Day Seven....*~Clearwater Beach, FL~*

Since we had such a crazy week...Mimi and Paw-paw stayed at the condo today daddy, Billie and me went to the beach to relax. We went to Clearwater Beach.

It took us about and hour and 1/2 to get there. I was tired and kinda grumpy this morning. We drove through Tampa, FL. It was kind of exciting to see a new city but....it looked like Charlotte to me. No different...just a bunch of big buildings. Daddy says every city looks like Charlotte to me. We crossed over a really big bridge out to the outer islands.

The beach was so big!! And the sand was as white as snow. I ran down to the water -of course only once we were com-pl-etely SMOTHERED with sunscreen.

The water was like crystal glass it was so clear. But I noticed there wasn't waves really. At home when we go to the beach there are waves to ride but it was like being on the lake there. Except the water was so clear that is. This was the first time I have ever been to the Gulf of Mexico. We played in the water swimming. Billie helped me find some shells.

and Daddy and me hunted for sea life....

The purple flag was up on the beach today- which meant there was alot of marine life at the shore.

We saw seaweed was up onto shore. I was brave and touched it and it felt slimmy. Oh......we saw reef sharks swimming along the bottom where we were walking.....oh-oh and we had schools of fish swimming all around us in the water. And....there were these one fish swimming within just a couple of feet of us that were real long and pointy with strips. Daddy said they were about a foot long or longer. Billie said she they were needle nose fish. Either way- I had never seen them before and it was pretty neat. So Billie made me get out of the water about a hundred times to put on more sunscreen- but other than that and taking a walk on the pier we just played and played.

We found a jelly fish and a hermit crab. And saw pigeons and pelicans.

We were all tired and ready to go so we went to Wings to look around and left. I could hardly hold my eyes open so I took a nap on our way. And Billie snapped this picture of me....I was not exactly thrilled....

When we got back we went out to eat with Mimi and Paw-Paw. I am now going to bed. Its been a FANTASTIC week and we will be headed out in the morning to go back to North Carolina. Everyday has been an adventure and I'm sure the ride home will be to. I will blog one more time after we get home.

Goodnight!!

"K"

Day Six...*~Hollywood Studios~*

Today we went to Hollywood Studios....

Hollywood Studios is all about the movies and the making of the movies. First was the Great Movies Ride - where saw some of the classic movie clips and stars from a long time ago. Mimi remembers when some of the movies came out. Movies like Casablanca and Singing in the Rain. And movie stars like John Wayne (which is paw-paw's favorite) and Gene Kelley. Oh- we went to a Star Wars ride that was like riding in a space ship with R2D2 and C3PO. As we walked the streets of America we saw film strips and back drops like San Francisco and New York.

Pretty wild how real it looks- uh?

In a corner of the city- we met Mator and Lightning McQueen.

They didn't have much to say....haha....
Then there was this playground from a movie daddy remembers but I have never seen. It was called "Honey- I shrunk the kids". Everything was huge!! Daddy says we will watch the move when we get home and I will understand why.

Coke anyone???
From there we took a train tour called the Back - Lot tour where we got to go behind the scenes of the making of a movie. They talked to us about how special effects were made and we even got to make our own movie.

Yes, that is 75,000 gallons of real water rushing toward us!! And I was on the outside so it was coming at me first!!

These pumps pump that water back up for the next shoot. The set can be ready to go again in 3 minutes. We grabbed a quick bite to eat. It was chicken nuggets for me again---daddy says I'm gonna turn into a chicken. 

Anyways- most of what we did from here was different shows and rides experiencing the making or behind the scenes of popular movies. Like-- Narnia and Indiana Jones.

We caught a couple of live plays- like The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast.

The difference is---when you go to these shows they make it like you are really there. In the Little Mermaid- in the scene when it rained- you actually get rained on. We met some Monsters, Inc. characters. 

 

Oh- and the stunt show.

This is where we got to see live scenes being filmed with dangerous stunts like racing, chases and explosions.

When we finished everything up- we went for snacks and it was back to the center of the park for the Block Party and Parade.

All the toys came out to play and dance.

It was so awesome!!! One of the dancers took me out on the street and I got to dance with them.

I have to say my favorite part of the day was the Beauty and the Beast show.

We came back to the condo pretty early- Billie cooked one of my favorite dinners which is spaghetti, and we all ate as a family at the table. It must have been pretty good---we were all very quite for a few minutes. Then we talked about our favorite parts.

After dinner and clean up daddy, billie and me went for a ride. We went to Universal CityWalk-

When we got there the first thing I saw was all the lights!!! It was so cool! We saw the big Universal ball like on all the movies you see. We went to Hard Rock for me to pick out a collectors pin and stopped at a few more stores to just look around. We found this water playground where the water shoots up out of the ground and I got to play for a little bit.

