Matthew Monday: Disney World Vacation, Part 2

Here’s a Part 2 to last week’s Matthew Monday post on our Disney World vacation. 

First up are some pictures at Epcot.  We never did figure out what “Epcot” stands for.  Some future thing and a replication of a dozen or so countries with really good restaurants representing their cuisine.  The people at each country are actually from that country, and so they bring an extra charm to the restaurants, stores, and exhibits.  I could show you lots of pictures of each country’s exhibit, but I’m sure you can find it at their website.  Instead I’ll focus on general pictures.

Going into Epcot.

Meeting with Pluto! 

Matthew really enjoyed meeting up with the characters.  Here one with Duffy. 

I have no clue who Duffy is.

Here’s a couple of pictures back at the hotel.  The pool area had a sprinkler.

And a baby pool, which was one foot deep.  Matthew could have used a two foot or so, but the options were one foot and then over three and a half feet or greater, which would have been over Matthew’s head.

Finally my favorite was Animal Kingdom.  The safari ride was great.  I could show you lots of pictures of animals but that would focus on Matthew.  One day I’ll have to post some of the pictures of animals I captured.  Photo captured, that is.  But for now here’s a few of Matthew. 

This is waiting outside the Simba Show, which was great.  Matthew wanted a stuffed baby Simba.

There was also a petting zoo.

And a picture below of the Himalayan Roller Coaster, or whatever it was called.  (I don’t think that’s the right name,)  That looked like some ride, but Matthew was too small to go on it.

Though Disney was not exactly my thing, we did have a good time.

Matthew Monday: Disney World Vacation, Part 1

The other week, right after Matthew had completed his Kindergarten school year, we went on a vacation down to Orlando, Florida for mostly Disney World.  Matthew had a great time.  My wife and I had a good time.  It was good to be away, but I think the whole Disney World thing is for kids.  I do know adults that go almost every year, but I fail to see what makes it so interesting for adults. 

We picked a great week.  I think it was a week where a good number of schools around the country were still in session.  I’ve heard of lines for the rides being an hour plus long.  I don’t think we had any line over thirty minutes.   So if you making plans, aim for that third week in June, if you can. 

I said it was mostly Disney World.  We kind of broke it up.  We had a day in Legoland, then a pool day at the hotel, then Magic Kingdom day, then a day for Epcot, another hotel pool day, a day at Animal Kingdom, and finally a half day at Downtown Disney for shopping before an afternoon flight home.  We hit the major highlights, but there are a few other theme parks we could have tried.  There’s a ton of things to do, but it’s all rather child oriented if you ask me.  I’m not big on these theme parks.

So here are some pictures.

Matthew and Mom on some sort of mini train coaster.

Matthew as a knight on a Legoland horse.

Matthew beside a Lego wolf.  They had some really cool Lego built up items.

Matthew racing in his Lego police car.

Mathew and mom on Main street in Magic Kingdom.

Matthew and Dad somewhere in Magic Kingdom.

That's quite a few pictures already.  I'll have to break this up into more than one Matthew Monday post.  Stay tuned for next week.

Photo Essay: Wolf Sanctuary

I realized that over the course of the past year or so I’ve promised several photo essays from pictures I took.  I’m sorry, I’ve been delinquent.  And I bet many of you would actually prefer pictures to my “stodgy” old literary analyses. 

Here’s one I had promised after last year’s vacation to central Pennsylvania where we went to Amish country, Dutch Wonderland, the railroad Museum, and to the Wolf Sanctuary of PA.  I didn’t post any pictures from the Wolf Sanctuary because I said I would reserve a photo essay post especially for it.  Here is that post.

I think the vacation was about thirteen months ago, so I’m afraid a bit has been lost in my memory.  When I found out there was a wolf sanctuary nearby, it was a must to visit.  Matthew didn’t really care for it, I have to admit.  He was just under four years old at the time.  I loved it, and I think my wife did as well.  I don’t remember if it was actually free, but it was very inexpensive, and they kind of twist your arm for a donation.  It was not pricey. 

