Photos of Florida: In Search of the Spirit

In this post, the writing will be kept short (though, I'll probably wind up writing more than I intend to write as usual), and the pictures will be plentiful. My Photos of Florida posts will be centered around adventures and trips I take where the pictures can tell the story better than words or the visual is just so important I can't pass up posting them for you to see. Admittedly, I'm not the best photographer in the world...or in Florida...or in my neighborhood for that matter, and I'm using my Samsung S3 to take the pictures; however, when the subject of the photo is good enough, the photographer doesn't have to be that great. Enjoy!

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AND START FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE JOURNEY!

In my last post, I talked about how I wasn't really feeling the Christmas Spirit this year. I was determined to get in the mood for some holiday joy. So, the roommate and I loaded up and took off three days in a row to find that for which I was looking. Two out of three days, we did a great job finding Christmas cheer, and during our trips, we found some other sites that weren't Christmas oriented, but since we were there anyway, we decided to visit. The third day was a bit of a flop all the way around, but two out of three ain't bad.

The Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World is truly one of the happiest places on Earth. At Christmas, there's even more happiness than usual to be spread around. The park is decorated for the season, music filled with bells and holiday fanfare play all through the park, and even some of the rides change their themes ever so slightly. I highly recommend taking a trip to the Disney if you ever get the chance, and if you can go at Christmas, all the better!

When Walt Disney envisioned the complex he would build in Florida, he wanted it to be a literal getaway for his guests. The park is built in a way which forces all the park visitors leave their day-to-day life behind and enter a fantastical world born of Walt's imagination. In order to do this, the park is built quite some distance from the "real" world and even its own parking lot. Once you park, you continue your journey by either the monorail or ferry system. We chose the monorail, and I snapped a few pictures along our ride.

Even when the holiday season isn't in full swing, it honestly feels like you're in an extremely special place walking around Disney World, especially in the Magic Kingdom. Between the five different areas of the park (Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, Adventureland, Frontierland, Main Street USA), you get a great variety of all the different types of magic Walt had in mind. The painstaking detail put into the design and upkeep of the park make just walking through the streets worth the ticket price. I managed to get a few good pictures of the park, the Celebration Parade, and the Electrical Parade, the way that you'll experience them any time you visit.

The first thing you'll see entering the park is Main Street USA. Modeled after Walt's hometown in the early 1900's, Main Street gives way to the crowning jewel that defines Disney World for many of the guests that visit: Cinderella Castle. There are few things you'd want obscuring your view of the home of the princess, but when it's Christmas garland and wreathes, it doesn't really bother you. The park has hints of the season all throughout, but Main Street is decked to the nines in decor for the season. When it all lights up at night, you can't help but feel the Christmas spirit, even if you are watching the Electrical Parade beside a bratty kid and her poor excuse for a parent and human. 

As the night drew to a close, we found a spot in front of the castle, which I've featured in the pictures below. As I said before, it's the image many people conjure up, consciously or unconsciously, whenever they think about Walt Disney World. There were three shows we watched at different times throughout our visit: Cinderella's Holiday Wish, in which her Fairy Godmother decorates the castle (see the before and after below); Celebrate the Magic, in which scenes from Disney's history play out using Cinderella Castle as a backdrop; and Holiday Wishes, the parks closing firework spectacular.

If there's one thing at Disney you should NOT miss, it's Celebrate the Magic; I saw several people misty eyed and a few others with actual tears. I didn't try and film the show, because I didn't want to miss out on the actual experience myself. I'm glad I didn't distract myself with the camera, because it was my favorite part of the day. There's something about watching those scenes you've viewed hundreds of times before play on a storybook castle, all narrated by Cricket himself, that sends you home with the magic like nothing else.  

To conserve some space on the page here, I've made just one slide show for our trips to St. Augustine, the oldest city in America, and the place where we spent out second two days looking for some holiday cheer. The thing that drew our attention to the area for Christmas was the Holly Jolly Holiday Trolley. It's a tour you can take around town on trolley train to enjoy the Christmas lights in the city. While our driver was very energetic and fun, I was slightly disappointed with the lights display. To have been played up as much as it was, there really weren't that many lights. It was only $8.00 each, though, and we got hot cider and a cookie each out of the deal. 

The trip (either day) wasn't an entire bust by any means. We visited several hot spots in the area, some decorated for Christmas and others not. Regardless of the holiday attire, each location raised my spirits a bit. Over the two days, we visited Fort Matanzas National Monument, a fort built by the Spanish in 1742 to guard the rear entrance to St. Augustine; Historic Downtown St. Augustine, where there are all sorts of pubs, stores, restaurants, shops, and attractions; St. Augustine Pirate & Treasure Museum, just what you'd imagine only cooler; the trolley tour mentioned above; and Ponce de Leon's Fountain of Youth. You can find pictures from each of those places below. I'll probably be writing a more in-depth description of each some time soon.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures and what little I had to say about them this time around. My next entry should be up some time later this week. It will continue the actual story of our move, specifically covering the trouble we ran into that put us in Deland, instead of the intended Orlando address. Until then, check out the links to my other blogs below. This month on the music blog, it's all Christmas music. 