Then it was time to go. We were on our way out when I noticed I had lost one of my Disney pins so daddy and Billie went back and we all looked all over for it. I was so sad.....my Mimi bought it for me. But I was more upset that Mimi would be upset. After looking for a while we had to go- we never did find it. I had to tell Mimi that I lost it but she wasn't mad at me. So I felt better. Anyways----its been a long but fun- fun- fun day. Think we are going to take it easy and play at the beach tomorrow!

Goodnight for now.

"K"

Day Five...Continues...*~Epcot~*

Yesterday we went to Disney's Epcot!! There was sooo much to do. We had planned to stay half a day, take a break and go back but we were all having so much fun we never left!! We just stayed right through.

Ok....so our day began by walking into Epcot and the first thing I saw was the big ball. I found out it was really silver not white like I thought. It was huge- you could walk under it. And it was a ride. It was a slow ride called Spaceship Earth. It went through the history of technology. I learned so much! The first alphabet was created by the phanesians, greeks used math first, Romans made the first roads, the first printing press was made in 1450, the first man walked on the moon in 1969 and the first computer was as big as a house! Plus there was lots more. Then we hit some rides. First to the Test Track!

It was soooo cool!! It was like a place where they test cars and the safety features...we took a ride, and got to experience each of the tests a car goes through from begind the wheel. I learned that cars have to have every part inspected before it goes on to the road- like the brakes, tires, shocks.  Also we got the see the new ideas for fuel from GM. Next it was on to Mission Space. This ride showed you what it looked and felt like to launch into space. I got to be the pilot!!!  It all looked so real. You could even feel the weight at take off and weighlessness entering into space. We got to see earth from space just like the real astronaunts. Then we saw the NEMO complex which had a huge building size fish tank with dolphins, sharks and sea turtles.

They also had a couple manatee that had been rescued in the wild that they were feeding lettace. They said they have their own personalities like humans. Oh---then we went into the "human tank". This was a place we were able to have turtle talk with Crush the Sea Turtle about sea turle facts. Such as sea turtles can live to be over 100 years old, they have a bunch of babies at one time, they travel together and they tend to like the warm waters over the cold.  After he taught us to speak "turtle"---by using words like "RIGHTOUS" - "DUDE" - "CHA"--- he invited Dori in and we learned how to speak Whale. I loved it!

From there we went to take a boat ride called Living with the Land. We learned that rooted drap water from mud, rain forests give oxygen and medicine to us and lady bugs are natural predators and can be used instead of chemicals.

We also learned that we can always be more and more creative about using the natural resouces that we have.

One example I remember is they had a fish tank under plants- - the fish waste fertilized the plants and the plants cleaned the water for the fish.

We rode another ride named Soaring - it was like hang gliding. It was a big screen that wrapped around you and you were floating in the middle of it. We hang glided over the city, mountains and deserts. Next we went to watch Captain EO---it was a 3D movie. It was a really old movie with Michael Jackson in it. That was really the only reason I liked it. After that we took a moving theater tour with Ellen Degeneres and Bill Nye the Science Guy on a trip back to the dinosaur time to explain where energy came from. Did you know that energy started when a big star exploded? Well more or less it did.

Then, while Mimi and Paw-Paw took a boat ride to World Showcase....Daddy, Billie and me took a walk through it. It was soooo neat!! The World Showcase was basically a bunch of foreign countries set up with real stuff from those countries. Real food, stores, music. Even the people were really from those coutries.

First we went to Mexico- the streets were made of cobblestone.

From there to Norway- the first thing I saw was a big Vikings sign.

Then to China- the smell of the food is the one thing I really remember.

Next was the outpost where we saw a guy carving animals from wood and soap by hand.

From there was Germany- this was neat because this was where my Paw-paw and daddy were born.

Then we went to Italy- there were pizza places and statues and art everywhere.

Next was the United States- here we went to a play called the American Adventure. We learned that Thomas Jefferson hand wrote the Declaration of Independence, it was made official on July 4, 1776, the US started as 13 colonies, Luenburg was the first american to fly across the Atlantic and Pearl harbor was attacked on September 7, 1941.

From there we were on to Japan- where we saw women playing drums.

Then we went to Morocco- where Daddy and Billie ate something for lunch that they said was good- I don't know what it was - but it really looked disgusting.  Also- Paw-Paw made me take this picture with this silly hat on my head with the camel--he thought it was cute.

Next was FRANCE!!! In France we saw the Eiffle Tower- and got to meet Belle- which has always been my favorite princess.

From there we went into the United Kingdom where we met Mary Poppins and got snacks.

