Where In The World Wednesday!

Happy Wednesday!  It's time to visit the "happiest place on earth" (cheesy sounding but very true).  Ready?  Here we go! 

Last week's mystery location is..... (drum roll)....

It's the "Astro Orbiter"!!  A spaceship type ride located at the top of Future World in The Magic Kingdom.  You take an elevator up to the ride and then get in your "spaceship".  Once the ride starts you are able to control the height of your ship, moving it up and down at whim.  It offers amazing views of The Magic Kingdom and is supposed to be extra cool to ride at night.  Though it was enjoyable, it was a really long wait for a relatively short and simple ride (and Ralph wasn't thrilled with the heights).  So we probably wouldn't do this one again.

Who's that pilot?!

And now onto the clues for this week's mystery location...

This is actually one of my top 5 Favorite Attractions in The World, so I have a lot of photos!  Disney World regulars should recognize our location immediately.  If you've never been there before you might think we're in Africa (that is a good clue in itself)!

A sign as we enter our mystery location!

We are seeing Sable Antelope.  Notice how close we are to them by the sides of our vehicle appearing in the bottom of the photo.  



Greater Flamingos!  I love these beautiful birds!  If you look closely there's another type of bird in this photo.  That's right, it's a duck!  Ducks seem to pop up in every attraction at Walt Disney World since people continually feed them (though it's dangerous to the birds and not allowed). 



Warthogs!  That little guy in the front is Pumba, I believe. 

We are seeing Nile Hippopotamus.  Amazing and somewhat scary at the same time!

This photo shows 2 animals...Grant's Zebra and Ostrich.  Wow, I feel like we are about to enter the race seen in the "Swiss Family Robinson" movie!  A Disney classic and one of my personal favs.

White Rhinoceros.  It's just unfathomable to me how people could hunt and kill amazing creatures like these. 

We are seeing White-Bearded Wildebeest here! 

I saw this animal for the first time ever in our mystery location.  It's an Okapi!

This photo shows you how ridiculously close our mystery location allows you to get to the animals...like these Giraffe!

A Reticulated Giraffe eating leaves.  Check out his black tongue!

I was literally thisclose to this guy while getting this shot.  You can see the roof of our vehicle on the top right of the photo.  It looks like he's smiling and I think he was being a ham for the cameras that day!

Here is the King Of The Jungle on top of Pride Rock surveying his domain!

My favorite African animals...African Elephants!  They are such intelligent and family-oriented creatures.  Do you see the baby behind his mother in the middle?

A close up shot of mother and baby.

Well, that's all I've got!  I'll see you next week!

Trees Are Terrific!

Happy Arbor Day!!



This is our Flowering Dogwood Tree (Cornus Florida) that came with our house when we purchased it. 



Last year it was barely alive and didn't flower.  This year is a different story!! 



Wow!  My gardening talents have not stretched into trees thus yet, but it seems like the mulch we put around the tree (which was really the only thing we did, and we were careful to leave room around the trunk) worked! 



We're crossing our fingers that our tree will continue to grow and prosper.  It's by far not planted in it's ideal location being in full sun and clay soil so it's somewhat of a miracle that it's survived this long.  At least we get to enjoy it's incredible beauty this year!

CELEBRATE ARBOR DAY HERE! 

Where In The World Wednesday!

Well, I just found out that my parents are going to Walt Disney World in September (my favorite time of year to go) and my cousin and her family are going in August.  So that makes this week's edition of "Where In The World Wednesday" especially wistful.  I am very happy for them, but...I WANT TO GO TOO!!! Sigh. 

Here's the answer to last weeks clues (btw, no one submitted any guesses this week!)...

It's my all-time, #1 Favorite Attraction in "The World", "Living With The Land"!!!  For anyone who enjoys gardening, greenhouses, vegetables, fish, bananas, or relaxing boat rides...this ride is an absolute must do!  You load a slow moving boat and travel on water through animatronic scenes of different climates learning how they affect the land.  From the rain forest to the desert to the prairie.  Then your boat takes you into an enormous working greenhouse (which coincidentally provides much of the product used in the Epcot restaurants.  I told you the quick service "Sunshine Seasons" in The Land Pavilion was amazing!).  You witness and learn about amazing new growing techniques including hydroponics and aeroponics.  It's warm, it smells amazing, and it's more relaxing than any spa in my opinion!  Ralph and I took a tour, "Behind The Seeds", a couple of years ago where we got to go on a walking tour inside the attraction and learn so much more than you do in the actual ride.  I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in gardening, the environment, or who enjoys the ride itself.   

This week's mystery location is somewhere that Ralph and I had never been until our most recent trip in September 2010.  It was fun, but probably not fun enough that we would do it again.  But at least we can say we have officially been to this mystery location.  Ready for your clues?  There are only 4 this week so here we go!

Here is a view of our mystery location from afar.  It looks absolutely spectacular when it's all lit up at night!

Since Ralph is somewhat acrophobic, he was not particularly thrilled about our mystery location! 

A sign from our mystery location that I very much enjoy. 

This is a view of the castle (during Fantasyland construction) from our mystery location. 

That's it!  Any guesses?  See you next week with the answer!