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!
BE SURE TO CHECK THE BLOG ARCHIVE TO THE RIGHT
BE SURE TO CHECK THE BLOG ARCHIVE TO THE RIGHT
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.
