Doing WDW on my own again, a February 2012 PTR

[PhoenixStrength]

After visiting with the Lion, I headed down to the African Chin Strap Penguins. There were only a few out, the rest were inside their "home".

Then I walked over to the African Elephants. They had a baby born a few years ago, and had a contest to name him. His name wound up being chosen as Samson. Here he is playing with his Mom.

The last part of Africa was the Chimpanzee House, which also has some other primate species and Panamanian Golden Frogs.

White and Black Colobus Monkey

Coquerel's Sifaka

And, of course, Chimpanzee

This guy was lying on his back, relaxing after having run around playing with a young Chimp for a while in their outdoor yard. They have quite a few Chimps there, a couple of which are babies that were born in the last few years.

And the Chimps have their own statue right outside the exit to the building.

The last area of the Maryland Zoo is the Polar Bear Watch.

It houses, in addition to the obvious Polar Bears, a couple other Arctic species and the Baltimore Raven. Not the football player, but the retired former mascot. He was retired a couple years ago so he could relax and had another Raven take over. I couldn't get picture of him, as he was in his house and barely visible.

Snowy Owl

Polar Bear

Arctic Fox Baby

And his Mom, who I promise is alive. She was hilarious while sleeping, rolling around in all kinds of crazy positions.

The Polar Bear statue for that area.

Once I was done I took the Tram that is next to the Polar Bears back to the front entrance and left. I got a call right around the time I was at the African Elephants that our power was back on and the phones were up again too. I didn't have to do to the office though since it was already 3:30pm, and my boss said just to finish the day "at home" and come to the office Wednesday, which I did.

 

[teekathepony]

Ohhhh wow, I'm living vicariously through your pictures. I'm just going to close my eyes and pretend I have a zoo like that near by.

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Ohhhh wow, I'm living vicariously through your pictures. I'm just going to close my eyes and pretend I have a zoo like that near by.

Glad you like them!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Hi Everyone! Hope you are all having a good holiday weekend. Mine has been crazy so far. Friday night my cousin got married in Baltimore. It was wonderful and beautiful, and very classy. I got some ideas for Heather's wedding from her wedding too!

Then Saturday night my sister Lisa and I went to a concert at the Maryland State Fair, Chris Young and Blake Shelton! I got lots of pictures from that, and I'll share some of them with ya'll. The concert was at the Maryland State Fairgrounds, during the State Fair, though we didn't get to enjoy it at all as Lisa had to work earlier in the day. We got there and got right in line for the concert. Here is Lisa, looking excited while we waited.

They finally started letting us in 25 minutes after they were supposed to. It was in the infield of the horse racing track at the fairgrounds, which means no seats, just sitting on the lawn. Well, sitting til the concert started, then we stood. Once we got in and seated we had just under an hour til it started. We went one at a time to get food and drinks. By the time we both finished that it was about to start. Oh, here's a shot of the stage. We weren't far back at all.

First up was Chris Young. He's a great, newer country singer, with his first 4 singles all going to #1. Oh, and he is cute too

He performed for about 45 minutes to an hour and sang all of his hits and some other fun songs. Once he finished we had about a 30 minute wait for Blake while they switched out equipment. Budweiser had a hot air balloon they started filling up and then let people in, though it was tethered and only went up about 30 feet.

And here is a shot of the Ferris Wheels, all lit up since it was dark by then.

In no time Blake came out and he was incredible. He sang every one of his songs, as well as some random songs. He sang "Angel is the Centerfold", "My Prerogative" and "Play that Funky Music". I took a few dozen pics of him, but here are the best.

He played for over an hour and we had a great time. Too soon it was over and we had to go.


*Next post: Going back to the State Fair on Sunday!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

I would like to start out by saying that these pictures are not of a great quality, as they were all taken on my phone. I forgot my camera!