Then we moved on to Canada where we watched a Celtic Rock band concert.

Well....at that point we were finished visiting the world! I just HAD to go ride Mission Space one more time. So daddy and me did that while Mimi and Billie went shopping. (hate I missed that!) We all met back up and got a really good spot at the water for the lights and fireworks show.

Man it was loud! But lots of colors and plenty of crackles.

Well...that was our day FIVE!! Sorry I was late.

Later! "K"

Day Five...~*Epcot*~

Hey there friends.  I hate to disappoint everyone tonight, but we got in very late. We stayed a little later tonight to see the light show and fireworks. I will go ahead and say that today was another great day. I will fill you in on all the other details tomorrow. Goodnight. K

Day Four...~*Animal Kingdom*~

Today we visited Disney's Animal Kingdom.

We took a short cut to get there and it only took like 5 minutes to get there. We were all suprised.

We entered the park at the Oasis---trees leaned over our heads and blocked the sun. It was just like being in the jungle. We saw the tree of life- this tree was ginormous!!!!!

After making a gameplan- we were on our way to Camp Minnie-Mickey. On the way there we met Pocahontas. (My daddy and Paw-paw had pictures made with her to.) Then we saw the Festival of the Lion King muscial. All the Lion King charaters were there and the show was magical! There was dancing, singing, and gymnastics. The monkeys were pretty cool but my favorite was singing along with Simba. Everything just looked so real and they people performing did a really good job! I was a little sad that I didn't get to meet them after the show. But...when we left the show we went to the character greeting trails where we met Goofy.

Then Donald--and he gave me a big kiss on the cheek. Then we met Chip and Dale- they were so funny.

Then we met Thumper and Miss Bunny--they are such a sweet couple of rabbits. Oh yea---and while I was waiting to meet Thumper and Miss Bunny--my Paw-Paw had this man come sing a song to me in front of everyone.

He said my name, where I lived and talked about the horse I ride named Shadow and I was sooooo embarrassed. But it was ok---we then met Lilo and Stitch on my way to the part of the park that was a little town that looked like Africa. In Africa we took the Kilmanjaro Safari ride to see the safari animals. And they were the real animals like you would see at a zoo.

It was pretty neat.  We saw giraffs, hippos, elephants, the black rhino (which is rare) and more.

Me and Billie let Paw-paw take the camera and take pictures for a little bit on our ride. But he just kept taking pictures of all the girls!

HAHAHA!! See!!! HAHAHAHA (if you didn't get that---just nevermind...)


Next we took the Wildlife Express train ride to the Conservation Station where we saw lots of things. We saw the vet office where they care for the animals at the park. And saw an xray of a snake at the park that swollowed a golf ball. They don't just take care of the actual animals there- but other animals that may wonder onto the park. I saw a live snake that I got to pet. It kind of felt like a basketball. We got to take a look at the food they feed the animals.

 And took the train back to Africa so that we could move onto Asia. The town had stone roads and asian foods. It smelled so good! We rode a roller coaster named Expedition Everest. It was HUGE!! And went forward and backwards in the dark. Inside the mountain was the abominal snowman. I wanted to ride it again and again and again but we had to keep going. Then we took a break to go see Finding Nemo the Muscial. It was full of colors and they came out into the audiance. Dori was my favorite character. But the only part that disappointed me was they left out the part of the movie where Dori speaks whale. We left the musical and went to ride the rapids- which even Mimi rode with us. I got soaked!!!

And so did Paw-Paw. It was getting close to closing time for the park so we took a last look for things we just had to see. We hit the Maharajah Jungle walk where we saw the biggest bats I have ever seen!!! (actually the only real bat I have ever seen) There faces look like a fox!

They were giant fruit bats!! They were the size of cats!!! They are from southwest Asia, have up to a 10 foot wing span and sleep at night unlike most bats. Then we saw tigers, antalope and the komodo dragon.

Then we went wayyyy down into the roots of the tree of life to see this 3-D bug movie. It was all about insects. I learned that insects out number humans 200,000,000 to 1 and that we need them. We need them because bugs make lipstick!! (haha) Just kidding- they take care of some types of waste, they pollunate plants so we can grow our food to eat and they feed larger animals that have other jobs. It was just about time for the park to be closing so we of course hit a few shops. Oh---and before we left....we went to eat at the Rain Forest Cafe!!

This was the coolest place!! The inside looks like a rain forest with the walls covered with fish tanks, animals (not real ones this time) and trees. The food was really good. We all had something a little different and I of course got to try something off of everyone's plate.  All in all my favorite part of the entire day was meeting and spending time with Chip and Dale.

I think we are going to Epcot tomorrow- I will find out when I wake up.

Night for now.

"K"