We're ready ;)

We're ready for some football :)

The two of us pause for a quick picture before the start of the Lions - Bears game. Despite Chicago losing 27 - 37 to Detroit, we still managed to enjoy a good afternoon at Zach's parents' house.

Remarkable contrast

After spending a good (almost too warm) afternoon in St. Augustine, we all hopped into the Nissan and drove down to Daytona. The famous yet humble beginnings of NASCAR racing. started right here, on a circuit consisting of 1/2 being on the beach and the other 1/2 on the road looping around to the other end of the beach.

We were surprised to see that the storm that we had driven through to get to St. Augustine was still clinging to the coast in Daytona.

We managed to take a few pictures of the surrounding beach as well as the red tide. You can find a few more pictures on our Daytona Web Album.

About face !

The first part of our day trip was spent in St. Augustine. We visited the 'Castillo de San Marcos National Monument' and were pleasantly surprised to be greeted by a bunch of Redcoats !

The fort was very impressive and had some very interesting history, primarily the fact that it has served under 5 different flags.Another bonus to the day's visit, unbeknown to us, today was National Public Lands Day ... basically, national monuments and displays are open for free to the public. I've never heard of this day, but think that it is something very cool and that it should be much better publicized than what it had been. Regardless though, we were happy to just walk into the fort and discover different aspects of life back in the day.

Another really cool treat was the fact that they had a canon demonstration (minus the real canon balls, unfortunately) during our visit. We were informed that those same canons, if loaded with the proper sized canon ball and proper amount of gunpowder could hit the lighthouse that was over a mile away.

Though there was quite a bit of wind (you'll see what I mean when you check out the St. Augustine Web Album), we didn't complain because the afternoon was just completely sunny with a beautiful blue sky.

Mmm Mmm ... y'all ?

Today on our way to St. Augustine and Daytona, we stopped at Cracker Barrel for lunch. This was Matt's first experience with 'down home' or 'southern' or 'comfort' food.

After sampling a bit of each other's food, we all hunkered down into our respective meals. Wow ! It really was a lot of food !!

Next time I'm SO ordering from the kids' menu ! ;)

Lots of smilin' ...

Tonight we got together with a bunch of Eileen's former co-workers from 'East' to celebrate/commemorate Leeny's departure. There was lots of laughter, lots of smiles, lots of yummy Japanese food, and lots of pictures :)

Check out the web album of Leen's Farewell Party.

Party time !

Tonight we got to celebrate Terri's birthday. She and Mark are friends of Zach and Eileen's. Terri's a nurse and Mark and Eileen worked nights together at Florida Hospital East.

The evening was spent eating Brazilian pizzas (regular AND dessert :) ) along with some fun karaoke with Marveen, Naveen, John, Terri, Mark, Eileen, Zach, Matt and I ... and some other really fun people that I really can't remember their names right now :( ... but they're cool !

Calling all geeks ;)

Matt found his little niche here in Orlando ;)

While Leeny, Zach, and I watched football, Matt attended the Orlando BarCamp, where he was able to give a presentation.

Her last night !

Yay little sister !! Tonight was Eileen's last night at her night job. She starts her day job at a cancer research center on Monday. Three years in darkness, welcome to the light-side ;)

Love ya Sis, and congrats.

Urban Flats

Urban Flats is a cool little place we tried after church today. Very yummy flat bread with fresh ingredients .... getting hungry yet ? ;)

Handmade cards ...

A really cool card that Leeny bought for her friend that just had a baby :) I was very jealous, of course, seeing that she chose to buy her a frog :) But I think I can live with it ;)
Congrats Misty !

SeaWoooooooorld ! :)

Yup we've finally made it to SeaWorld and visited our friend Shamu (the famous killer whale ... but I don't know which one exactly it was ... ). This afternoon, Zach, Leeny, Matt and I hopped in the car and went down to SeaWorld. It was a great afternoon filled with animal exhibit and shows and even a freak thunderstorm that suspended the two big roller coaster rides just as we were getting in line. After a few more animal exhibits they opened up the rides and we got to ride on the Kraken. We got split up in the line so Matt and I were loaded up first ... and we waited and waited .... turns out that in the group that went in before us, there was a guy with a video camera (strictly against the rules) and they stopped the entire ride for almost 15 minutes just so that they could go up and get the camera from the guy. Suffice it to say, when he got back we were already on the ride, but the people that were waiting with Leeny and Zach all boo-ed the guy when they realized who exactly it was.

Great times and LOTS of photos (even a couple of videos !) on the SeaWorld Web Album.

Bodies ...

Today we (Leeny, Alicia, Matt and I) got to see the "Our Body: The Universe Within" exhibit at the Orlando Science Center.

Very similar to what I've heard about the other body exhibit currently being shown in San Diego, this exhibit in Orlando had several different angles and parts of bodies to show just how intricate our bodies really are.

We were all amazed as to the different systems that the body has. Even though we'd all studied biology at to different degrees in our schooling, it was simply amazing to see inside the spinal chord, or clearly see all the arteries and veins in the body (with no skin/muscle around it), else see how the body looked sliced up (two different bodies, one sliced horizontally and the other sliced vertically). This picture is from the OSC website, since I wasn't allowed to take pictures in the exhibit itself.

Afterwards we walked around a bit of the rest of the science center and saw different snakes during feeing time ... a boa constrictor took 10 minutes to eat his large rat, while a black snake (sorry, I don't remember what kind it was, only that when I looked down at it, it watched me for over a minute .....) took about 30 seconds to eat his little mouse. We also saw the skeleton of a bull frog on display (and of course I took a couple of pictures ;) ), as well as in the center of the museum they had a whole habitat for live alligators, turtles and fish. The alligators were really not friendly (snapping and hissing at us as soon as we got near the railing) but I think it was just because they were waiting for their food.

Here is the web album of our pictures from the Orlando Science Center
... just a warning though .... the first picture in the album (not the cover) is of the black snake just before he ate his mouse.

Hanging out at the factory

Not your usual factory, we met Meline and Lee for dinner. Just a word of warning ... if you order the 'side' salad ... be prepared for one huge salad coming your way !

This place is famous for their cheesecakes (kinda obvious from the name of the place, but just thought I'd mention it anyway :) ) and they have about 2 or 3 pages dedicated to the different kinds of cheesecakes that they serve. Simply an amazing treat, that's all I've gotta say :) [emphasis on the 'treat' ... you eat here too many times/too often ... and ... well ... it catches up to you ;) ]

Little visitor at our window

Apparently there are as many of these little things running around Florida as there are in California (they just look slightly different ... must be cousins or something). This little one was perched just outside of our room window. This is actually his second time around (the first time I wasn't able to get the camera out quickly enough). He even posed for about a second or two before he zipped off.

Old friends reunion

Today we went to Forest Lake Academy Church, thinking that we'd probably see the Beckers and probably Meline and Lee. We were pleasantly surprised to see Annie & Arthur, as well as the Calandra family !

Afterward we went to an Indian restaurant with Meline, Lee and some of their friends.

Nope, sorry, no pictures this time ... I know I'm dropping the ball on this picture taking thing, but I was really hungry ........ afterwards we experienced our first thunderstorm in Florida. It was quite amazing with the rumbling thunder and bright lightning. Maybe one of these days I'll be able to take a picture of a lightning flash ... we'll see.