If you’re a reader of my blog, you know I’m a lover of canines, and the wolf is the preeminent canine.  Now I don’t claim to be an expert, but here’s what knowledge I’ve gathered on wolves and dogs.  Dogs and humans exist in a very similar wave length.  We are so compatible that I don’t think any other creature comes close.  I’m convinced we evolved together.  We are both social creatures, and we socialize with each other.  At least we do with dogs.  Wolves, while nearly a dog and can interbreed with a dog, is wired in the brain just a little differently.  A wolf can’t become domesticated.  It seems to as a pup, but once it reaches a certain age it will separate from its human bond.  It may even turn on you, but to some degree it does seem to respect your being as some sort of simpatico.  Many people have tried to domesticate them but it’s a rare thing for it to have worked out.  So there are a number of wolf sanctuaries across the country where people can give up the creature and let him live in an environment he is accustomed to. 

This sanctuary in Pennsylvania seems to be a particularly good one.  It’s run completely by volunteers and you have to be schooled to an astonishing high level of training to become a trainer (?).  Actually that’s not the title given to those who assist but I can’t remember what it was.  Wolves there are separated into packs, and they had a very deliberate process on introducing wolves to packs.  Packs don’t necessarily accept outside wolves. 

The one thing I absolutely remember was the smell.  Wolves do not smell like dogs.  I was surprised.  It was a very sharp, penetrating, wild aroma, not pleasant at all.  I don't know how to describe it.  At first I think I wanted to vomit, but then I got used to it.  Here are some pictures.

Here is a small pack of three.  If you go to the Wolf Sanctuary of PA website, you might find the names of the various packs and individual wolves.  There is no way I can remember now.

And a close up of one of them.

Here’s another pack, but I think this one is mostly of hybrids.  By the way, there is ample room behind for each pack; I think they are given natural amount of territory.  A large number of the wolves at the sanctuary are mixes of dog and wolf.  People think they can breed out the wolf biology, but it takes more than a few generations.

This one in the front seems to have the color of a Golden Retriever, clearly a mix.

Here are some more.

Here’s a rather large pack.

By the way, the reason they have congregated to the fence is because the trainer is feeding them.

Here’s an older one.

Finally I want to post a few pictures of Billy.  I distinctly remember this one, though I had to look his name up on the website.  Billy was the model of the wolves.  Whenever you see a wolf in a movie or picture, there is a good chance Billy was used.  He has the size and coloring of what we all imagine a wolf to look like.  Unfortunately I found out that Billy died during the course of this past year.  He died from canine bloat, which is a circumstance where the stomach and intestines twist and cut off the blood supply.  It happens in large dogs.

But wasn’t he magnificent?

Matthew Monday: At Myrtle Beach

I mentioned the other day we are having major work done at our house.  It’s been going on five weeks now, and we are seeing progress.  The living and dining rooms are done, except for a few minor things.  We’ve got a working television finally.  The kitchen has progressed but still behind.  There’s a few floor tile that still needs to be mortared in.  They had miscalculated the quantity and fell short.  So that will be put in when the backsplash behind the countertop is mortared on.  The cabinets are all in and the counter top is on.  We have electric power and ceiling spot lights in, and the microwave is operational.  But still need the plumbing completed and the gas line hooked to the oven.

I also mentioned I took the family away for nearly a week to get away from this.  We drove down to Myrtle Beach in South Carolina.  It’s a ten hour drive, but we broke the trip into two five hour legs in both directions. 

I don’t know what’s so special about Myrtle Beach.   It was a nice beach.  It was not as nice as our trip to Ft. Walton Beach Florida earlier in the year.  That was the purest beach I had ever seen.  I would say Myrtle Beach was as nice as the New Jersey Beaches, which are also very nice, but I could have gone to the Jersey Shore with just a couple of hours driving.  I guess what makes Myrtle Beach renown is their golf courses.  I don’t golf, so I guess that allure was wasted on us.  Still we had a nice time.  The first day we got there the weather was brutal, something like 95F (35C) and 100% humidity.  But it rained at night and the weather was more pleasant, though still hot, the remaining three days. 

Here are some pictures of Matthew at the beach.

With his Batman Beach towel;

No we didn’t dig this hole.  We found it and took it over.

The water was so warm.  I would love to live near an ocean beach with water that warm.

And Matthew just loved the water, though he was afraid to go above his belly.

Matthew Monday: I Spy

We, my wife, Matthew, and I were driving on a long trip, a vacation down to Myrtle Beach in South Carolina.  The entire drive takes about ten hours non-stop, but I figured Matthew is not ready for such a long non-stop trip, and so I broke the drive into two five hour halves.  Of course that assumes you don’t hit any traffic, and there was an hour delay on the New Jersey Turnpike (I guess it was for construction, but we didn’t actually see anything) and an hour and a half in the Washington D.C. area, which I guess was just because of volume.  As it turned out, even a five hour leg was too much for Matthew. 

