Our Conference Hotel

My conference is at the Gaylord Palms Hotel near Disneyworld.

The Gaylord has a very large interior atrium and this is the view from our 7th floor balcony. There is a mock spanish fort in the middle with a wedding chapel and many live palm trees.  The hotel is huge and it took us quite a while to find our way around.  They have "you are here" maps at various places to help you navigate.
The conference facility is attached via a bridge to the hotel so I can easily go to and from the conference sessions with ease -  about a 5 minute walk.

One other interesting feature is the live alligators in the atrium area!  They have a feeding Tuesday and Saturday at 6:30 pm so we got to experience one feeding.  The 'gators are about 4' long so they did not pose much of a threat to their feeder, but he was still rather careful to keep his hands at a safe distance.
It made for a very enjoyable show as he dropped a piece of meat to each gator.  

The Gaylord has a magnificent outdoor pool as you can see in this picture.  It's 4' deep for its entire length, perfect for swimming.  This is the Adults only pool.  They also have a very large Family pool with water slides, water canons, and many family and kid friendly playscapes.   One guy I talked to at the conference sent a picture back to his wife who immediately  responded that he should sign up for this conference for next year so she and their 3 kids could come along and enjoy this wonderful facility.

The conference ends tomorrow, then one more day and it's back home and time to prepare my report-out of what I've learned at this very good and informative conference.

An Epcot Anniversary

Mary and I spent the day at EPCOT today in celebration of our 39th anniversary.

We had a great time and saw everything we wanted to in the park.  We especially enjoyed the Soaring ride, but also went to the Space and Imagination pavilions before heading to the Countries in the World Showcase. We enjoyed the updated Canada movie, had a bratwurst and beer lunch in Germany before enjoying the rides and shows in the US, Norway, Mexico, and French pavilions.
The park was quite un-crowded today so we hardly had any lines at all!  But it was very hot and humid which seemed all the worse after spending 30+ minutes in an air conditioned pavilion!  We did get some rain late in the day which, thankfully, cooled things off a bit.  On a positive note, the heat sure made the Italian gelato taste great!!!!

We celebrated our anniversary dinner at the Rose and Crown restaurant in the England pavilion.  Love those English entrees!  Mary had Fish and Chips while I had Cottage Pie (a dish very much like Shepherd's pie) with a side of mashed peas. YUM! We topped it off by sharing an excellent sticky toffee pudding.
After a long day, we headed for our final ride of the day, Spaceship Earth, before heading back to our motel.

Tomorrow we move to the Gaylord Palms where my conference is being held.  So the fun is over - time to get to work!  8-)

Quick Trip to Washington DC

What trip to Washington is complete without a picture of the White House?
We took a hop on / hop off tour on Friday and had beautiful weather for taking pictures even tho it was 90 and humid (Uugh!)  We had great narrators on the tour and learned lots of little facts about our nation's capital that have quickly disappeared from our memories.

In addition to the White House we went got off at the Lincoln Memorial stop and visited it as well as the Korea and Vietnam memorials.  The Vietnam one was especially moving.

We also spent considerable time at the Air and Space Museum on the Mall where I even got to ride a Space shuttle ride simulator that took me to the International Space Station and back. It was a bit corny, but still very enjoyable.

On Saturday came a true highlight and that was seeing the Space Shuttle Discovery up close and personal at the new Air and Space "attic" near the Dullas airport. If you are into airplanes and flight you really need to visit this place!  It's a very large hanger with airplanes and other flight vehicles hanging everywhere.
Seeing the Discovery was amazing!  You can even see all the burn marks on the tiles from its last re-entry into the atmosphere.    Very cool!
Also near it are various other shuttle flight equipment like one of the  SpaceLab modules that flew on 9 shuttle missions.

They have an Air France Concorde on the floor, the Enola Gay, an original Boeing 707, a full set of all the military airplanes you heard about from World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, including helicopters and jets.
In addition to that are first time vehicles like the Global Flier that flew around the wold nonstop.

They even had one of my favorites - a Blackbird SR-71 spy plane - sitting on the floor. It is amazing that this Mach 3+ plane was designed using slide rules and flew faster than anything else until the recent Scramjets started flying.

All in all, it was a very good day that was topped off with a super WFMA Folk Music Concert sponsored by the World Folk Music Association featuring Mary's favorite singer, Mack Bailey, along with Tom Paxton, Noel Paul Stookey, Buskin & Batteau, and Christine Lavin   We got to meet Mack and other other performers before the concert.  The concert itself was classic folk music, containing several updated protest songs and other classic references.  Each singer had 30 minutes which made for a very enjoyable concert.

Today we will be attending church at the National Cathedral, then heading north to Baltimore to attend a much smaller scale concert at Baldwin's Station to head Mack sing with Bill Danoff and his son, Owen.  We are looking forward to that concert with great anticipation.