Alligators & Monkeys

Canoeing down the Silver River

 Alligator lurking above......

                                         Monkeying around!

Alligators and Monkeys!  Oh my!  For as many times that I have visited Florida in my life, I have never seen an alligator in the wild.  So...I was a little (or a lot) hesitant when Dave suggested we rent a canoe and take a little ride down the Silver River.

The Silver Springs State Park offers rentals at a reasonable rate on site.  It is a good 30 minute walk down a trail to get to the river and they dock an hour from your time.  It's not a bad walk and very pretty.  We were fortunate to experience a beautiful day out on the water in our canoe.  

I was riding the front of the canoe.  Imagine my surprise and horror :-0 when a huge Alligator, slithering through the top of the water, headed towards our canoe.  All I could do, was to hold my breath and sit still as he came right for me and swam under me at the front of the canoe.  I was scared stiff.  I did not move one inch.  It was also a thrill but one that I would prefer not to complete again.

Also, down this beautiful river were several monkeys.  Monkeys? You say.  What?  Are there Monkeys in Florida?  Yep.  There are.  In the 1940s and beyond they made Tarzan movies here.  It looks just like a jungle so makes perfect sense.  The monkeys, they brought in, multiplied and still live there today.  It was amazing seeing them in their natural habitat instead of in a zoo watching them pick at themselves.  

I highly recommend taking this canoe ride down the Silver Springs River which ends at the Silver Springs Resort. 

Silver Springs State Park

Silver Springs State Park is an older central Florida State Park located in Ocala, Florida.  This beautiful park has been going through an extensive remodel.  It just changed names the week we arrived.  It used to be Silver River State Park.  Many volunteers having been working diligently to get the park in order.  

We thoroughly enjoyed this campground.  September is a great month to visit.  There were only a handful of people staying in the campground.  The sites are nice and wooded and great facilities.  We enjoyed riding all the bike trails and relaxing by the fire pit.  

The Cracker Homestead and Silver River Museum are located in the park.  We enjoyed the exhibits about the wildlife in the park and history of the area.  

We love this park and plan to visit here again!  :-)

Moss Park

Moss Park is a hidden gem in Orange County, Florida.  It's close enough to go to Walt Disney World, about 30 minutes but quiet and serene for a very good price.  Non-County Resident price is $23.00 per night.  

The only drawback is that you cannot camp there with your pets.  It is a county park and wild life refuge.  Since we do not have a pet, it was fine with us.  The Sites are wooded, large and beautiful.  It is so peaceful with abundant wildlife.  Our favorite were the Sandhill Cranes.  As we were backing our rig into our campsite, I was directing Dave.  I had a sense that someone was behind me and turned around to look into the eyes of a Sandhill Crane.  They must be used to people as they hung around the campground with us the rest of our stay.

We will definitely visit this park again.  :-)

Epcot - world Showcase

Back to Epcott and on to the World Showcase!  Fabulous!  We enjoyed wine and brews as we grazed our way through different countries to sample new cuisines.  We enjoyed fabulous sandwiches and ecclairs at France's Les Halles Boulangerie & Patisserie.  Sommerfest in Germany was no disappointment either with an outstanding bologna Ruben and potato salad.  All of this was capped off with  the best caramel ice cream ever in France!  You really do feel like you are away in faraway countries in the world showcase.  

Epcot has always been our favorite at Walt Disney World and still is!    

Downtown Disney

Downtown Disney is great!  You do not need a Walt Disney World pass to enter this area.  We spent the evening there as many of the locals were  having fun listening to live bands and enjoying wonderful cuisine.

We had a great meal at the Ragland Road Irish Pub.  I highly recommend it!

Magic Kingdom

Back to the magic Kingdom!  Even though we saw most everything our first evening here, I wanted to go back and see a few things we missed.  This is our 5th time to the Magic Kingdom and I have never seen the parade.  The parade was wonderful and glad we came back to see it.  All and all though, we felt like Disney has lost its charm.  It just wasn't as magical to us as it once was.  Maybe, we are getting too old?  I certainly hope not.  Everything we saw was pretty much Oh..."ho hum".  About the only thing I wanted to see was the Haunted House.  It was pretty plain Jane & boring.  I can understand how magical it is to take small children, but I think our days of going to the Magic Kingdom are now behind us.  

