Sky Lanterns

Heathen #2 asked me the other day if I had added a post about his sky lanterns - and I had to admit that I hadn't gotten to it yet.  Here is the post I promised him!

Heathen #2 is part of a FANTASTIC cub scout den.  It is full of great boys and fantastic parents.  They do all kinds of really cool projects together.  This year, the coolest was definitely the sky lanterns.

Anyone who has seen the movie Tangled recognizes this image:

 Our boys built and flew their own lanterns.  The images aren't the greatest but they definitely show what the boys accomplished.  The boys did a fantastic job and the lanterns were amazing to watch! 

A completed lantern

Heathen #2 is ready for flight!

Lighting the fuel source.

Letting the air warm.

We have lift-off!



Up...

Up...

And away!

Frolicking in Florida: a story of Miller Mishaps (Part 4)

Thursday we spent the first part of the day at Sea World.  Since the one in Ohio closed, it has been years since I've been to one.

We discovered that Heathen #3 is a little fountain of knowledge about Manatees.  He spent the entire time with them spouting off about boats hitting them and special hospitals.  It was really cute - and surprising!  I didn't realize he even knew what they were!  Hurray for Animal Planet!

Heathen #3 and his manatees

Of course, we saw Shamu!  And just as the show was getting ready to start - my camera battery died.  I remembered to empty the memory card but not to charge the battery.

Since we were returning the next day, we left Sea World a little early that afternoon.  The Asst. Zookeeper surprised us with tickets to Medieval Times!  I wanted to stop at a camera store to see about a camera grip and battery adapter.

We stopped at two camera stores, both run by Indian men.  The first store didn't have the right grip for my camera, so I simply bought a new battery.  While we were there, the man asked if I had any filters for my camera.  He showed me a filter that I really liked.  But I saw the price on the box ($250) and didn't want to spend that while on vacation.  When I declined the filter, the man told me it was only $125.  I thanked him, declined again, and paid for my battery.

As we were getting ready to walk out of the store, he said, "You got cash on you? I sell you filter for cost. $99 for you."  One of the other men in the store questioned him about the drastic price reduction.  His response was, "It going to rain.  We have do inventory.  I sell $99."

We declined and headed for the van and the next camera shop.  They had the grip for my camera.  We paid and were heading for the door.  The man behind us called after us, "You have filter for camera?"  We replied YES and kept walking, trying not to laugh until we were out of his hearing!

We were headed for Medieval Times!  I couldn't wait to see it!  I had loved Arabian Nights and the Asst. Zookeeper has spent years telling me about Medieval Times.  According to the GPS, we were only 5 minutes away, just one exit up on the highway.

Item #4 of the Miller Mishaps: the van dies!

We took our exit ramp and entered the middle lane of 5 on the ramp.  At the end of the ramp, the light was red, so we stopped.  AND SO DID THE VAN!!!!  And it wouldn't restart.  It was rush hour traffic in Orlando and we were stuck in the middle of the ramp!

The Asst. Zookeeper got out to push it to the side of the road.  In PA, people stop and ask if you need help.  Really OLD men will stop and help push a can.  In FL, they simply honk horns and make rude gestures.  Did I mention the Asst. Zookeeper was pushing a CONVERSION VAN by himself?  We tied up quite a bit of traffic!

Once along the side of the road, the Asst. Zookeeper (bless his heart!) walked over to the closest hotel and arranged for a taxi to take the Heathens and I to Medieval Times.  He also arranged for a tow truck to take him and the van back to the condo.

I'm worried about abandoning my husband on the side of the road, and the Heathens are ECSTATIC that they are going for their FIRST ride in a taxi!

Medieval Times was fantastic once we got there.  The Asst. Zookeeper called ahead to let them know we would be a few minutes late and the people there took care of us.  Once the Heathens got over the fact that they were SUPPOSED to eat with their fingers, they promptly FORGOT to eat as they were busy watching the jousting and sword play in front of us.  To my delight and Heathen #1's dismay, one of the characters in the show was "Prince Tristan" and he was married to a very pretty lady.  The other two Heathens kept calling him "Prince" for the rest of the evening.

Touring the Village

NO UTENSILS!

We took another taxi back to the condo at the end of the show.  The Asst. Zookeeper had spent the evening with the tow truck guy deciding what was wrong with the van.  By the time we arrived "home," he knew what was wrong and what parts he needed to fix it!  Being married to an electrician/mechanic is REALLY handy!

The rest of the vacation was spent fixing the van (the Asst. Zookeeper) or swimming at the condo (me and the Heathens).  We did run back over to Sea World for Friday afternoon to see the shows we hadn't the day before.  Then it was a 16 hour drive home the next day.

