WWII at Rennigers

Saturday was a good day for trip to Renniger's just to see what's there, and this time there was a WWII reenactment going on. Most of the activity was ear-deafening booms and billowing smoke. 
What was causing all that smoke and noise? These things! Mighty tanks, carefully maintained so they still move and fire. Several rolled onto the field to fire (blanks) at troops and smaller guns. How awful it would have been to see this coming at you for real.
Across the dirt road there were tables and tents set up to sell all kinds of parts and memorabilia. I have been remodeling the house but WWII stuff won't fit in, so I wasn't tempted.
It's interesting to see the carefully restored items, though. This 1943 M15 Halftrack is in great shape. 
Doesn't look very comfortable, but that wouldn't have been a major concern at the time. 

If it's flower season, it's time to visit Epcot

Epcot is still having it's Art Festival but they are getting ready for their next festival - the International Flower and Garden Festival. 
But we didn't come for the art or flowers - we came for the food. Today we had reservations for lunch at the Chefs de France, where they have a Prix-Fixe menu that we wanted to try. We started with French Onion Soup and Garden Salad, and both were really good. Randy's homemade soup is better, but sometimes he likes to have a nice meal without having to cook it all himself.  
For the main course Randy chose Poulet fermier à la Layonnaise (Lyon-style roasted chicken with tomatoes and vinegar sauce) and I had the Boeuf Bourguignon with linguine. I tasted this dish last year at the Food Festival and it is as good as I remember it.
For dessert Randy ordered the assortment of Sorbets with a Madeleine, and I ordered Tarte aux Pommes (apple tart with almond cream, caramel sauce, and vanilla ice cream). And despite how good everything else was, this may have been the best part. Wonderful flavors!

Disney Dive!

Today Randy's Disney Dive took place at Epcot. He arranged for a group of 12 to go scuba diving in Epcot's Living Seas exhibit. 
The beauty of this dive is that the huge tank is filled with amazing marine life, big and small. The small are the most colorful and the big are the most impressive. There are schools of fish, sea turtles, stingrays, sharks, and this wonderful Guitarfish, which is a member of the ray family
Later everyone got together for a group shot at the not-very-hidden Mickey!

Not tired of Epcot, either

We didn't make it to Disney on our regular day so we went on Wednesday instead. To Epcot this time, which may be our favorite park here. This park uses space so well; when you go through the gates you are in a big open area that isn't boring because it's got a few kiosks, a big fountain perfect for photo-ops, commemorative slabs with names and photos of people who donated for the park, and that amazing big golf-ball thing rising above it all. On a sunny morning (which most Florida mornings are), the feeling is expansive and uplifting, like something good is about to happen. 
We started the day with a Fast Pass on Mission:Space. It's a virtual ride that, in spite of my borderline claustrophobia, is quite beautiful.
One of our regular stops is the Club Cool, where there are unlimited free samples of eight Coke products which are popular in other countries. These taste nothing like Coke.  I've settled on Sparletta, a raspberry cream soda from Zimbabwe, that is pretty good on a hot day.
Epcot has a lot of Festivals throughout the year, and right now it's the 3rd annual Art Festival. They have a big paint-by-numbers mural to be painted by guests. Last year it was a different picture and Janice and Lance helped paint it. 
This year we found several rows of chalk art on taped-off sections of the sidewalks. Some were pretty good!
Walking is one of the main activities at Epcot. The English section always lifts my heart because it really does look like a condensed version of sections of England. And one walkway between sections of the park is banked with beautiful little roses, which smell wonderful. 
Overhead a local skywriter was busy today. We've seen his work a few times. This time he was writing "Trust Jesus", although the breeze carried much of it away before he finished. 
We stopped for lunch in the French area at the Boulangerie Patisserie, which is one of the best places for both quality and value. In spite of our love of trying new things, we often get the cheese plate because it is so good! Today we sat near a friendly couple named Gwen and Willie, who live in Wisconsin but have been Snowbirds to Orlando for several years. They are going to France next month; we all marveled at the incredible blessings we are enjoying in our retirement. 