Feel free to check out my other blogs, too. 

I've got a movie blog I update once a week, and a music blog I update once a day.

Five Minute Florida: If Only in My Dreams

I've decided that there are aspects to my experiences in the Sunshine State that I won’t be able or might forget to cover in my regular posts. To deal with that problem, I've decided to create shorter segments entitle Five Minute Florida. Basically, I’ll take whatever topic I’d like to cover, write as much as I can in five minutes, and write one of these shorter segments as often as I can. It gives me the chance to write more often, and hopefully, it’ll bring some more regular readership to my blog. Today’s topic: Christmastime.

BE SURE TO CHECK THE BLOG ARCHIVE TO THE RIGHT 

AND START FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE JOURNEY!

If you don't get this joke, you won't like my blogs. 

Regardless of what the Christmas season really means to you personally, most people have the same general idea of the sights and sounds that remind them the holiday season is once again descending upon us, earlier and earlier every year it seems. Personally, I don’t think Christmas carols should be sung, eggnog drank, or Christmas Vacation watched until after Thanksgiving. Corporate America seems to believe just the opposite, suggesting Christmas sales and the holiday season should start some short number of hours after we sing “Auld Lang Syne”, but I digress…

You can put Santa hats on
seahorses all you want, but
that doesn't make it Christmas.

Christmas trees, twinkly lights, snow, and all those things that show “it’s beginning to look a lot like", well, you know, mean a little less in a warmer climate, at least to someone who grew up in a much more frigidly-winter, December environment. I mean, when it’s warm and sunny enough to be on your motorcycle on December 8 and you’re used to wearing three layers just to go check the mail, it just doesn't feel like Christmas. I don’t care how many lights you put up, Christmas isn't supposed to be comfortable. It’s supposed to be cold, miserable, gloomy, and bleak, said the grumpy old man (that’s me), whose heart could use growing three sizes this week. It’s not quite time to start saying “Mele Kalikimaka”, but it’s close! 

Still, it’s the only real difference I can find between Christmas here and Christmas in WV, a humid Christmas versus a frosty Christmas. The local downtown area, the local parks, homes around the neighborhood, and all the stores are decked out for the season. I still hear all the same Christmas tunes everywhere I go. No matter what I do, though, it just doesn't seem like Christmas. To be honest, this has been a building concern for a few years. It may just be due to the fact that I’m getting older and I don’t have any kids to keep the spirit alive like I once did myself, but whatever the reason, Christmas seems to have lost some of the magic it once held over me.

I've decorated the apartment. I've got all my Christmas LPs out, and I’m even currently enjoying one compilation as I type. I've got Christmas cards ready to be personalized. I've even had some Peppermint Bark! Plus, Disney (where I’m now working part-time…blog post to come in the future) is all about the Christmas season, and they have been since early in November. Maybe a trip to the Magic Kingdom (as a guest) would get me in the spirit. It’s the park that most gets into the holiday season as I remember growing up with it. There’s also a winter wonderland festival at the local fair grounds next weekend that might help to dispel my humbug.

Also, it doesn't help being so far away from family and friends. I’m planning on making a trip home for the holidays, but I’m not sure when, yet. I’m definitely looking forward to reconnecting with people! You don’t realize how long three and a half months is until you’re far from everything you've ever known. I’m not going to be able to be there on Christmas, though, because I wasn't able to get that week off work 100%.  Until then, my work with Christmas cards and some good Christmas jams will have to hold me over. So, in case I don't get to see you, I wish you and yours the very merriest of Christmases, and the happiest of New Years. 

Feel free to check out my other blogs, too. 

I've got a movie blog I update once a week, and a music blog I update once a day.

Chapter One - Part Two: Patience is Power, Especially Without Power

Note: My original intention was to split the drive down to Florida over two entries. Then, once I got writing, I decided to just keep going while the words were flowing pretty easily. Then, as I tend to do, I changed my mind again, especially after seeing how long of an entry it was going to be if I included both days. So, here is the conclusion to our drive to Florida. This is where things begin to get interesting, if by interesting you mean horrible, but as with all things, this too came to pass...

BE SURE TO CHECK THE BLOG ARCHIVE TO THE RIGHT 

AND START FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE JOURNEY!

This is what Florida looks like most of the time, just in case you were wondering.
::Read Sarcastic::

The weather started off as pleasant as the previous day’s had been for most of the drive; it was even cool enough outside that I rode with the windows down for quite some time, but about the time we rolled into the Orlando area, it began to rain. As I drove down the wet Florida roads, I was reminded of another subtle, yet slightly more important difference between WV and the giant, almost sea level swamp that is the Sunshine State: water on the roads has nowhere to go and pools much quicker than that which can run off the Appalachians and into the valleys. It’s not really a huge problem, but you can definitely tell a difference driving in wet conditions here than where I’m used to driving. Nevertheless, we moved along just fine and continued our journey.

