Margaret & Ian's life together, including Ian's MINIs!
Driving from 429 along Plant St into town, we pass a lone tree with a huge bald eagle nest – and today the youngster appears to be getting ready to fly, with parents nearby:
This might be our last year to see the eagles here; the land is for sale or sold …
Today seemed to be a particular good Africa Safari drive at Animal Kingdom! I took my high zoom camera which certainly helps capture better views – but there were many animals about and easily visible, too. Our driver seemed better than some as well, pausing enough for me to get quite a few good shots, though some animals (Mandrills, Cheetah, for example) are always hard to see!
Beyond the safari drive, we saw Kevin (from “Up”) and also walked the Africa and Asia trails for more animal views …
We finished our Animal Kingdom trip with lunch at Sanaa (we’ve not been for nearly two years!), which meant more chances to see animals in the savannah between the hotel buildings …
It’s springtime which means it’s time for the Epcot Flower & Garden Festival – beautiful flower beds and flower sculptures around the park, and lots of photo opportunities!
Here’s some of the many “sculptures”:
Oakland Nature Preserve is close enough to drive over and enjoy an evening stroll, and tonight we saw a Gopher Tortoise in it’s hole, and only one small Alligator …
We’ve had a LOT of tiny insects in the air the last few days – cooler weather seems to encourage them to fly up from Lake Apopka (I think they are midges / “blind mosquitos”); today flocks of Tree Swallows have arrived, flying every direction and catching all the insects – Hooray!
I tried to capture some photos and video, but it’s really hard with the birds changing direction so often; here’s my best attempts:
Today we attended the traveling show Luzia, currently about half an hour from us in Orlando. We’ve seen MANY Cirque Du Soleil shows over the years (Mystere, O (many times!), Ka, Dralion, Corteo, La Nouba, Quidam, Varekai, Delirium, Love, and the not so good Michael Jackson Immortal) but this was our first time for Luzia – and it was another great show! Spectacular costumes and acrobatic performances, and amazing use of waterfall effects …
Also nice was that photos were allowed (no flash, no video) so we have great memories of the show too:
Disney Animal Kingdom has tried to expand it’s “after dark” experience, with the opening of Pandora land, extending safari rides into the evening, and the Rivers of Light show – we attended recently.
With our safari ride an hour before sunset there were already many animals missing – no elephants, for example, making for a strange long ride past empty land! But we did see giraffe, lions, and others:
With the sun going down, we headed to the Rivers Of Light show which we’d never seen; the first 15 minutes was incredibly slow and dull with slow moving “flowers” drifting on the water – but it turned out that was some sort of boredom-inducing pre-show, and the main event was more interesting. Unfortunately many of the water projections didn’t work very well – this show still needs development, I think!
Leaving the park, we walked through Pandora land, a very cool and quite alien experience with the strange plants glowing in the darkness, and layers of alien animal sounds …