Despite the mishaps over the course of the week, I couldn't have asked for a better week with the Zoo. I already wish we could go back and do it again!

The Entire Zoo!

Frolicking in Florida: a story of Miller Mishaps (Part 3)

Wednesday was the day I had been waiting for - since February!  This was my birthday present!  This was what I'd been selling to the Heathens for two years!  And it was finally time to swim with the dolphins!!!!!

Discovery Cove was UNDESCRIBABLE.  But I will do my best.

All you had to bring was YOU - everything else was covered.  Breakfast, lunch, snacks, drinks all day long, towels, sunscreen, snorkeling gear, beach chairs and umbrellas.

Our dolphin's name was Catalina. She was three years old and she was great.  Although the younger two were a little nervous at first, by the end they loved her!

Heathen #1 kissing Catalina!

Heathen #2 with his new best buddy!

Heathen #3 was nervous being with something
that much bigger than him, but he did great!

In addition to the dolphins, there was sting ray pool where you could touch and feed the sting rays.  The water was a little too deep for Heathen #3 to stand, but he still loved watching me feed them!

 

There was also a coral reef with fish, manta rays and sharks (enclosed in a separate area).  You could snorkel with the fish and pet the manta rays.  Heathen #1 spent a good bit of the day diving down to the manta rays and hanging on for rides.  The sharks were in an enclosed area within the reef but you could still see them underwater.  It was amazing!

Discovery Cove also houses an aviary with beautiful birds.  Here are just a few of my favorites that I snapped!

We watched a man propose "by dolphin" while we were there!  As we were waiting our turn to enter the dolphin lagoon, Catalina (our dolphin) brought over a white buoy to a couple already in the water.  The white buoy was enscribed with "Will you marry me?"  It was really sweet!  Our trainer said he's been there for twelve years and has seen more than a few proposals that weren't accepted!

The Heathens had a fabulous day of snorkeling and sun.  We were sad to leave, but spent the trip back to the condo planning our next Discovery Cove visit.  We will definitely be going back.

Tired, but planning the return visit.



Frolicking in Florida: a story of Miller Mishaps (Part 2)

Monday of Frolicking in Florida was spent at Animal Kingdom (by Heathen choice).  And I am forever ruined for regular zoos.

 I could have pet most of the animals there because they were that close!  There were no glass-fronted cages (except for the fish, obviously).  The animals had lots of room to move and actually looked happy instead of half-miserable.  Many of the animals we saw were in very large enclosures that you entered as part of a tour.  The animals had free-range to interact with each other and to get incredible close to us!

Who has ever seen a flamingo nest?

There were 6 or more baby elephants in the herd.

This was the Asst. Zookeeper's favorite.
He claims the gorilla had obviously
been out with his friends drinking the
night before.

This rhinosceros was so close I
could have leaned over and
touched him.  Without stretching.

Tuesday was our "down day" between big park adventures.  Instead we went to Wonderworks to play Laser Tag and use the indoor ropes course.  They also had a 4D vitual roller coaster that the younger 2 Heathens loved!

After leaving WonderWorks, we headed for Arabian Nights.  We took the boys on the stable tour before dinner.  It was really great.  They loved getting that close to the horses and the performers.  The food was fabulous.  The service was magnificent.  The show was fantastic!

After swimming at the condo late into the night, it was off to bed for the next day's adventures!

Frolicking in Florida: a story of Miller Mishaps (Part 1)

Continue reading for the following Miller Family Mishaps:
1. Lose of air conditioning
2. Remembering the camera, but forgetting the battery
3. Disneyland vs. Disney World
4. Vehicle breakdown on 5-lane exit ramp at rush hour

Now that I have your attention!  As you read, remember that we had a great time and spent a good bit of it laughing at ourselves (as usual!)

The Zoo took its hiatus early this year due to aging Heathens commitments in August. Bless the BFF in Japan for condo access!  Not only was it within 5 minutes of everywhere we planned to go, but it was fabulous all by itself!

Due to the Asst. Zookeeper's work schedule, we were able to take 2 full days to drive down to Kissimmee.  The Heathens spent the time in the back of the conversion van watching (get this!) VCR tapes and learning what it meant to REWIND them.  The Asst. Zookeeper and I may be Microwave Babies, but the Heathens are definitely DVD Babies.

On the way through Daytona, we were able to stop by and visit with the Heathens beloved "Aunt" Lori who has abandoned the lovely Johnstown weather for the crappy weather of Daytona Beach.  After we hugged her goodbye and pulled back onto the highway, Heathen #3 still didn't understand WHY she would leave to live at the beach.  He was MUCH cuter than the water.