Looking back on this picture, I think her reaction was a little less than accurate,
especially based on how much she freaked out about the incident
as the movie progressed. 

Now, I’m not sure at what point in the trip the feeling that I had forgotten something began to set in to my brain, but I know that I thought on it for quite some time before I realized what it was. Finally, I had a moment much like that of Mrs. McCallister in Home Alone, except, I hadn’t forgotten my kid at home while going on my Christmas vacation, which, in my opinion could’ve been handled in a much safer fashion than the McCallister family decided to handle it, but I digress…what I had forgotten was much worse that a kid being left to fend for himself against burglars whose physical number was probably higher than their combined IQ score. 

A week before leaving, I had called Duke Energy, the electric company for the area to which we were moving, in order to have the service transferred to my name, and was placed on hold, finally hanging up after an extremely long wait. I called again about four days out from leaving and again each following day. Each time I called, save one when I was informed there was no one to answer my call and I should call back during regular business hours, I was placed on hold only to be lost and forgotten like the matches to the drawer full of single socks we all have somewhere in our bedroom. Needless to say, I had never gotten in touch with anyone to set the electricity up in my name.

September 6, the day on which I realized this and we were supposed to move into the new apartment, was a Friday. If you haven’t connected all the dots in this puzzle, allow me. I called Duke Energy once again, and once again I was placed on hold for what seemed like forever, but driving down the highway listening to the radio while my cell phone rested in its clip, on the dash, on speaker, it was easier to wait them out for someone to answer, especially since I was being thanked for my patience ever few minutes. Side note, I think it’s presumptuous for a company to thank you for the patience they’re not even sure you’re displaying. 

I was finally connected with someone whose name I’ll never remember and isn’t important. What is important to note is that Duke Energy does not offer next day service, so, the earliest they could arrive to change the service into my name was Monday. Now, if I were running an apartment complex and this scenario arose for a new tenant of mine, particularly one that was so far away from home, I’d probably make some kind of arrangements to help them out in some way. Maybe they couldn’t stay there themselves, but I’d let them move their things into the apartment. Maybe I could let them reimburse me for the days the electric was still in the complex’s name. I don’t know exactly what those arrangements would be, but my response would not be the one I got, which was something to the effect of “sorry, there’s nothing we can do”.

This very possibly should’ve been a red flag signaling what the rest of my dealings with this company would be. However, when you’re in a situation like this, moving far away from home with few to no alternative options, you’re kind of stuck. Maybe I should’ve just said forget and started looking for somewhere else to stay, but then again, it was technically my fault that things weren’t as they should be, so, I let it go and delivered the news to my roommate the next time we stopped.

It wasn’t as if we had any decision to make. We were without an apartment to move into immediately, and we knew no one to stay with in the area. We were going to be looking for a motel or hotel of some sort for the weekend, all three nights. It was a little disappointing, but it wasn’t the end of the world. So, we found a motel close to our still future apartment and decided to enjoy the weekend as best we could.

You can see how I might come to make the comparison I make in the paragraph below...

We visited a local attraction called Gatorland, and if you’ve never been there, it’s an OK stop to make if you like animal attractions. It’s good family entertainment, if a little hokey at times. I keep making the joke to my roommate, who chose the trip on her parents’ recommendation, that it reminds me of the Goof family’s stop at Lester’s Opossum Park in A Goofy Movie, but it really wasn’t that bad; I even kind of enjoyed parts of it, but let’s keep that between us. Plus, as Florida residents (we had our lease as proof), it only cost $10.00 each. We also scoped out the area to see what was close by our new home. We found a mall, Walmart, a couple grocery stores, and plenty of restaurants.

We were lucky enough to find a nice motel to stay that wasn’t all that expensive. I went with Choice Hotels despite our experience with Quality Inn on the trip down south. The lady that owned the motel, a Rodeway Inn, was very nice and polite, and had a great British accent. Her staff was more than pleasant, too, which just proves my point about hotel ownership being a deciding factor in the establishment’s service.

We made it through the weekend unscathed, but we were excited to get moved into our new apartment. We had gotten a decent look at it on Saturday morning, but we hadn’t had the chance to look in-depth at anything. Moving from out of state, we made a trip to FL and looked at the apartments we were interested in back in August, but most complexes only show the models, which is, we learned, a very deceptive practice at times, where the company shows you a really nice apartment that they furnish, clean up, and show in place of an actual, vacant apartment where someone will be living. Looking back on it now, I would’ve handled the nightmare of a situation we were about to encounter completely differently, but little can be known about the future until it’s past. 

Next: Creepy Crawlies and the Run Around

Feel free to check out my other blogs, too. I've got a movie blog I update once a week, and a music blog I update once a day. There's even a post or two about songs from A Goofy Movie.