Later we decided to try some shaved ice from a funky-looking stand in the Japanese section. The art work here doesn't say "shaved ice" to me, but I enjoyed our multi-flavored ice. 
At Epcot the big rides are grouped together in one category so we can get either a Fast-Pass for Soarin', Frozen Ever After, Test Track, or the nighttime IllumiNations. For us it's usually a choice between Soarin' and Test Track and today we went on Soarin'. We go to Disney once a week and there are about 3 months where we don't go. So, rotating between the parks, that means we go to Epcot about 9 times a year. Switching between the big rides, we are not worried about getting bored. 

As we walked to the front of the park to leave, we paused to watch the acrobats in the "Art Defying Gravity" show. 

A Dog's Life

A day on the boat means a lot of fun for Shorty. He gets suited up in his own life jacket and joins Randy at the helm, co-captain of our fate. 
But he's not that good at focusing on the task and is likely to get distracted. Good thing Randy knows how to work around him.
Back at home, Shorty likes his toys .... a lot. I put them in the basket every night and during the day he gathers them together in a pile around him and sits there, king of his kingdom. 

Blue Springs

Time for a day trip; this time to Blue Springs, about 90 minutes away. Today it was so popular that there was a huge waiting line just to get in. Cars were directed past the entrance, down the road to a wide spot they could turn around at, and back to the same entrance. This almost kept the line from backing up to the main road. Once we got in, though, it was so peaceful. There is an old, restored house on the property, and some guy was sitting on the porch playing a flute. It was the perfect accompaniment to a lovely, sunny day. 

There is a boardwalk all along the spring. This is a quintessential "Florida" thing; a boardwalk through the jungle, built around the trees, and signs about alligators. 
We walked up to the headwaters of the spring, where over a million gallons of water pour out daily, eventually ending up in the St. John river.

You are allowed to dive in the springs, but this is where great care is needed.  I'd actually say "avoidance" is needed. The hole is the entrance to deep underwater cavern that goes down around 110 feet. It continues further but my understanding is that the shaft constricts there, so even if you were nuts enough to get to that point, you probably couldn't further because the water flow is so strong.  


The reason everyone was here was to see the Manatees that, because of the cold spell we've had, have come up from the gulf into the springs. The springs are 72 degrees which is cold to me, but it's warmer than the gulf and that's what matters to them. 
A pair of manatees who like to hang out together had got tagged together, and the small buoys just floated along behind them. Fortunately they don't seem to tangle up.
To my joy, I saw a manatee with two babies! They were swimming along with her, one on each side, nursing.
The manatees in this area seem to move a little more than the ones at Three Sisters. This guy even liked to roll over on his back occasionally.  
The biggest surprise was that the Manatees weren't getting the most attention. Everyone was blow away by the sheer number of fish here! Hundreds of them were crowded together on one one side of the spring, while the resting manatees were on other side. 
And they hardly moved, besides a vague tail swish. They just sat there, like the manatees. It was kind of freaky.
We were told these are Tilapia, which are an invasive species from Africa.  Apparently it's nesting time because all along the bank some have made nests. These were a little more active; they had to be, to clean out a spot and keep it safe.
 
Having nests so close together simply invites territory disputes. I watch one fish try to move in on a smaller fish's nest. But the small one simply refused to budge, so big fish had to go back to her own nest, which was a little further out in the springs. 
I gotta say, some of these are goofy looking fish. 
There are larger black fish here, too, called Sailfin Catfish. They're not native either; they're from South America and probably ended up here when they got too big for some kid's fish tank. And they move more than the Tilapia; I couldn't get a good picture of one. But they're pretty, with their long shape and big fins.
And lots of birds. Since Manatees have no natural enemies and are not anyone else's enemy, they all get along just fine. 

I'm sure this is a Double-crested Cormorant. I love the beautiful feathers, edged in black. 
And of course Black Vultures live here. In fact, a whole colony of 8 or more were gathered in the woods, just a few feet off the trail.