Wandering Dawgs

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #157: Getting Away

July 22, 2021July 23, 2021Posted in Photography, TravelTagged Cedar Key, Disney World, Getting Away, Lens-Artists, Pandapas Pond, Photo Challenge19 Comments

Our guest hosts Bert and Rusha Sams of Oh The Places We See have challenged us with the theme: Getting Away.

Henry and I have always enjoyed getting away. When we were both working and raising our family, one of our favorite places to get away was to the Florida Keys. We started off camping in state parks there, first in a tent and later in a pop up trailer.

In 2006, we bought our fifth wheel trailer and took off for our first RV road trip with no set schedule and no reservations. For two months we wandered around the United States and two Canadian Provinces. We loved exploring the National Parks and National Monuments and all of the places in between.

After our first RV adventure we were hooked. We continued taking RV trips until the end of 2019. Our longest and most memorable trip was our four month journey to Alaska in 2013.

Majestic mountains and glacier in Alaska

This year we were able to get way to three completely different types of destinations for three short road trips . Oh, what a wonderful feeling to travel again!

In March we traveled to Cedar Key, Florida for a relaxing and fun weekend. Located on the Florida Gulf Coast in the area known as the Nature Coast, this small town was just what we needed for a short getaway.

In May we traveled to our daughter’s home in Virginia for Mother’s Day. It was wonderful to visit with family and on Mother’s Day we enjoyed a relaxing walk together around Pandapas Pond.

We returned to Florida in June for a week long getaway to Orlando. While we didn’t visit any theme parks we still enjoyed a little Disney Magic with two memorable meals at Disney resorts. We had fun being kids again at a dinner with Mickey Mouse and friends. Another day we had a fantastic lunch with a view of animals in the savanna of Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Many thanks to Bert and Rusha Sams for this challenge. Please be sure to visit their original post at Lens-Artists Challenge #157: Getting Away

Backyard Bees, Butterflies and Birds

July 15, 2021Posted in Birds, Butterflies, Nature, PhotographyTagged Bee, birdweekly, garden, Gulf Fritillary, hummingbird, Northern Cardinal, Roseate Spoonbill, Snowy Egret, summer, summer garden18 Comments

We’ve had lots of activity in our backyard these first two weeks of July. Bees and Butterflies are frequent visitors to the butterfly garden.

Ruby Throated Hummingbirds and Northern Cardinals are two of the birds we see every summer around our back yard. Snow Egrets are frequent summer visitors to the salt water creek. Roseate Spoonbills first started coming to our area a few years ago. I’ve seen them two years in a row now so hopefully they will keep returning each summer.

Shared with Lisa’s Bird Weekly Challenge: Birds Common in your area this time of year

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #156: Black and White

July 11, 2021July 12, 2021Posted in Historic Sites, PhotographyTagged Andalusia, Black and White, Flannery O'Conner, Georgia Writers, Lens-Artists, Peacocks, Photo Challenge, Southern Writers18 Comments

Many thanks to Anne Sandler of Slow Shutter Speed for guest hosting with the theme of Black and White. My contribution to the challenge is a selection of photos from a recent tour of Andulsia, author Flannery O’connor’s home in Milledgeville, Georgia. She was the author of two novels, thirty-one short stories, and many essays and reviews.

O’Conner lived at Andalusia from 1951 until her death in 1964. To help take us back to the time when Flannery lived here I converted these photos to black and white.

Andalusia was first settled in 1814 as a cotton plantation and farm. In 1931, Flannery’s uncle purchased the property. She moved to Andalusia in 1951 after being diagnosed with Lupus and lived there with her mother until she died in 1964. She did much of her writing while living there.

Our tour began at Flannery’s home which is shown in the header image at the top of the page. As we walked through the rooms I felt like I had gone back in time to my childhood.

There are several out buildings around the property. Hill House was built in the 1820’s and was the original home at Andalusia.

The cow barn.

Flannery raised Peacocks and these two are descendants of her birds.

Andalusia was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. Today it is owned by Georgia College and open to the public. To learn more please visit Georgia College – Andalusia.