How do you keep an active, talkative four-almost-five year old boy busy while strapped to his child seat in the back alone?  You don’t.  I’m mean, yeah, there are songs and talk games, but that gets old for adults, especially adults that are over fifty.  You want a little peace and quiet after a while.  No wonder some of these new minivans come with DVD players.  But we don’t have one.  We have our eleven year old SUV, which as it turns out turned eleven years to the day on that day.  You can give him some little toys to play with, but shortly thereafter he drops it and can’t reach it.   

And after a while, he doesn’t shut up.  Ahhhh!  He can’t go sixty seconds without saying something.  

One game we played to keep him occupied was “I spy.”  One person in the car sees something on the road, say a blue pickup truck, and says, “I spy blue pickup truck,” and everyone looks around and tries to identify it. 

Daddy: “I spy a big tree.” 

Matthew:  “That one Daddy, over there?” 

Daddy: “Yes.” 

Matthew: “My turn now.  I spy a white bus.” 

Mommy, who is driving: “It just passed us.” 

Daddy:  “I spy motorcycle.” 

Matthew:  “There’s one.  I want to go now.  I spy…”  There’s a delay here while he looks around for something to identify.  “I spy…uh…something grey and black.” 

Daddy, looking around and not seeing anything: “Do you mean this charcoal car?  It’s kind of grey and black.” 

Matthew:  “No.”  Everyone is looking around. 

Mommy:  “What’s grey and black?” 

Matthew:  “Daddy’s head!”   

Big, big laughter from the two of them.  Haha.  Me not so much. I could manage a smirk.

Matthew Monday: Dutch Wonderland

Here are some more pictures from our vacation to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, this from the amusement park called Dutch Wonderland.  If you want to read the first blog of the vacation, read here. 

Dutch Wonderland is not large like Disneyland, but it's large enough for an almost four year old to be enthralled.  He just loved driving this car.  I pressed the gas petal since he couldn't reach it while he steered.  The car was on a track so he couldn't make too many mistakes.

This tractor was a simple ride, but he did like trying to mauenver the plow up and down.

 

He loved this  - not sure what it was called - whirl buggy.

 

And he was really concentrating on this train that he hand powered.

 

My future fighter pilot...lol.

 

 

This was a very tall slide that we had to go down together.

There were a number of other rides that he just loved but were difficult to photograph.  His favorite was the bumper cars, but he also really enjoyed the water flume, a couple of boat rides, and others.  He still talks about them.

Matthew Monday: Lancaster, PA Vacation

We took a five day weekend in Lancaster Pennsylvania.  It’s an easy to get to spot, basically a two and a half hour drive from our house.  We didn’t think Matthew was old enough yet for long drive or a flight.  So we kept it simple, and they have a number of things there that would interest a little boy.  In our plans were the National Toy Train Museum, the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, and the amusement park there named Dutch Wonderland. We had expected to fill the remaining time by horsing around at the hotel pool, but to our surprise when we got there the hotel didn’t have a pool, just a hot tub.  My wife and I could swear their website showed a pool, but when we went back to check it was only a hot tub in the picture.  Silly us, but the angle they took the picture made the tub look as big as a pool.  LOL. 

 

Well, Matthew wasn’t into a hot tub, nor am I sure it would not have been adverse to his health at his age.  We filled in the time with some other activities we found.  We discovered a wolf sanctuary  that provides tours, we took an Amish Horse and Buggy ride, and took a nice countryside leisurely drive.  Plus the Railroad museum had an option for a train ride, and we took that too.  I took a thousand pictures, so I’ll just share a few.

The toy train museum was really a bust if you ask me.  They had nice trains and nice exhibits, but it was two rooms.  We were done in an hour.  They claim to have a hands on exhibit for kids, but it was two little wooden trains that two year olds play with.  Their website makes it look like it’s way better than it is.  Here’s one picture of Matthew in front of an exhibit.

 

The Railroad museum was very good.  They had trains both indoors and out.  They also had a nice play area for children.  Trains were refurbished from various times in history.  Here’s a couple of pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here’s a couple from our old fashion coal, steam engine ride.

 

 

 

 

 

And from our buggy ride, Matthew and mommy petting the horses.

 

 

 

I'm going to save the pictures from the amusement park for next week.