Trish & Anne RV Adventures

On Thursday, May 11 we moved to Beth and Daryl’s house in Winter Park, Fl. and this time we managed to avoid the brick streets that caught us by surprise the last time we drove here in the RV – a much better ride this time. Beth and Daryl had an event to go to on Thursday evening, so we spent the night binging some TV we had missed, and doing laundry.

Luna (Beth and Daryl’s grand-dog) relaxing on Anne’s lap while we watched some TV, and the view from the sun room.

Friday we started the day at a Canine Companions Graduation Ceremony. Canine Companions provides service dogs to adults, children and veterans with disabilities and facility dogs to professionals working in healthcare, criminal justice and educational settings. (Beth helps them organize and publicize their annual gala for their Southeastern Region.)

The left picture is of a puppy and the puppy-raisers that took care of him from 8 weeks to 18 month old. Right after this “graduation” the puppies are taken for several months of professional training. After that they are matched with a client – the one receiving her puppy on the right was a young lady who was in a car accident – this was her 2nd puppy.

Guess where we spent the afternoon – and courtesy of one of Beth’s friends we had a gold pass that got us to the front of all the lines – an amazing way to enjoy the parks.

We rode the Mummy and Terminator rides…

and the Minion ride

and we rode the streets of NYC with Jimmy Fallon. One of the things I didn’t get a picture of was the Bourne Stuntacular – a live action / film experience with the actor hanging from a helicopter, a motorcycle chase and an over the rooftops chase. Amazing integration that made you feel like you were there.

Then we walked through the Harry Potter section

And then it was there

Once we got to Islands of Adventure – we realized there were kids everywhere. Later we found out it was 8th grade celebration night – and the park was closing at 6pm so over 20,000 of them could enjoy it.

But Beth and I were able to ride Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure before the closure. It was a real roller coaster – and at the end we saw unicorns! Beth rode the motorcycle and I was in the sidecar.

The smiling gang – and walking by one of my favorite books on the way out of the park.

A family of wood ducks on the lake by Beth’s

Broad shoulder hawks that hang out behind the house – we are worried they will get one of those baby wood ducks.

Scenes from Mount Dora – a small town that we went to for lunch on Saturday. We ate at a Cuban restaurant and Trish said the Cuban sandwich was better then the one we had in Saint Augustine. We walked around town and then hid under some awnings during a rain shower.

On the way back to Beth’s we stopped at a Azalea Park – a 5-acre park in Winter Park. We didn’t see any azaleas, but it is also known as a great egret rookery. We drove by looking for a parking space, and didn’t notice the birds, but when we found a place to park and got out of the car, we sure heard them. And then when we looked up, we saw them on trees and houses. Oh, and there were also anhinga.

Mansion across Lake Maitland; and Beth and Daryl enjoying the park.

Winter Park mural – on the way into the movies to see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3, and to have popcorn for dinner.

We started Sunday by driving the Lake Apopka Wildlife Trail – it’s an 11-mile drive through farmland that was polluted by pesticides but reclaimed into marsh land in the mid 1990’s. It has become a wildlife habitat and a great spot for watching birds. So here come more pics than I should probably include – feel free to scroll quickly if birds aren’t your thing..

There were lots of great blue heron – we think the one on the nest was feeding some young, but we couldn’t see them.

There we also tri-colored heron

And little blue heron

And snowy egrets and great egrets

There were white ibis

We saw lots of alligators – big and small, swimming and on the land.

It took us a while but we finally figured out the the bird on the left is female boat-tailed grackle, the male is on the right.

And of course there were things we often see at home – cardinals and red-winged black birds

There were lots of osprey – soaring, sitting, fishing (though we didn’t see them catch anything – just carrying it) and eating.

I think that is a blue-winged teal

And this little guy was chomping on some grass

Dragonflies and ducks and guillemot

.And there was always just looking over the marsh

It took us 2.5 hours to drive the 11 miles – next time we might try to get there earlier in the day to see how things re different.

Some good looking swings – I played well the first 7 holes (2 pars) but then I fell apart, and once again Trish beat me, even though she only had 1 par.

Once we got home it was a group effort to put a steak dinner on the table – yum!

Monday morning Rachel and Patrick came by to pick up Luna. They had just gotten back from Greece the night before. So we took some family photos before everyone was off to work and we headed to our next stop – Jekyll Island.