Item #1 on the list of Miller Mishaps: lose of air conditioning

This occurred on the second day of the trip, not far through Virginia.  While it was going to be a warm week in Orlando, we rolled down the windows and turned up the radio.  Until the Heathens asked us to turn DOWN the radio because they couldn't here the VCR tapes in the back over the music and the wind.  Not a big deal - on with the trip!

Item #2 on the list of Miller Mishaps: remembering the camera, but forgetting the battery

This is actually two parts!  I was so worried about not having enough memory card storage for the week that the Asst. Zookeeper suggested that I take the computer - I would be able to download the pictures at the end of every night and wouldn't need to buy unnecessary memory cards.  Perfect!  Add "1 computer" to the packing list.

Once we pulled into the condo and began unpacking, I realized that I didn't pack the charger for my camera battery.  It takes one of those weird rechargeable ones that are almost $100 to replace and usually don't come charged anyway.  No problem!  We stopped at the store and bought a new charger for $20 - Perfect!  Problem averted!

On Sunday, we arrived in the parking lot at the Magic Kingdom with three Heathens in the back of the van that were practically vibrating with excitement.  As we are getting out of the van, I caught sight of a plane doing sky-writing.  He was writing different Christian messages and I wanted to get a picture because it was really visible.  Open the camera bag, take out the camera.  Uncap the lens, flip power switch to "on."  Focus and press the shutter button.

At this point, the camera should make some clicking sounds, beep twice, and then the shutter should go off, followed by a preview of the photo on the screen.  Right?  Wrong.  Nothing happened.  Check power - yup, I did remember to turn on the camera.  Focus and press the shutter.  Nothing.  As I'm looking at the camera and checking things, it dawns on me what is wrong...

The BATTERY is still at the condo in the new charger.  I wanted to start the day with a fully charged battery.  My first thought was that we were only five minutes from the condo and we would run back to get it.

My second thought was of the imminent Miller Mutiny I would have on my hands if I told the Heathens to get back into the van without going into the pack.  For my own personal health, we waited until the kids were ready to eat before we disguised the battery-retrieval trip as "we're eating at the condo."

Onto Item #3: Disneyland vs. Disney World

Like the responsible adults that we are (no snickering!), we started planning this trip months ago.  The Asst. Zookeeper started to purchase tickets ahead of time over the internet so that we could space out the cost.  Since our bank has shut us off before on vacations due to "suspicious spending" (check out the Niagara Falls trip 2010) we didn't want to take that chance again.

We remembered to print out the e-tickets before we left home.  We remembered to put all the e-tickets in the van and take them with us.  We remembered to take them with us to the park.  As we are walking up to the gate, a little old lady is directly traffic.  If you need to purchase tickets, she sends you left.  If you already have tickets, she sends you right.  The Asst. Zookeeper holds the tickets up as we are approaching in the "we already have tickets" motion, this little old lady stops us all dead in our tracks.

"Sir, those say Disneyland.  This is Disney World."

The Asst. Zookeeper looks at the tickets in his hand and then turns to face me with a horrible look on his face.  Then he holds up the tickets to show me.  In BIG BLUE letters, aproximately 2 inches tall and 5 inches wide, across the top of our tickets it has the word "Disneyland."

Somewhere in the googling, we ended up on the wrong site and bought tickets for the wrong side of the country.  And we never noticed.  We printed the tickets - just never looked at them other than to check the names on them and the dates.

The Heathen automatically start to go into melt down: "What does that mean?"  "Why does it matter?  This IS Disney!"  "You mean we can't go in?"  "You promised I would get to see Mickey Mouse!"

Continue this list in several voices.  Add some panicked breathing and some really watery eyes on two smaller Heathens.  And the on Zookeeper as well - I really wanted to go too!

After we were directed to guest services, we were told that they WOULD NOT honor our tickets.  If we wanted to enter the park, we would have to purchase new tickets.  If we wanted our money back for the other tickets (really, the word "if" was used), then we would have to contact them to request our refund.

Thank heavens we had the cash to cover the extra tickets!  So much for planning ahead!  When we went back to the condo for lunch, the Asst. Zookeeper called about the refund.  It could take up to FOUR WEEKS.  Seriously?  When they can ZAP it out of the account in 4 seconds?  Really?  Whatever, we were okay to finish the trip and that was all that mattered!
We had a fabulous day at the Magic Kingdom.  The Heathens were disappointed when it closed for the night, but were ready for bed and the adventures that awaited them in the morning.

My Favorite Part

The Asst. Zookeeper bought me Minnie ears!

Tired, but it was worth it.