Easter Eggs?

 When Trish and I are at Walt Disney World, we eat at a variety of places all around all the resorts and theme parks.  One of our nights, we were at Citrico’s, which is at the Grand Floridian Resort.

Something was going on in the lobby that was fascinating people.  When we went closer to investigate, we discovered an extensive display of more than two dozen Easter Eggs that had been created by members of the culinary department

Most of these special eggs were more than two feet tall and totally made of edible material.  The beauty and creativity were remarkable.

The more we looked, the more details we saw. I spent about a half hour studying and staring at these amazing creations.

What we both wanted to see was photos of the creators.  Their names were on their eggs,  it, we wanted to meet them or at least see what each if them looked like.  Maybe a suggestion to Disney!

Disney Adventures

 Trish and I are at Walt Disney World for ten days of fun.  We come here every year to rest and eat and sleep and play.

We are in luck at this time of year because we are here right in the middle of the Epcot Flower Festival.

There are flowers in bloom everywhere you look, and some of the most outstanding are the topiary figures all made of living plant material.

Many of the familiar Disney characters are in the gardens as we walk around.  Here are Captain Hook and Tinkerbell right outside the Rose and Crown pub…a good London setting for the two of them.

Even if we rode no rides, the beauty and creativity of the flowers makes it worth being here.  Since we do ride rides, the flowers are an extra bonus.  We love being here during flower festival as it gives us all sorts of ideas about thinks we can try growing at home!

On the Auto Train

 Last week Trish and I were in Connecticut for a week long workshop that we conduct each year.  The event ended at noon on Friday after which we drove around New York City and down the New Jersey Turnpike where we stopped for the night at the edge of Delaware.  The next morning we got up and drove a couple of hours to Lorton, Virginia, just outside Washington, DC, to get the Amtrak Auto Train to Florida.

We checked in and our car was put on the train to go with us.  The Auto Train is the longest passenger train in the US at three-fourths of a mile long.  It can hold 350 vehicles and 650 people.

We checked in and boarded  our chosen car, a bedroom sleeping car.  It was precious!

Our little room had two beds, a large window with sofa and another chair for viewing, and even a bathroom with a shower.

After we were settled and the train started, we headed to the dining car for our dinner.  We went early as we go to bed early.

While we were gone, our porter made up our bed.  The bottom bunk was plenty big for both of us so we didn’t even let down the top one.  We went to sleep for most of the seventeen hour journey taking us to Sanford, Florida, just east of Orlando.

The cars were unloaded and we were on our way to Disney World for our annual trip there.

There are two trains on this route.  They leave from both Lorton,  Virginia, and Sanford, Florida, at four in the afternoon.  The only stop is for a brief crew chance halfway through near Florence, South Carolina.  They they each arrive at their destinations at nine in the morning.

After our Disney visit, we will take the remain back overnight to Virginia as we are in Colonial Williamsburg next.

Great fun, and a saving of both time and driving.  We will do this again!

First Blush of Spring

 Back home for a few days we are beginning to see promises of springtime.  Our hyacinth bed is all popped up with its hundred bulbs both looking and smelling wonderful.

While tulips and daffodils are a bit behind, we took advantage to do some planting.  Our reblooming irises did so well by blooming all winter that we are adding a whole bed this year.  I think we will have more than thirty colors when they really come to life.

Then…I couldn’t resist getting a head start on tomatoes.  If these do anything close to last year’s crop, we will have more tomatoes than we know what to do with…or maybe we will know what to do with them!  Wait and see.

One more month will make a lot of difference.

Sunshine and Fish!

 Trish and I have been at Atlantis for two weeks and we have one more week to go.

One of the reasons we love to come here is the gigantic aquarium that runs under and outside of the main building.

Each day we walk through the underground tunnels and visit all the creatures that live here.  It’s a place to cool off if you are hot or just to be amazed at what lives under the sea.

We also love to visit the dolphin cay.  They now have 38 dolphins here, many of which are rescue animals. There are also babies.  It is amazing to watch them work with their humans! All of the people we met here talk about how much they love to work with the dolphins. They are beautiful.

We love every day!

To Warm Weather

Trish and I got tired of the winter cold, so, a week ago we flew to the Bahamas to enjoy warm weather for three weeks!

 We love staying at the Atlantis Bahamas Resort. Besides nice rooms, there are a half-dozen different swimming pools, a rapid river ride, a huge aquarium, a dolphin rehab lagoon, and a selection of great restaurants.

This property is immaculately maintained and has more than everything we might possibly need without going anywhere else.

Our pattern each day is: sleep late and get up later, have a bite and go out to a different pool spot each day, sun and read until we are well roasted, have dinner and go to bed early. Then, do it again!

Today our friends, Sandy and Terry Countermine, arrive for a week. Now we will double our fun!

The Snow Won’t Go!

 After five days the snow looks almost like it did when it first finished falling!

When our frozen pipes thawed, it turned out that we had a burst pipe at one of our outside showers.  Our neighbor spotted it and turned our water off, then our other neighbor, Javier, went over and fixed it without our even asking.  Ocracoke is always the best place to live!

The flower beds were all prepped at Christmas time, so, they were really happy for the snow to come.  I fed them as the snow came, then the melting snow will take the food down to where it needs to be.

The best thing about being home was this:  Josh Goforth came for the week at our house and we had a great snow time visit.  We were supposed to leave on Wednesday and would have missed his performances.  Since we were stuck at home, we got to still be on the island for a wonderful Friday evening show with Josh playing with our own Martin Garrish and magical twelve-year-old Dallas Mason.  It was an evening of magic in the middle of winter.

Another reason to live where we live!

We love the way this community all works together.