the reaction to the medicine. She never regained consciousness.

Her family donated her organs; recipients were in Chicago, Pennsylvania and Minnesota.
Before doctors began the organ "harvest," as the medical procedure is called, the Alperts, several close family friends and medical personnel held a private religious service in her hospital room Sunday afternoon. A nurse carried notes of love and faith on behalf of the family into the operating room.

The Alperts have been "overwhelmed" by people's acts of kindness, they said.
"When we see such an outpouring of love, we are seeing God's work," Anna Alpert said.
Gilana Alpert, who majored in theater and minored in human sexuality at Indiana University, was going to start in graduate school this year.

"Gilana wasn't a bystander in life," her mother, Anna Alpert, said Sunday night. "When she found something she believed in, she said: 'I'm doing something about it.' "

It was that very spirit that thrust Gilana Alpert into the international spotlight in 1995 when she was named to a television news reporting team to cover the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz -- the largest of the Nazis' death and labor camps.

She was 13 years old at the time and an eighth-grader at Mona Shores Middle School. She had just finished her bat mitzvah, the Jewish "coming of age" ceremony during which time she read from the V'Ahavtah, a chapter in the Torah or holy book.

"It says to teach God's words through your children," she said.

Gilana Alpert was the only student on the team of reporters for Channel One, an in-school international news program broadcast by satellite into thousands of classrooms everyday.

She responded to an on-air request from Channel One producers that asked students to call if anyone in their families had perished in Auschwitz. At least 1.5 million people, most of them Jews, were killed at Auschwitz before the Soviet Red Army liberated the survivors.

Nine of Gilana Alpert's family members died or disappeared in various labor and death camps during World War II, including a great aunt and cousin at Auschwitz.

"I don't know how to say this really," she said after returning from Auschwitz in 1995, "but being there, it felt like it connected me with all my family who died."

Later that same year, the Muskegon girl was chosen by Channel One to present filmmaker Steven Spielberg with a special award for his work as founder and chairman of The Survivors of The Shoah (Holocaust) Visual History Foundation.

In 2005, on the 60th anniversary of the camp's liberation, she reminisced about her visit -- and her motivation for wanting to face such horror at such a young age.

"When I was little, my grandmother (who survived a series of labor camps) wouldn't talk about what happened," Gilana Alpert said. "She used to say: 'It's over. We're moving on.' Her stories were lost to silence. I couldn't let that happen."

Hers is one of the family histories chronicled and saved at the Muskegon County Museum. In 2005, she and her mother teamed up to direct a play set during the Holocaust during the Jewish-Christian Dialogue.

As a high school student, she chaired the Youth Advisory Council at the Community Foundation for Muskegon County and performed for Western Michigan's Cherry County Playhouse, Muskegon Civic Theatre and its Repertory Touring Company, and Central Park Players in Grand Haven.

The news of her death began to spread throughout Muskegon in faith communities of every denomination.

"All over town this weekend, the Alperts have been lifted in prayer," said the Rev. Don Mathews, a retired Presbyterian minister. He co-chaired the community's Christian-Jewish Dialogue with Rabbi Alpert, who has been rabbi at Temple B'Nai Israel since 1976.

"The whole family has been such a blessing to this community. One of the comments I've heard is that Gilana is a daughter not only of the (B'nai Israel) congregation; she's a daughter of the whole community."

Besides her parents, Gilana Alpert is survived by her sister, Aleza Alpert, who is student teaching in East Lansing and her brother, David Alpert, who is a freelance director in New York City.

A memorial service is tentatively set for Sunday in Muskegon, although a time and place have not yet been determined. She will be buried in Los Angeles near her grandparents following a service midweek.
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Gilana, you will be missed by all who met you. I'm a better person for have knowing you. May there be turtle races everyday where you're at. xoxo, Mike