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
