Homosassa Springs - Part Two

And now ... On with our program.


Last time, we briefly talked about the first part of our visit to Homosassa Spring State Park. Now we'll talk about some of the other cool stuff there.


After the birds ... here's a shot I missed putting up last time:




We got to check out a couple other wild creatures ...

Christy snagged this great shot of the fox stealthing around its pen.




These gators were very cool. We were standing about 4 feet away from them, separated by a fence (so perfectly protected), but able to get great close-ups. They were pretty cool to see.





And here's a shot I grabbed by the seat of my pants. How I happened to snap it at just this perfect moment, was miraculous. Anyhow ... I like the pic.




This Giant Grasshopper - although it might be hard to tell - was as large as one of my fingers. My hand is only a couple inches from it. I was too afraid to get any closer, for fear it might jump up and drop-kick me in the face ... you've seen Kung Fu Panda ... right?

Still ... an astonishing creature.




Finally, the best part of the entire park ... the manatee area. They have an astonishing underwater observation tank. You get to go underwater - just like the underwater viewing area at an aquarium. There are hundreds of fish under the water, just floating in front of the windows. And then ... every once in a while ... a gigantic manatee glides by - rubbing its belly on the glass, or spinning around as if doing an underwater ballet.

We didn't grab any shots from the observatory, but here were a couple pics from the ranger talk at the end of the day.








And finally, my Mom and the girls at the end of the day.




Talk soon,
Al

What Have You Done for Me Lately?

Well ...

I know it's been awhile, and so I wanted throw up something.

NICE!


Sorry for my sick humor.


Anyhow...

My Mom recently made the long, lonely, exhausting trek from Oregon to hang out with us for awhile. And although we didn't have a whole lot of time to do too many exciting things, we did manage to get in a couple of neat activities.

I'll kick it off with our visit to a place called Homosassa Springs State Park. We have seen it many times as we've driven through the town going towards Crystal River to watch the manatees.

But this time ... we actually paid the entrance fees and went through the park. I am glad we did, because although it was semi-spendy, and not like most state parks we've been to - it had some very cool features.

Anyhow ...

On with the show:

Here's the opening sign, just in case I forget how to spell it. That way you can find it without my help - if you ever need to.





Here are the girls, and my Mom, heading out on the boat trip toward the actual park. It 's kinda neat, you pay to get into the park and you get a boat ride back to the park itself while one of the rangers explains the history of the park and you get to watch for wildlife as you go.







First of all, we stopped by the section where they housed their 6,000 pound hippo - named Lucifer. He was pretty large, and seemed fairly docile except for the last picture in this series ... and I'll spare you the real photos demonstrating the sign.

And if you're wondering ... Yes, I did take pictures of it. How could I not? That's one of the coolest things for any guy!








After the hippo - we wandered over to the bird sanctuary area. There were LOTS and LOTS of different kinds of birds to look at, and take pictures of.








I'll end this visit for now. We'll call this Part One.

Part Two coming soon ...


Al

Disney's Animal Kingdom - part deux

OK - I've been slacking on a lot of stuff. Although I have a lot I want to say, I'm getting a little bit too serious lately, so I'm going to take it down a notch.

Here's a bit more from our day at Disney's Animal Kingdom.

We started off our trip there with pictures of the Asian area - which was absolutely OUTSTANDING! They did a great job designing it. If you need a bit of a recap on that, check it out here.


Now - we'll explore some of the other parts of Animal Kingdom.

1st - we watched a great, live version of Finding Nemo. Unfortunately, we couldn't use a flash in the show (out of performer safety), so it was tough getting an unblurry shot.

Here's a few shots from that:









And here's a few of the animals spread throughout the park. Pretty neat!









And this one was cool. This lady was all dressed up as a tree. And you can see she blended in AMAZINGLY well. If everybody wasn't sitting there mesmerized, watching her, most likely no-one would have known she was there until she moved. She was VERY COOL! If you click the first picture, it'll enlarge, and you can get an idea of how well she blended into the foliage around the trail.





And here's one last shot of the wildlife in the park ...




Talk soon,
Al

Whoa ... U.S. Religious Freedoms in Jeopardy!