All of these photos were shot in color and edited using Photoshop Elements.

Many thanks to Anne Sandler for this challenge. Please be sure to visit her original post at Lens-Artists Challenge #156: Black and White

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #155: On the Water

July 7, 2021July 7, 2021Posted in PhotographyTagged boats, Lens-Artists, On the Water, Photo Challenge20 Comments

Many thanks to John Steiner of Journeys with Johnbo for hosting this weeks Lens-Artists Photo Challenge “On the Water”.

His challenge immediately made me think of boats and ships. Boats are a common sight on the water where I live in coastal Georgia. There are pleasure boats, working boats, and even giant container ships going in and out of the port of Savannah. The above image is the Coast Guard Cutter Eagle as it led the 2012 Tall Ships Challenge out of Savannah.

I love to see boats on the water wherever we wander.

Many thanks to John for this challenge. Please be sure to visit his original post at Lens-Artists Challenge #155: On the Water

A Magical Birthday Week

July 5, 2021January 22, 2024Posted in Celebration, Florida, Restaurants, Road Trip, TravelTagged birthday, Chef Mickeys, Disney World, Favorite Quotes, Kona Cafe, Orlando, Palatka, Sanaa, Walt Disney28 Comments

That’s the real trouble with the world, too many people grow up
Walt Disney

Henry and I both celebrated milestone birthdays this year. His was in May and mine was the last week of June. Sorry, you’ll have to guess our ages! What better way for two seniors to celebrate than to be kids again. We went to Disney World!

We took our time and stayed off the Interstates on the way to and from Orlando. We even broke up the trip on the way down with a night beside the St. John’s River in Palatka, Florida. Our room overlooked the Veteran’s Memorial Plaza and river walk beside the river. We enjoyed two fabulous waterside meals our first day. Lunch at Skippers in Darien, Georgia is always delicious. Corky Bells on the St. John’s River was crowded but we found two seats at the bar and enjoyed a great dinner.

The next day, our room was ready when we arrived at our resort in Orlando early in the afternoon. Our condo was about 15 minutes from any place we wanted to go at Disney World.

On most trips to Orlando we spend at least one day in one of the theme parks. This was not one of those trips. Our plans for the week were to relax, enjoy the amenities at the resort where we were staying, and get our Disney fix by dining at three Disney restaurants.

Our first Disney dining experience was at Kona Cafe at the Polynesian Village Resort. As we explored outside before lunch we had fun reminiscing about our stay there about 40 years ago. Lunch was fabulous!

We weren’t going to a theme park but we still wanted to experience some Disney magic. What better way to do that than to go to Chef Mickey’s Fun Time Character Dinner at the Contemporary Resort on the night before my birthday.

We arrived at the Contemporary Resort about an hour before our reservation. Sipping a cocktail while watching an afternoon thunderstorm over the lake was a nice start to the evening.

Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto and Donald Duck all made appearances. As each character walked through the restaurant they stopped in front of each table to wave and pose for pictures. Seeing the excitement in the kids eyes as each character came by was priceless. I don’t know who enjoyed it more – the little kids or us.

It was pouring down rain after dinner but before heading back to our condo we took a monorail ride around the lake.

The next day was my birthday. It would be hard to top dinner with Mickey Mouse but we did. Our lunch in Sanaa Restaurant in Kadani Village at the Animal Kingdom Lodge was amazing. The restaurant overlooks a savanna with giraffes, zebras, impalas, wildebeest, and other animals. Before and after our meal we watched the animals from an overlook outside. Our table was at a window with a great view of the animals as we ate. The meal was the best we had all week and the live entertainment outside the window was perfect.

When we weren’t out eating we enjoyed sitting on our screened in porch overlooking a pond or going to one of the pools. The pond attracted several Florida birds who came to the pond to fish. Great Blue Herons, a little blue heron, egrets, an osprey, and an ibis all made appearances.

We’ve been to Walt Disney World many times since the 1970’s. We learned on this trip that you can have fun without going to one of the theme parks. You are never too old to be a kid at heart!