Florida 2015 - Day 1

Vacation!  One of my all-time favorite words!  This year, we headed to Florida again but with a little twist.  We spend a few days in Disney, then headed west to the Gulf coast.  We flew out on my birthday, and while airport and flying aren't much of a treat, Disney World on your birthday is definitely a treat.  We stayed at the Walt Disney World Dolphin this year.  We got to Orlando, spent a very brief time checking out the hotel, and then walked over to Hollywood Studios.  And here's the crazy thing:  I didn't even take my camera!  In fact, I didn't get my camera out the whole time were are at Disney.  So here's a bunch of iPhone pictures:

Airport selfie!  We are ready to go.

 Happy Birthday to me!  Sullivan made a card before we left and packed it in her suitcase.

A room with a view.  It turn out we could see the Epcot fireworks from our room.

Our room is the circle window in the middle.

The long, hot walk to Hollywood Studios.

First order of business:  Star Tours!  I was sure I'd get picked to be the rebel spy since I was wearing my "It's my birthday" pin, but I didn't.

A few of our favorite things to do at Hollywood Studios:

The Great Movie Ride

The Voyage of the Little Mermaid

Pretending we're Singing in the Rain (actually a little rain would have been nice - it was hot!)

Then it was off to dinner at Mama Melrose's.  Besides a great dinner, I got a "spaghetti and meatballs" cupcake.  It was cute and yummy.

After dinner, it was time for Fantasmic - one of my favorite shows at Disney.

Hollywood Studios at night as the crowd pours out of Fantasmic.

After Fantasmic we ran (literally) back to Star Tours to try to fit in one more ride before the park closed.  There was no line, so we were able to fit in two.

Guess who finally got picked as the Rebel Spy!

 One last picture as we left the park - and look who flew in to our picture!  They used to have a huge Sorcerer Mickey hat at the end of this street that made a great backdrop.  Now they just have a big stage with really bright lights which really isn't so great for nighttime photos.

After a fun-filled but long day, the walk back to the Dolphin seemed extra long (we really should have just taken the boat).  By the time we got there I had three new blisters, but we were rewarded with these great views of the hotel.  The walkway leading up to the main entrance is lined with palm trees and they had a light show going that was timed to the music that was playing.

What a great first day of vacation and a fantastic birthday!

December Daily

I'll get back to the 30 Days of Thankful later, but now it's time for December Daily.  Ok, really it's well past time for December Daily, but we won't talk about that!

 

 

30 Days of Thankful

Looking for the light

I'm taking an online class that's all about phone photography and our first assignment was light.  I was experimenting all day with different types of light and different photo editing apps.

Here are some that I took during the day

And here's one from Annapolis that I edited a little and re-posted

I wanted to try some shots at "magic hour" - that half hour or so right after sunset - so dragged the family down to the C & O Canal for an impromptu photo shoot which turned into a really fun little adventure.

These two  came from my phone

 But of course I had to bring my real camera, and I got some beautiful pictures.  I couldn't have asked for a prettier sunset/

It was a beautiful summer night, so where do we go?  A graveyard! (It's also a Civil War memorial)

Cali - wrapping up

As you can see, we packed in a lot of fun this week.  We can't thank Don and Amy enough for being such great hosts.  We spent a lot of time in the pool, so here are a few pics of that.

 This picture makes me smile every time I see it

And of course, no visit to the Whites is complete without a picture of The Boy and his big, goofy sidekick Sonic

Hopefully we'll be repeating this trip again very soon!

Cali - Day 6: Venice Beach and Hollywood

Friday was July 4th, and Don took us to "the greatest place on earth":  Venice Beach.  Let's just say we saw of lot of things that we'll never see in Hagerstown!  It was a fabulous freak show.

Here's a summary of some of the great people we saw.  Sullivan did NOT see the humor in the ancient body builder.  She did enjoy the skateboarders, though. The roller blading, guitar playing sheik would take a picture with me unless I bought one of the t-shirts he was selling.

I loved the cowboy cops

The beach here was big and beautiful

Our guys showing off their stuff at Muscle Beach

 On the way home, we made a little detour to see the Hollywood sign

If you look closely, you can see the Hollywood sign behind us.  Look very closely!

Here's Sullivan coming down the (faded) red carpet

We took a little stroll on Hollywood Blvd to see the Walk of Fame.  It was hot and crowded, but very entertaining.

Guess which one of these stars is my favorite :-)

Look at all the celebrities we saw!  I danced briefly with Spider-man.  Darth Vader said "excuse me" as he walked past me - he was surprisingly polite.  And Don posed for some pictures with Marilyn Monroe.  Quite a day!