So, I decided to go to the State Fair on Sunday. I don't do a lot of the fair rides, as they are either geared toward kids, or just too darn expensive! But what I did want was this:

Not really! That just sounds like a heart attack waiting to happen to me. I did some shopping and bought myself some sunglasses and a pair of earrings, then did the animal buildings.

First up was the Cow Palace (yes, that is the name of the building!) which also has the Birthing Center for all the animals and 4H exhibits. And lots and lots of cows.

This cow had just given birth to twins about an hour beforehand! The announcer for that area was giving a ton of cow and calf facts out to everyone. They also had another cow who had just given birth earlier in the day, and a pig who was giving birth right then!

And they had incubators with eggs, and chicks hatching.

And one of the 4H exhibits was an agility course. Only, instead of dogs doing the jumps and such, it was rabbits!

They were both very good at it, they just had to be corralled by the two teenage girls from one thing to the next so they didn't hop off course.

Next I headed over to the Miscellaneous Animal building (not it's name, but I don't remember what that one was called).


Chickens

Goats

Llama

And Pig

They had judging for each species, and were running a show for sheep and another for pigs while I was walking through.

The last animal area was the Draft Horses. These horses were HUGE! For perspective, you can see the guy leading this horse to it's left. The guy was probably easily 6 feet tall, but looks like a kid compared to the horse!

They were all nice though. There were about 2 dozen Draft horses in all. Clydesdale, Haflinger, and Percheron were the 3 breeds I saw. Here are a few of them.

And for another perspective on how tall these horses are, this wall is a little over 7 feet tall, I asked an employee. And his head is over it!

After I finished with the animals I wandered around for a while. I got something to eat and played a couple of the games. I won a Monkey that I gave to Heather, since they are her favorite. After a bit of wandering I left for the day.


*My next updates will be a Disney update, and an update on the prep for Heather's wedding. We made the bouquets tonight and I'm making the centerpieces tomorrow. I'll have lots of pics! Have a great rest of the holiday weekend ya'll!

 

[aprilisis]

Awesome photos! 'll be back to comment more- I just wanted you to know that I didn't abandon your PTR!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Awesome photos! 'll be back to comment more- I just wanted you to know that I didn't abandon your PTR!

Thanks, glad you haven't abandoned me

 

[PhoenixStrength]

I will be back later today with a Disney update. I'm kind of a zombie today. We had a Tornado Warning last night (thankfully nothing ever materialized) and severe storms until 4:30am this morning that kept me awake all night. I got about an hour of sleep and then sat in traffic for over an hour and a half, for what normally takes 25 minutes, to get to work due to all the road closures from flooding.

At least my office has power and the ceiling didn't leak this time!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

So, just a quick recap, then the latest on my Disney trip.

I'm leaving at around 1am on Wednesday February 8th and driving from MD to FL.

I'm staying at POP Century Resort, which will be my second time staying there, but my first time staying on property solo.

It is my second solo trip though. Last time I stayed offsite.

I have two reservations, one for the 8th through 11th, then the 11th through 18th with free QS dining.

Now, the new decisions. I am going to visit each park two times, even though I wasn't sure about two times at DHS. I realized though that I have never done a few of the shows there, including Beauty and the Beast and Idol, so I can do them the second day, along with my favorite rides again.

I'm not going to do any TS meals. Instead I'm going to use that $$ to do some tours and also some activities on my no-park day. So far that for tours I want to do Wild Africa Trek and Behind the Seeds, but I don't know if I want to do any others yet. On my no-park day I want to rent a boat in the Seven Seas Lagoon, and maybe a massage. Still deciding on that, so if anyone has any recommendations, I'm all ears!

Other than that, not much new. I'm trying to get ready for Heather's wedding (just over 2 weeks!) and then my trip next month to Utah.

Next update will be pictures of the centerpieces and other things we made for Heather's wedding!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Goodness, you have been hit with the bad weather lately haven't you? My father was deathly afraid of storms...to the point that he probably should have had some sort of therapy...and, thankfully, I didn't inherit that trait from him. I am watchful but not as afraid as my dad was. Having said that, I would have been wide awake too if they were posting tornado warnings.

