Fall-Like Friday

We had a beautiful sunny day in the 60's at home today.  In the pictures below, it was between 93 F. and 97 F. with high humidity.

Here are pictures from our first day in Orlando at Universal Studios.

Here I am with Emily resting in the shade as we go to the I Ride, aka, the trolley.  It was HOT.  The bird of paradise next to me liked it though.

This is on the moving sidewalk.  Note to self: don't ever bring a walker onto this again.  Nearly died with impending crash.  Didn't die.

City Walk leading up to gates of Orlando.  One day, we saw "The Chef" at the Cineplex on the right.

I can't imagine why you want to eat in a Nascar restaurant, but many people do.

Finally, the gate to Universal which is after about a quarter of a mile of city restaurants.

Becoming a Minion at Despicable Me ride was fun!

Minion and banana hats

Donkey!

Shrek and friends

We think Transformer guy in suit has his feet on stilts.  Did I mention it was hot?  I was surprised he didn't fall over.

Where you buy tickets to Transformer ride

Cars

Mel's Diner (where the cars are parked)

On our way to "Fisherman's Wharf" in San Francisco.

I recognized it from when Mom brought me.  Smile.

Below is the Disaster ride -- with subway fire, plane crash, etc.  Not gonna do it, not for me.  Nuh uh, too close to home!

London

 Dragon was not very friendly.

In the Wand Shop

More Wands

More later. Am pooped.  It's Friday night after all!

Dr. Seuss at Universal Studios in Orlando

Hey, did I show you my garden harvest of today? (Today is Saturday 9-6-14)

I think all of the shots below are self explanatory.  It's amazing to me how they recreate his drawings exactly!

Orlando Busch Gardens Gift Shop

Naturally, being me, I did the gift shop first. It called to me.  They were all about recycling and re-using materials.

These are some of my favorites and they are all wood.  I especially like the cross cut circles on the vase.

As always, I was drawn to glass.  I didn't buy any, however.  I guess you could use them for a gold fish bowl or a terrarium.

They had lots of peacock feathers too -- but we didn't see any peacocks.  Maybe they were hiding.

These hat boxes fascinated me. They were made from magazines.

All of the above and the frames below are fashioned from cloth fibers.  Below, I think the cloth was cut into strips and wound and then sewn together.  I stand corrected, the critters on the lower left of the top photo were made from colored jute.

Busch Gardens 9-2-14

Of course, I loaded the pictures backwards, but who cares?  Below is when we were walking around after the train ride below.  It was HOT and after Noon, so all of the animals (except the crazy humans) were in the shade, napping.  This cheetah, however, seems to be considering a snack.

This is without the telescopic lens on my little camera.  We were quite a distance from the well-fenced cheetah.

I had Emily take this picture so you could see how huge the purple plant is.  Actually, I think it's a wandering Jew, but I had never seen one as a landscape bush.

I have no idea what this is, but the leaves start out green and become gold.  In the hot sun, this was blinding and I had to correct the gamma a lot (on Irfanview).

I'll be darned if I can remember the names of these guys -- some type of gazelle, I think.  They are so pretty!

No, the elephants were not chained, thank God!

This pink flower (on a bush) has to be a cousin to a pointsettia.

We stopped into a grill near the exit of the park and suddenly there were 12 singers and dancers singing Mo Town! They were great!  They did the Supremes, Gladys Knight and the Pips, and many more.

No, you won't see Emily nor me in these pictures, but we did ride the Congo River Raft Ride (say that fast!) twice because getting splashed with cool water was wonderful.  Did I say it was HOT?!

On this bridge, you could insert a quarter into a water canon and splash the people in the raft below.  One woman was having fun when we were on the ride.  She shot every guy with a bald head.  Nee, nee, nee, nee!!!

Below is the "pop up tiger."  Emily took these shots because you had to climb a ladder and you popped up in a reinforced glass case.  Needless to say, her head was about 4 inches from the tiger's head.

Aren't they gorgeous beasts?

Again, remember, it was very hot and nap time.  The animals looked like I felt -- comatose.

This guy was half in a cave that opened onto this walkway above our heads.  So from around the corner on the other side, you saw his butt and tail stick out of a cave in the rocks.  He seems to be saying, "Oh, yummy! There's a juicy one!"

If startled, hippos will charge.  How do you stop a hippo from charging? Take away his charge card.

 Tommy gazelles above.

Just Hanging Around

Below is the train we took through "Narobi."  Emily took most of the pictures above from the train (she was on the window side).  It was a pleasant ride.

This is the actual beginning of the train ride.

More later.  My darn program clicked onto greyscale partway through and I have to re-do a whole bunch of pictures.  It's nap time!  (The heat is mirroring Orlando and is working up to a thunderstorm today.  It's 88 F. and very humid.)