You can take the GRITS out of Florida, but you can't take Florida out of the GRITS!

Monday, December 1, 2008

Thanksgiving Weekend

Thursday morning, we left to go to our place in Lake Placid (just south of Sebring). On the way up, a familiar nasty smell hit my nose...burning cane fields. If you've never smelled it, consider yourself lucky.

The house below was not on fire. It's a sugar cane field far behind it.

We arrived at our home away from home and found the resident golden orb had moved from the back of the porch to the front. She's also grown quite a bit! None of us had the heart to disturb her, so we left her and her man-harem alone....until I couldn't stand her big, old web any more and swept it aside. It must have pissed her off because the next day she was gone. I'm sorry!

Thanksgiving day, we headed over to my mom's house in Okeechobee, about a 45 minute drive. I had my GPS with me and saw that we would be going right by a cache, so we stopped for it. Driving into a park by Lake Istokpoga, we were met by 3 Sandhill Cranes. Sorry I didn't get a better picture...

Who says we don't get to see Fall colors down here?!?


Looking for the cache... the area was so pretty. Lots of Cypress and moss-covered Oaks. It smelled like Christmas!

Finally at Mom's and getting ready to eat!

We had all the smaller stuff on the table, while the turkey, stuffing, greenbeans, etc. stayed on the kitchen counter. Just not enough room at the table for all of it!


My sister's delicious sweet potato souffle. YUM!


The day after Thanksgiving, we did chores like cutting the grass and burning leaves and branches. Then...Saturday we went to Disney World! It was Aidan's first time and he was SO excited!!!


In line for our first ride, "It' a Small World".


Next was the Haunted Mansion, my second favorite after Pirate's of the Caribbean. Aidan was scared to death, but I think he kinda liked it in the end.


Checking out stuff on Tom Sawyer's Island.

Mickey Mouse's Bedroom!


Can anyone tell me what kind of "palm" tree this is?


While waiting for Aidan and George to get off the carousel, Sam had to try removing the sword from the stone. He didn't quite get it out. Maybe he should've used both hands?

At night, they lit Cinderalla's Castle in blue lights topped with white "snow" lights. It was so pretty! Then, the colors actually changed from blue to pink and purple. It was really, really nice.


Toward the very end of the night, you could see all the colors. Isn't it gorgeous?

We left at 11:30pm. Aidan was asleep before we left the parking lot. It was a long, tiring day, but we all had tons of fun...Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Pirate's, Smnall World, the Jungle Cruise, the Speedway (Aidan's favorite), and many more. Oh, and I have to recommend the Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor. Not a ride, but a really cool comedy show. I don't know how they do it, but you sit down and watch a cartoon that actually interacts with the audience! Pretty dang cool. I didn't think I'd like it, but it ended up being one of the coolest things there. Oh, and I don't know how long ago they did this, but they've added Captain Jack Sparrow to the Pirate's of the Caribbean ride. He looks life-like and very much like the real deal.
I wanna go back!
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow, what a busy weekend! And such good photos too...your castle shots look like postcards

We on the other hand did very little besides eat and watch football...

storyteller said...

Looks like a WONDERFUL weekend and that everyone had a perfectly delightful time. Thanks for sharing.
Hugs and blessings,

IamwhoIam said...

What FUN sorry I missed the trip.

Anonymous said...

WOW! Awesome photos and sound like a fabulous holiday! I have to say, photographs of the food really were my favorite! I could almost smell it!

We could have passed each other on the road. The wife and I were in Lake Placid Thursday, and Okeechobee Friday!

Yeah, the sugar cane smoke was bad!

SCG

Sayre said...

Ha! No wonder you were nowhere in evidence on the internet this weekend! Sounds like you had a marvelous holiday! Aiden may never forget it.

Faye said...

Thanks for taking us along on your Thanksgiving weekend--just the right balance of everything--nice drive with beautiful scenery, a little detour to satisfy your hobby passion, time with family, yummy food and a trip to Disney! I'm glad you enjoyed the break swampangel.

Sandcastle Momma said...

What a wonderful Thanksgiving! It looks like ya'll really had fun. We need to get to Disney - our youngest has never been and reminds me of this daily LOL
I love the castle shot!
Your home away from home sounds perfect.

marcandeliana said...

What a packed weekend! Looked like a ton of fun! Hope you found the cache!