I am hoping to get my Behind the Seeds tour pictures up sometime today so you can see what a great tour it is. This was our third time to do the tour and we enjoyed it just as much this time as we did the others.

I look forward to seeing the wedding decoration pictures.

 

[aprilisis]

I love the zoo, concert & fair photos!!! Your February plans sound great. When you drive from MD, do you drive straight through or do you stop once? I think DHS can be worthy of 2 days. I think you might want to try Star Tours more than once- I want to go on a million times during the next trip because I haven't seen every different scenario in that ride yet.
Sorry about the awful weather. I feel your pain- my drive to work yesterday morning was downright scary in the torrential rain. My commute is an hour each way, too.
I can't wait to see those centerpieces!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Goodness, you have been hit with the bad weather lately haven't you? My father was deathly afraid of storms...to the point that he probably should have had some sort of therapy...and, thankfully, I didn't inherit that trait from him. I am watchful but not as afraid as my dad was. Having said that, I would have been wide awake too if they were posting tornado warnings.

I am hoping to get my Behind the Seeds tour pictures up sometime today so you can see what a great tour it is. This was our third time to do the tour and we enjoyed it just as much this time as we did the others.

I look forward to seeing the wedding decoration pictures.

I'm not afraid of storms, but tornados I was keeping an eye on! My bedroom in on the second floor anyway, so I did not want to be up there if one did materialize.

I'm definitely looking forward to the Behind the Seeds pics! And I should have the wedding decoration pics up tonight or tomorrow. I forgot to download them from my camera last night so I can't do anything until I get home.

I love the zoo, concert & fair photos!!! Your February plans sound great. When you drive from MD, do you drive straight through or do you stop once? I think DHS can be worthy of 2 days. I think you might want to try Star Tours more than once- I want to go on a million times during the next trip because I haven't seen every different scenario in that ride yet.
Sorry about the awful weather. I feel your pain- my drive to work yesterday morning was downright scary in the torrential rain. My commute is an hour each way, too.
I can't wait to see those centerpieces!

I drive straight thru, only stopping for gas and food. I just leave around 1am and drive until I get there, usually around 3-4pm. I'm lucky that I don't need much sleep, though I will go to bed early the night before and get at least 4-5 hours before I leave. And even when I'm really tired, I don't feel tired while driving. But if I ever did I would definitely stop.

I will DEFINITELY be doing Star Tours more than once. I am a big Star Wars fan, so I usually did it at least twice anyway. And with the new scenes I will be riding it multiple times.



Oh, and here are a couple of pics of the flooding in my county alone, which did not get the worst of it.

This is yesterday evening on my way home from work, about 5 minutes from my house:

And the rain had stopped for about 7 hours by then and it was still that deep. After the rain last night it was several inches deeper when I had to drive through it this morning. Easily over a foot of water when I drove through it earlier.


This is about 20 minutes south of my house, in Crofton, MD. There really is a road under all of this water:

There is at least 2 feet of water over that road. And that was taken yesterday morning, so it is even worse today. It borders a river, and it overflowed into the road, closing it off. The one by my house is just because of a dip in the road that creates at least a large puddle everytime it rains, though it is definitely worse now than I've ever seen it before. There are still a couple dozen roads closed in my county alone, and many, many more across the state.

 

[PhoenixStrength]

So, two updates coming. First, what I did today. As I've said, I'm a huge animal lover and work with animal rescue. About twice a month, sometimes more, I drive for one of two transport networks I volunteer with. For those that don't know about animal rescue transports, Coordinators volunteer their time (often many hours per week) to find dogs that are in shelters that kill (usually the pound) and rescues willing to take them in so they are not killed. They then organize a complicated driving path to get the dog(s) (or cats) from where they are to the rescue taking them, which is often several states away. They separate that driving path down into Legs, usually of 60-80 miles each, and then find people to volunteer their time and vehicle to drive those legs.

