One man's wilderness is another man's theme park.

To finish off our annual passes, Kristen and I hit the Magic Kingdom for the day to take in the Christmas festivities and doled up theme park. One of my favorite sections is Tom Sawyer island and I've seemed to have missed it the past several visits so we made sure to hit it this time around. We had a great ride on the Jungle Cruise, however were disappointed that the Swiss Family Robinson tree house was closed. This was the spot where I first told Kristen I loved her earlier this year, so it sucked to have missed that. There was absolutely no line for the Pirates ride (another favorite) or on many of the others such as Space Mountain (with the Fast Pass at least) or Carousel of Progress.

On the batting end of a no-hitter.

After attending a friend's birthday dinner at Wild Wings (my favorite place ever to eat from Charleston that now has a location in Tampa), we headed to another bar to listen to Stormbringer, one of Kristen's favorite cover bands that she has followed for years. As I haven't been in a long while, we headed to Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM Studios) Saturday at Disney last weekend to putz around. Even though it was a Saturday, there really were not too many lines. The stunt car show, which I have never seen, wasn't operating, however we were able to take in many of the other activities such as the Indy stunt show, Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, and a few rides on the Tower of Terror; so overall a typical park day. I finally sent in my broken camera lens this week, so hopefully I'll get it back sometime in the near future. I'd really like to play with HDR photography as well as Photosynth and make some photo point clouds of places such as a theme park in the near future. Kristen has been deal with a lot of stress as she gets overloaded with work projects, so tonight I took her out to dinner at the Jerk Hut and the local fun park to do some racing and batting to slam out some tension. We took in a few laps of the go kart and about a hundred pitchs in the cage and felt much better.

Life in the fast lane

Here it comes!

There it goes!

What this explosion needs, is a little more cowbell.

Disney's Law - Children under 12 must be accompanied by money.

After hitting the Orlando RDR, Kristen and I took in EPCOT at Disney World for a day as a means to relax for a bit. It was relatively peaceful there with few lines and we had a pretty good time taking in the World Showcase and other attractions.

"If Walt Disney saw this, he'd turn over in his icebox!"

Kristen and I picked up seasonal passes to Disney yesterday so we could start visiting the parks before it got crowded for the year. We decided to hit the Magic Kingdom first. Most of the park is the same as usual, so there isn't a lot to report. I was in pretty rare form and had much of the boat laughing more at my jokes than the guides on the Jungle Cruise, mostly because they were probably more risque than the authorized Disney dialog. My favorites are always the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse as it is always special in some way. We watched the light parade go by and hit the haunter mansion and came out in time to get some shots of the fireworks. the castle was all dolled up in pretty lights that changed color. Next time I'll try to remember to bring the tripod so I can get some decent low-light shots.

Disney didn't die. He's in suspended animation.

On Monday I took the day and went to Epcot At Disney World with a friend. It has been years since I went and I figured it would be a nice way to spend the day. We fixed up plenty of sandwiches, veggies, and rum in the water bottles (for mixing drinks) to tide us over for the day and headed off relatively early (at least for me) in the morning. To save money (especially since they would charge more for the teardrop I had with me) and even check out the resorts, we usually park at one of the Disney All-Star resorts and take a bus to the theme park. Technically I'm sure Disney would frown upon this, but I don't think it is a huge issue. The park crowds were relatively light with the only decent wait (of about 25-30 minutes) being at the Mars experience ride. With the Fast Pass, we were able to enjoy the other rides without too much of a wait. We even got to do the Test Track twice in a row since the cameras didn't capture us on the first ride so they immediately set us on another loop. I was disappointed to find the Mexico boat ride temporarily closed, but am sure I'll have more opportunity in the future. After we were done for the day, we headed back to the Gaylord Palms to attend a couple of talks and even crash a few receptions for free food and even beer! I love conventions.