I had NO idea this lawsuit was taking place.


If this thing has any pull ... it could have a HUGE impact on how we interpret our own personal religious doctrines. I ask you ... WHO do we want deciding these things for us?

Here's the gist:

lawsuit recently brought about by an individual in Michigan against Zondervan Publishing Company over the way I Corinthians 6:9 has been interpreted in the Bibles they print. The lawsuit is for $60, 000, 000. The suit contends that the Pastor of a local church preached a sermon some 20 years ago using this verse and during the course of his sermon, the Pastor made references to homosexuality that have, in turn, caused this individual emotional pain and suffering over the last 20 years.

If you have ANY qualms about your religious freedoms, this article is a 'MUST READ' warning.

Al

Question ... for you?

Hi ...

Normally, I would have never done this ... but I've been reading A LOT about it lately so I'm going to give it a shot.


The question is this:

What things, specifically, do you want us to write more about?

More pictures?
More trip info?
More everyday life stuff?
More sight seeing?
More small biz ideas?
More personal opinions?
More videos?
More about the girls?
Audio interviews?


What do you want us to write or talk about?

Just wondering ... and if you don't respond, you'll just keep getting the same things you're already getting. So ... for the love of Pete ... let us know!


Thanks!


You can either add a comment to the bottom of this post, or send us an email at:
acspeer ~ A ~ T ~ scrapbookradio ~ dot ~ com

State of Florida is running out of money

Well ...

Apparently the State of Florida is running out of money. Florida Police were out in full force today brandishing their heavy-handed tactics to people who pay their taxes and spend their money upholding the defunct economy.

Instead of actually stopping real criminals who are out robbing, hurting, selling drugs, and murdering people ... they were on the streets giving traffic citations for cheesy crap.

Bringing in LOTS of Monkey Money for the State.

PHEW!

For a second there I thought we were all going to run out of domestic assistance programs.

Things that I can really use ... like ... umm ... welfare (Oh, I don't use that) ... education (Oh, I don't use that either) ... roads (Oh, I DO use those, but they're all falling apart - and the ones that are in the best shape ARE TOLL ROADS and don't have sidewalks) ... unemployment (Oh, I don't use that).

I'm running out of reasons WHY I want to support these guys. I'm sorry. Please fill me in if I'm missing something here.




And, may the officers who give out first-time citations (AND ENJOY IT) for minor offenses get MANY, MANY years of high-action, high-speed, highly dangerous adventures ... cause I'm pretty sure they dig it!


P.S. And yes, we did get a ticket. But not for reckless driving, or driving while intoxicated, or driving through a red light, or a hit and run, or evading police ... ours was for having a fully tinted front window, which was on the car when we bought it. Instead of getting a warning with a 30 day fix - the moron gave us a full on ticket. Yeah, MORON! I think he enjoyed himself ... so I'll enjoy myself calling him that.


But, thank goodness he caught us before we did some REAL damage.

My gosh - it kinda reminds me of the older gentleman who was thrown in jail for letting his lawn get brown. WHOA! Can you believe he did that? Are you kidding me, in this economic climate ... with the problems we're facing ... and they throw the guy in jail for brown grass.

Some people have some mixed up priorities!

BEWARE when you come to the State of Florida ... all they want is your MONEY ... the MONKEYS!

Top Secret Marketing Tactic ...

Hi ... Al again.

This is an interesting concept I've heard a lot about recently:

Is there such a thing as 'secrets' anymore ... really?


That seems to be a BIG thing in selling.
- Top Secret this ...
- Ultra-Uber Secret that ...

For the most part, using the word 'secret' is a marketing tactic, HOWEVER ... one question I have for you, if you think 'secrets' don't exist:

Is there something you don't know how to do?
- Tie your shoes?
- Drive a stick shift?
- Cook frog legs?
- Lose 20 pounds?
- Make $50,000 per year?

Do you?

Well, if you don't ... then I guess I'd have to say those things ARE a 'secret' to you.


And ... truth be told, there are A LOT of secrets that I still don't know about.

So, until WE learn everything about everything, 'secret' marketing is STILL going to keep happening.


OK - you can wake up again.