The two transport networks I volunteer with go regular routes. One takes dogs from puppy mills and pounds in the Mid-West and takes the dogs to rescues in MD/PA/NJ/NY/CT. The other, the one I worked with today, takes dogs from GA/SC/NC and takes them to rescues in PA/NJ/NY. Today we took 4 dogs from SC to NJ. These are all dogs that would have been euthanized, but not will find wonderful homes instead, while freeing up space in the shelters they were at so more dogs didn't have to die due to running out of room.

So, here are pics of the wonderful dogs I transported today.

Angel, a 2 year old Boxer. She is an absolute doll, loves every person and dog she meets. She had a severe flea infestation and was severely underweight when turned into the shelter, but is flea-free and has gained lots of the weight so far.

Lainey, a 10 month old American Bulldog. She is also super affectionate and playful, and loves all people and dogs. She is underweight, but should gain it now that she is at a rescue.

Smokey, a 10 week old Belgian Malinois puppy. He was very scared and shy at the shelter, but super friendly and sweet with me. He is also skinny, but will be good now.

And lastly, Calvin! He is a 9 week old mixed breed puppy. He think he is Boxer, Chihuahua, who knows mix He is full of energy, playful and loved sitting on my lap.

Also, I still have the 5 foster kittens. The homes fell through for the older three, so I'm still looking for homes for them. Here are updated pics of them.

Twister

Fireball

Singe

And the younger two are still about a week away from being ready to go, but are doing great. They have grown so much and are eating well on their own (finally!). We let them all 5 out together to play, as long as they are supervised as the older 3 don't always understand that they can't play as rough with the little ones as they do their siblings and my cats.

Itty

Bitty

Up Next: Decorations for Heather's wedding!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

We finally got a lot of the decorations done for Heather's wedding, which is 2 weeks from today!

First up was the bouquets. We decided to do "fake" flower bouquets rather than real, both to save money and because they are easier to handle. No need to worry about losing petals. Since I'm the most creative I got volunteered to lead Heather and our Mom in making them.

That's Heather on the left and my Mom on the right.

Heather has 2 bouquets, one for the wedding, and a smaller one that she is going to throw at the reception. Here is the big one, and the handle that I wrapped in "Happily Ever After" ribbon.

And the smaller one and it's handle.

Here is my bouquet and it's handle, with colors to match my dress.

And lastly, the bridesmaid bouquets and their handles.

Next up was the candy boxes for the tables. I only took this one picture before they were finished, but will explain after the picture what else we did to them.

In there are M&Ms that match the two shades of blue that are the wedding colors (or as close as they make at least!) and a couple of mints. Those cute boxes came from Michaels (as did all the flowers). After we stuffed them all and I took this picture, I tied a piece of the ribbon around them. I used the leftover "Happily Ever After" and leftover light blue from the bridesmaid bouquets.

Lastly, I made the centerpieces for the tables. We have 11-12 tables for the guests (still waiting to hear from a few people that will help decide that number) and will have one of these in the center of each table.

Heather and Jimmy have a beach/water theme, so in each one is a layer of sand, then polished stones that match the colors of the dresses/flowers, and then a few shells, with the "Happily Ever After" ribbon tied on the top.

I came up with a cute idea for all of the wedding party to have their own mini one in their place when they come in for the reception. Here is what they look like.

And lastly I made a large one for Heather and Jimmy to take home with them that will be sitting in front of them on the Bridal table.

Kind of hard to tell scale from those, but the personal ones are about 3" tall, the table centerpieces are about 6-7" tall and the one for Heather and Jimmy is about a foot tall.

