On Thursday we completed the fourth park in our month-long quest to do nine parks in September. Gatorland was a lot of fun. We especially loved seeing the panthers, but they also had bobcats and adorable raccoons, as well as Mark's all time favorites, the white alligators. I thought it would be a half day adventure, but we ended up spending nearly 7 hours in there.
Friday we did a lot of chores in the morning and then put in our usual Friday afternoon library volunteer hours. It POURED rain all afternoon and evening. A real soaker of a day and night.
Yesterday there was a Scholar-in-Residence at shul in the morning with a wonderful, sit-down luncheon. I ate way too much. Then we went back in the evening for the late-night Slichot service with more great eating, the second talk from the Scholar-in-Residence, and two songs performed by my fledgling SOJC choir. This is their third High Holiday season performing. How long can I call them fledgling? This year we are smaller than ever. The group is not growing, and I wish I could figure out why. We need to double in size to be really effective. Sigh.
Today we are knocking off park five in the quest to do 9 in 9. We are going to Epcot for the day. Originally, we were meeting up with Mark's former co-worker, Sharon B, who lives in Hernando, FL. She went there Saturday with a relative, but then she called us last night to say she was sick and was going home today instead of coming to meet us at Epcot. At least she got to enjoy some time there yesterday. We will go by ourselves. We have three Fast Pass Pluses arranged: Soarin', Journey into Imagination, and Maelstrom. Maelstrom in Norway is closing after the first week in October to make room for a new ride based on the movie
Frozen. It will open in 2016. So this is our last ride on one of our favorites. Also several of the live bands are being let go as of the end of September. Mo' Rockin' in Morocoo is leaving. We just listened to them last month when we had dinner at the Tangerine Cafe and sat outside. Also leaving are the Fife and Drum Corps that perform outside the American Adventure Pavilion and Off Kilter in Canada. We will be trying to catch both of them today for the last time. Off Kilter is wildly popular. They started there in 1997 and have lots of CDs out. There is even an online petition not to let them go, but I haven't heard that anything has changed. We expect today to be our last time to hear them, other than on the CDs we have.
In addition this is our first day at the Food and Wine Festival, dozens of kiosks with yummy food and booze. We will have lunch today by grazing through a few kiosks. The day will end with a concert by Jo Dee Messina at the American pavilion concert area. If it doesn't rain too much in the afternoon, it should be an awesome day!
Meanwhile, here are some pictures from Gatorland.
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| Female Florida panther |
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| The male panther. They are brother and sister. |
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| Two giant tortoises of different types. |
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| Walking through the breeding marsh where there seemed to be hundred of gators swimming around. |
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| Florida bobcat |
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| What Mark has been wanting to see most! |
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| One of the four in here. They have blue eyes. |
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| Cinnamon, the blonde raccoon, was adorable. |
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| Relaxing while watching people zip line over the gator pit. |
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| Another shot of one of the two bobcats. |
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| Yes, that's real! |
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| A pile of gators! |
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| The iconic entrance to the park. I bought Mark his own white alligator to take home. |
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