Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival Pt 1

Tax day. As Doug stayed home with a bad cold and slept all day, Marlon went to take a look around the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival.
The festival is 75 days long, lasting from March 19-June 1.

Here's one of the Epcot cast members right now working hard to get the park "show ready".

Actually, he is "Man and Wheel Borrow" (yes, Frank and Sean, "borrow) by artist Peter Otfinoski. See more of his work at http://otfinoski.tripod.com/main.htm .

This exhibit was located just outside of MouseGear where we worked.

Can you imagine how long it takes to build a sand castle with so much detail?

What will happen if it rains?

These water-dwelling plants were featured as were xeriscape plants---plants that need little or no water.

This train exhibit was inside the Festival Center located in the Wonders of Life pavilion.

Welcome to Minnie's Magnificent Butterfly Garden.

Wow! What a large butterfly!

Here are some butterflies in the very early stages of their life, which can range from one week long up to one year for some species.

Gardens near the Odyssey Restaurant building. Take note of the (not-so) Hidden Mickey.

To be continued...

Visiting Cypress Gardens & Splash Island

Today we decided to meet Joyce, Aron & Austin at Cypress Gardens to visit Splash Island Water Park before we left for the summer. Frank was recovering from knee surgery.

As we were running to meet up with Joyce and the boys, we saw two Cypress Garden Belles in the distance.

Marlon can never pass by a waterfall without taking a picture.

Here we are in our swimwear standing by Paradise River...actually our swimwear is in a plastic Walmart sack close by.

Here's Doug enjoying the scary Pirate Ship ride with Austin...seriously, Austin IS sitting next to Doug.

Want to experience the Triple Hurricane at Cypress Gardens? Click on the video below. Ride operators at Cypress Gardens often send the cars through the rides twice...this instance we went through three times. This is fun...as long as you don't get sick.

The next afternoon we met Frank, Joyce and the kids for a farewell dinner at Carrabba's Italian Grill.

For just a few more pictures, go to http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2008/april/cypress-gardens-wit/ .

To be continued...

MouseGear Costume and Deer Creek RV Resort

Tomorrow is our last day of work at Epcot's MouseGear store. We figured we should probably take pictures of us in our costume today or we may forget.

Marlon wants to know "Do you want to trade a pin?"

We spent the next few days looking at RV lots at Deer Creek RV Resort. We were trying to answer the age-old question in this time of economic uncertainty...

"to buy or not to buy?"

The current answer is "not to buy"...yet.

For more pictures, go to http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2008/april/mouse-gear-uniforms/ .

To be continued...

Eagle Ridge Mall & Bowling

We met Frank, Joyce, Aron & Austin at Eagle Ridge Mall in Lake Wales today for dinner at Garfield's.

Before dinner, Aron and Austin took their ride on the merry go round. Aron spun their car too fast, though, and gave Austin a headache.

After eating, we headed over to see who was the best bowler.

Joyce claps for Austin as Frank and Marlon (in Doug's shirt) pose for the camera.

Dad congratulates Austin on a nice frame.

Time for a big gulp.

Austin demonstrates how his finger fits right in his ear.

Promptly at 9pm, the lights went out for Rock & Bowl. The music was turned up and all of us adults realized how old we had become.

We finished bowling and determined that Frank was probably the best bowler.

But...Austin was the best game player as he used The Claw to snag himself Scooby Doo.

$40 of tokens later and we had won enough tickets for about $1 worth of candy. Man, we're good!

For a few more pictures, go to http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2008/march/garfields-and-bowli-1/ .

To be continued...

Cats as Protectors and Pottiers

There was a noise outside the RV tonight. Luckily, Chatfield, our watch cat, was there. Sammy looked on as Chatfield bravely investigated the sound and assured us there was nothing to fear.

One of our favorite things about living in our motorhome has to be cleaning up after our favorite pets...NOT. They leave their hair everywhere, as well as hairballs and ,sometimes, both digested and undigested food.

On top of that...they go to the bathroom a lot. Cleaning the litter box is one of our least favorite chores around the house. So we decided maybe we could train them to use the toilet.

So far, as you can see, we have gotten Chatfield to sit on the toilet. But he can't figure out how to open the lid or what that roll of paper is used for.

Sammy, on the other hand, wasn't interested at all in potty training.

But she did decide a little cleaning was in order.

She likely followed that with a little cat nap.

Are we fascinated by our cats or what? More pictures at http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2008/march/our-cats-1/ .

To be continued...