So, the only thing that still needs to be done are the boutonnieres and the table place settings cards, which will be done tomorrow (hopefully) around the Ravens-Steelers game! GO RAVENS!!!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

 

[aprilisis]

I think it is so awesome that you do so much to help animals!! How do you not just keep all of those dogs?? They were all so cute! That 9 week old mixed breed would definitely have gone home with me. LOL Though, Isis would NOT be happy about that!! I'm glad the kitties are doing well. You won't have a hard time placing them because they are so adorable!
The bouquets & centerpieces look so nice! I love the shades of blue that you used. That Happily Ever After ribbon was such a great touch!

 

[mickeystoontown]

I'm with April and am wondering how in the world you don't fall in love with the animals and want to keep them all. I'd have such a hard time parting with any of them.

You did an outstanding job on the bouquets and centerpieces. You are one talented woman!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

I think it is so awesome that you do so much to help animals!! How do you not just keep all of those dogs?? They were all so cute! That 9 week old mixed breed would definitely have gone home with me. LOL Though, Isis would NOT be happy about that!! I'm glad the kitties are doing well. You won't have a hard time placing them because they are so adorable!
The bouquets & centerpieces look so nice! I love the shades of blue that you used. That Happily Ever After ribbon was such a great touch!

I have transported over a dozen dogs so far, and have wanted to keep every one of them! I have to remember 2 things, a. I can't afford another dog at the moment, and b. these dogs technically belong to the rescue I am taking them to, so I can't keep them anyway! Though, these 4 were the sweetest I have ever done. I would have kept the 10 week old Malinois in a heartbeat if possible (Phoenix is half Malinois!). Though Calvin, the 9 week old mix was hilarious. And the two older girls were so friendly and sweet.....darn, now I want to get them all back again.

Heather picked the shades of blue, and our Mom actually found all the flowers to match the wedding colors. And the Happily Ever After ribbon is actually from Michaels. It was $2.99 for 10 yards, and we used 2 rolls of it for the bouquets and wrapping the candy boxes.

I'm with April and am wondering how in the world you don't fall in love with the animals and want to keep them all. I'd have such a hard time parting with any of them.

You did an outstanding job on the bouquets and centerpieces. You are one talented woman!

I would keep them all if I could. Maybe once I win the lottery.....

Thank you very much! I will say I am pretty creative and crafty, and love those sort of things. It just comes naturally to me. I used to do make a lot of things when I was younger, but never seem to have time. And you are pretty talented yourself! I love your bags and such that you make and sell. I keep meaning to buy one, I guess I'll have to check out your EBay store again....

 

[teekathepony]

Awwwww the puppy! And the kittens! I just had a little squealfest here. So adorable!

Those centerpieces are awesome! I love the bouquets too, nice job!

 

[PittypatBR]

I have been loving the pictures of the zoos, but the pictures of the flooding are really sad. The animals are adorable - thank you for all the work you do with them. That is a great thing to do.

The flowers and centerpieces are so pretty. You are really clever and have a great eye for it. I guess you are all getting really excited about the wedding now. I hope everything goes just perfectly!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Awwwww the puppy! And the kittens! I just had a little squealfest here. So adorable!

Those centerpieces are awesome! I love the bouquets too, nice job!

I have been loving the pictures of the zoos, but the pictures of the flooding are really sad. The animals are adorable - thank you for all the work you do with them. That is a great thing to do.

The flowers and centerpieces are so pretty. You are really clever and have a great eye for it. I guess you are all getting really excited about the wedding now. I hope everything goes just perfectly!

I'm going to be doing another transport this Friday evening. I know I will have at least 2 dogs, and maybe 4 puppies too I always take pictures so I'll post some of those ones this weekend.

I am definitely excited, and so is Heather! Only 10 days now.


Thanks everyone for the kind words, I came back to read them to try to cheer me up. I just found out about half hour ago that someone I met a couple years ago and have spoken to on Facebook many times passed away unexpectedly last night in her sleep. I was going to see her again next month while in Utah, and now I won't ever get to see her again. She was such a kind, fun, bubbly woman and I'm so sad that this world has lost someone like her. And some of my friends knew her well and I hurt for them, since they are in so much more pain than I am. RIP Brandi.