Talk soon,
Al
Want FREE Tips And Ideas for Finding and Creating Niche Websites?

Government Gas Price Basics - Uh ... Yeah ... RIGHT!

I am going to start with this:

Retail gasoline prices are mainly affected by crude oil prices and the level of gasoline supply relative to demand.

This quote - by the way - comes right from a Department of Energy 'official' website at:
http://www.eia.doe.gov


Ummm ... Hello ...
If this were truly the case - the price drop from $170 to $90 for the oil commodity would have 'ACTUALLY' had an impact on the price MONTHS AGO!

Am I right?


Just pointing out that the freaking gov-urn-ment has no idea what they're doing.


PLUS - in addition to this little factoid - I read the gov-urn-ment is now going to be taking over some banks with their 'bailout plan'.

Question ... ?

If the gov-urn-ment controls your bank, then they can control how you get, spend, and receive your money? If you know ANYTHING about history (and the Bible) ... then you MUST KNOW that doesn't bode well!


Al

Save $10 on Theme Park Drinks

Some of you MAY have noticed ...

We started another site about family travels. You can find it at that link.


Anyhow - I put up a HOT New Tip over there about how you can save $10 on drinks whenever you go to a theme park. You can check out the theme park drink tip here.

Hint: It has something to do with this picture.


And how do I know this tip works ... you ask?

Because we just did it a last weekend.


Talk soon,
Al

Weekends ... Why only 2 Days?

You know ...

Who came up with the 2 day weekend? In my honest opinion, it's not nearly LOOOONG enough!
I think 4 weekdays, and 3 weekend days would be superb.

Anyhow ...

Last weekend, we ventured back down to Disney for our 3rd visit, out of the 4 visit passes we picked up. This time, though, we made it over to Animal Kingdom.

I'm not going to post up everything we did. But, I did want to give you a few clips from our day there.

Unfortunately, this park closes at 5pm, versus 8 and 10 for the other ones we've already visited. So it's a MUCH shorter day. That was a bummer. We pretty much had to rush around from exhibit to exhibit all day to catch everything we wanted to see.

While we'll put up more other pics later, this part was by far my fave ...

They have an area there called - Asia. And they've totally decked it out in a Tibetan / Himalayan theme. It is very real and authentic looking - err ... as I imagine it would look over there. Since I've never actually been there, I can't say for sure.

Anyways ...

Here's a few shots of what I mean. That part of their park is exceptionally well done. It's like they spent most of their planning time and budget in that area, and left the other areas as side show.








I don't want to put them all up now, so there'll be more later.

But, if you're into photography of eclectic Asian style, that is definitely a nice place to visit. Christy and I were both 'Ooo'ing and 'Ahh'ing just about everywhere we walked.

Al

And now ... a Word from our Sponsors

This whole move has been a strange, and interesting experience. And, for the record ... I'm still struggling to come to terms with how we ended up where we did.

However ...

I still feel like things are working out for us, based on the under-pinning of God's plans. It's all just kinda flowing in directions I never could have predicted.

Here's an odd / old / new development:


The company I used to work for, back in Oregon, has apparently been bought out by one of their competitors. Truly, it was a highly volatile market. But I had NO IDEA, when I left a little over a year ago, that this was going to happen. This next year they will be closing ... 'for good'. No more jobs. For all I know, none of the people I worked with will be moved over to the new company. No future there.

In fact, I was totally blindsided by the news just a couple weeks ago. I'm not saying that the circumstances couldn't have played out exactly as they have anyhow ... but I do think it is 'Providential' that I left there when I did. Unbeknownst to me that this was going to take place.


It's just strange, and blessed, at the same time.


However, I was very happy to hear that one of my old cronies is still pursuing adventurous travels to other states and countries over the last year, and in the days ahead. Recently we made contact with each other again, and it was like a breath of fresh air to hear all of the great things they have been doing.

Even my Dad made the LONG trek to the Rockies. It sound like they may never do it again ... but ... for me, how exciting to think about getting back out there on the road and seeing it all again. To be able to see Creation again. LOVE IT!


Even with all the negative floating around, it's inspiring to still have dreams and hopes and plans and aspirations. What's life without that Divine spark of inspiration?


Al