A Walley World Day

Let me clarify. When I refer to "a Walley World day", I am not referring to Walt Disney World. Nope. I'm referring to the Chevy Chase film, Vacation. Remember that movie? Of course you do. Who can forget the Griswold family's trip to Walley World? Today, the captain and I took a little trip of our own.

Last week, there was a piece on the local news about the Central Florida Fair in Orlando. It opened last Thursday and runs right through to March 6th. The captain and I decided it would be a fun daytrip and so today, off we went. We certainly picked a hot day to venture out!

Have I mentioned that the air conditioning no longer works in our car? We go all retro and roll down the windows.

Anyway. We drive into Orlando, turn here, turn there, stop to take pictures of old motel signs and, finally, at 1:30 in the afternoon, end up at the fair. As you can see by the sign above, it's "The Greatest Carnival on Earth!!!". Three exclamation marks! Yay! Let's go in!

But hold on just a moment. The huge parking lot is very, um, empty. Are we first? That could be good. We'll get a great spot.

And then the realization sets in.

Stop! Stop? Stop indeed. Why?

Stop because the #$@!*&! place isn't open! Locked up. Barricaded. Padlocked even. And not a sign in sight to list the hours. The place was just ... closed.

Yup, we had our very own Walley World trip.

But you can't make lemonade without lemons, so I took the opportunity to wander around outside the fence and captured several photographs with both my camera and my iPhone. I wasn't able to get into the fair, but I'm quite pleased with today's shots. Here's one of them.

So while it was disappointing to miss the fair -- we checked online when we got home and after much searching, discovered it doesn't open on weekdays until 4 pm -- we still had a fun day. A very amusing adventure!

Making time for art

While I have been primarily enjoying the warmth of the beautiful Florida sunshine -- we've been experiencing temperatures around 27C, not too hard to take, eh? -- I have snuck in some "me time" on the computer and managed to create a bit of photoshop art.









If you like that first one, the blue '55 Bel Air, you can find it on Redbubble too. It was a wonderful discovery, parked in the lot of a local mall.

The pelican portrait was taken at the local port, while the mysterious madonna was photographed at a small cemetery the captain and I recently found just by driving down a different street. The moral: always have a camera handy!

I ♥ Mortal Muses

What a wonderful way to start my day! One of my Chicago photographs (see above) has been selected as the photo-of-the-day over at Mortal Muses; isn't that great? I'm tickled pink -- a big THANK YOU to Maureen and all the Muses.

There is something about those Chicago photographs, you know. They have brought me very good luck.

Pop over to the "night time in the city" posting and give Maureen some blog-love; I think her sign photograph of the Fox Theatre is wonderful. As you all know, I have such a soft spot for photos of signs. I've put St. Louis on my to-visit list!

Alley-oop!

The Ritch Grissom Memorial Wetlands at Viera, known locally as just the Viera Wetlands, proved to be the highlight of our day on Thursday. We saw plenty of birds, yes, but the abundance of alligators provided a huge WOW factor. Not only did we see several, but some of them were sunning themselves at the edge of the roadway, seemingly not caring one bit that we humans were walking close by. Have a look at the three of us and our new friend:

Yes, we really were close......and no, we did not approach the wee beastie!

Hats Off to Larry

Larry, this is for you.

Happy Heart Day!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAYto all my friends,
all my family,
and of course,
to my love, the captain (I spied this cute little keychain in a bookstore yesterday and just had to pull out my iPhone to grab some photos. The post-processing was done in photoshop.)

Name That Flower

We headed up to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge today, to meander along the Black Point Wildlife Drive. This is a free seven-mile one-way gravel road that weaves its way through a marshy wilderness. Unfortunately, it was a mostly disappointing journey. The captain and I have done this drive before and found it teeming with a huge variety of birds, along with several alligators. Today, the wildlife consisted primarily of mosquitoes. Birds were few and far between and we saw one gator.

But then there were these flowers. Please, see above. I don't know what they are and am hoping someone can shed some light here. They're a beautiful deep red and yellow and about the size of a small daisy or a marigold. These wildflowers were along the side of the road for most of the drive. I'd love to know what these beauties are!

It's good to relax

My goodness -- it's been a week since I've posted! My girlfriend Lori is visiting the captain and I and, well, we've been enjoying ourselves. Less time on the computer and more time out and about with friends, having fun.

Tonight we tried a local Mexican restaurant, located on U.S.1 in Cocoa, Florida. Chaparrel features delicious homecooked meals ... and who can resist 2-for-1 margaritas? Not Lori, not me. Well, the captain can. He was driving.

If you're ever in the area, make sure you have a meal at Chaparrel. And maybe a margarita or two as well!

(The "relax" clipping mask is from Elemenopea's "Words To Live By: Set 2". I added both a drop shadow and a bevel-and-emboss to the mask.)

Can you dig it?

What is it with me and orange vehicles? They're all around me. First the amazing wienermobile, next an old Ford pickup that I unfortunately did not photograph, and now ... a super-cool 1971 VW camper van! I. Want. It. NOW.

But alas, it's stick-shift and that is a skill I definitely do not possess. It's for sale but there was no price listed, so I suspect it's one of those if-you-have-to-ask-you-can't-afford-it situations. At least I implored the captain to drive around the block to go back after we drove by it and I have my photographs to keep me happy.

You know, though, the captain drives stick..............

Anyway.

Happy and groovy -- that's the theme for February's calendar page. An orange VW van with a pink home behind it. This pleases me no end.

As always, just click on the image above to head for its home on Flickr, where you can download it. It's a high-res full-page image, perfect for printing.

Keep on truckin'.