shutdown week: vacation in Florida

July 11, 2009
On Friday night, I packed to go to Florida after dropping Debbie off at the Gulfport airport. We left early Saturday morning. Cousin Pam had a previous commitment, so there was no stopping in Tallahassee-I drove all the way to Zephyr Hills, 8-9 hours with frequent thunderstorms and rainshowers.

The drive on rt 10 from Pascagoula to Tallahassee is pretty boring: trees on each side of a relatively flat landscape: typical interstate driving. Most of the restaurants in this area are fast food (according to the internet signs), except for Cracker Barrel. On the way home, I found an “exit directory” that tells what you find at each exit. There are more choices if you know where to look. This will allow me to plan stops by making choices before I even leave.

Marian and Art took me to Busch Gardens: Tampa. We had a fantastic day:Marian and I rode the Congo River Rapids (a chance to get wet in the Florida heat)then after riding the train around the whole park to sight-see, we concentrated our efforts on the new Jungala section.
The animals are shown in areas made to look like their natural habitat. We saw yellow tigers, white tigers, giraffes, monkeys, zebras with two different types of markings, a hippo underwater that we could observe through glass, flamingos, buffalos, antelope, etc. We either saw them from the skyway or the train, or we observed them through glass. We were told that the animals are rotated, and not “seen” every day. We watched the tigers being fed: the attendant would wait for each tiger to decide to go to its feeding station (they each had one) then throw the food to the animal in the correct place. In that way, they took turns, and did not jump at food intended for someone else.

We ate at the “crown colony house restaurant”, a building with several stories and windows that looked out over the Edge of Africa. However, we were not able to get a table on that side. We rode the skyway, and ended the day riding the tidal wave. It appeared the spectators got wetter than the riders, but I was soaked. It was a very fun day.

The next day, Marian and I attended a Red Hat meeting. She had several appointments to keep from Tuesday to Thursday. Sometimes I went along: we swam in the pool a couple of days,and took Marian to lunch. Friday we went to the beach near Sarasota: We only stayed a couple of hours, but it was enough for me to get pink. It would not have taken much longer to have a real burn.
That night we went out to eat.