Hollywood Studios

Hollywood Studios!  What a place!  This is our first time visiting this great park and really enjoyed our day here.  The stunts and exhibits were outstanding!  This park is not as large as the Magic Kingdom and Epcot.  It is much easier to maneuver through though.  We especially enjoyed Lights, Motors, Action!  Extreme Stunt Show.  Film professionals performed high-octane stunts & revealed special effects secrets.  It was outstanding but unfortunately, may not be continuing for much longer.  Apparently, they plan to cancel this show in the near future.
 

We cheered on Indy and Marion as they performed amazing stunts and demonstrated movie-making magic in the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular!  Plus, we went behind the scenes to see how special effects in movies are made during our tour at the Back lot Studio Tour.  We also really enjoyed Star Tours - The Adventure Continues, feeling the power of force during a 3-D a, motion-simulated space flight.  Last of all, we visited Sunset Blvd.  Here we enjoyed a spectacular stage presentation of Beauty and the Beast.  We experienced the romantic fairy tale of the Beast in this lavish Broadway-style musical
! 

It was all so good.  Next time, we want to check out Universal Studios.  I have heard that it is even better than Hollywood Studios. 



Epcot

Epcot!  We have really enjoyed going to Epcot in previous years and were looking forward to it again.  There is so much to see and do that we only made it through half the park.  We had a late start so stayed through the evening and enjoyed their spectacular firework display!

Our favorite exhibits were Captain EO with Michael Jackson and Soarin' both in Future World West.  Soarin' is my personal closest to riding a roller coaster.  I just loved it.  You really do feel like you are soaring high as you hang glide above breathtaking vistas of California.  Captain EO, on the other hand is a classic "must see" show.  It takes you back to the time when Michael was still with us in his prime.  He and his space crew bumble, sing and dance through a 3-D cosmic crusade.  I could see his show over and over again.  

We made it part way into the World Showcase but will need to continue another night.  We had a great Italian lunch at Via Napoli Ristorante  Pizzeria and enjoyed one of their authentic pizzas with a nice family salad.  

MUST STOP HERE!  I love caramel!  The Karamell-Kuche has the BEST home-made caramel corn - made with Werther's Original Caramel.  What a treat!  We were fortunate to get a freshly made batch and enjoyed it while watching the beautiful fireworks.  Ahhh....what a great vacation!



Animal Kingdom

This is our first time visiting the Animal Kingdom and really enjoyed this smaller theme park.  The Festival of the Lion King  musical production is a "must see".  We also really enjoyed taking a safari ride through the lush African savannah searching for lions, elephants, giraffes and more.  We didn't see any lions our first time and waited until the evening and took another ride.  We lucked out and the lions were out prowling about.  I recommend that you take this safari a couple times a day.  You will see different animals each time.
 

We enjoyed a fabulous meal at Yak & Yeti Restaurant.  We were pleasantly surprised with their authentic Asian cuisine.  It was the perfect meal to end this beautiful day in the Animal Kingdom.

Wilderness Park

I would much rather spend a night in my RV in our own bed than a hotel at Disney.  The price is better and made the right decision to celebrate our 40th anniversary 6 months early.  The nightly rates are about 40% less at $86 before tax. 

Wilderness park is wooded and there is plenty of room between sites.  They will pick a site for you.  Not a problem.  Every campsite in this park is wonderful!  The bathroom facilities are great and you can't beat the convenience of the shuttle system.  It's only a bus ride to the amusement parks and a boat ride to Magic Kingdom.

Speaking of the Magic Kingdom....we enjoyed a wonderful evening there.  We took a shuttle bus to the end of our campground and hopped on a boat which took us to the park.  We walked around, took a survey of all the rides and enjoyed a yummy pork shank at Gaston's Tavern and great dessert at Sleepy Hollow.  It's a "No Alcohol" tavern and known for their spiced cider.  We capped off the evening with the Magic Kingdom's spectacular fireworks by the Princess Castle.  Wonderful! 

Love Bugs

Love Bugs!  Yep....2 bugs flying together & I mean together, splatting all over our windshield and front of our fifth wheel.  What a mess!  Poor love bugs, too!  All this and they only live for about 4 days.  These bugs are most active in May and September.  Lucky us.  It's September.

Everyone is telling us that it is extremely important to remove these little buggers immediately or they can destroy the finish on your paint.  So, Dave made it his mission to remove these nasty little critters as soon as we made it to Wilderness Park.  Disney must keep Wilderness park sprayed, as we were not bothered by them during our stay here.

Florida Welcome Center!