meinen Reisen MY TRAVELS mijn reizen mes voyages meus cursos mis viajes minhas viagens mo taisteal mine rejser mina resor i miei viaggi

Andrea mentioned some new things at Animal Kingdom. I hadn’t been to Animal Kingdom since before the summer of 2015, so I decided to go and check the new things out.

There is now a Starbucks. I didn’t get a picture of it, but there is probably one online. The market/food court area was cool. I ate some falafel further down the road. I went on the safari and Primeval Whirl.

The Hippos were out on the safari which I rarely see. I guess it was rather cold for them today – 65 degrees. I saw a lot of animals actually.

Later, I met Bev at Sweet Tomatoes. We went to Epcot to get a few laps in. At Epcot, we looked at the legacy locater. We found a picture of Bev and her son from 16 years ago and went and found the picture on the sculpture. It was bittersweet to see how time goes so fast as the son was 5 in the picture.

I walked around the world twice, saw the American Adventure movie, and then, ate in Norway. In the United Kingdom, they were giving away samples of tea in little cups which was fun.

I appreciate all the alerts about the comments section. I have reset some links and it seems to work now.

Sorry it took so long. On Friday, I had an International Trade Administration economist speak. Yesterday, I had the Deputy Assistant Secretary from the ITA speak and today, I had EXIM Bank’s regional director speak and the Congressman showed up (due to the snow in D.C., he was in town).

I am ready for the weekend and it is only Wednesday night. Last night, I had an export event until 8 p.m. and on Friday, I have another event. I skipped the monthly Hosteling International group tonight.

I have made two really good crock-pot meals. Once I get three, I will post pictures.

Things are really picking up at work. I have been to a lot of events recently. In the last few weeks, I have been to a Governor’s small-business stop, a Brazilian chamber event, an Asian chamber event, the Mayor’s Economic Summit, and had one event of my own. I have two events next week of my own and two night receptions. It can get tiring. I changed from my administrative title of project coordinator to my functional title of Program Specialist for International Business Development which I think is better.

Last weekend, I went to Universal and I also went to Lynn’s house. I chased a Canadian woodpecker around for a while trying to get some good pictures. We also made S’mores in the oven. Last night, I went to Tennis Club. It was a cool 65 degrees. Tonight, it was around 45 degrees! Earlier tonight, I went to Yanbin’s. Mireya came over too. We met Yanbin’s daughter. It was great seeing them. A lot of friends have left the area, so it was nice to talk to them.

Last Thursday and Friday, we seemed just to eat. I can’t really remember what we did.

On Thursday, we went to Disney Springs and Wolfgang Puck Express.

On Friday, Andrea came to work and we went to lunch at a Pho place nearby. Then, at night, we went to Hollerbach Willow Tree for some German food.

Andrea and I woke up around 3:00 a.m. on Saturday and boarded a bus to the start line for the half-marathon. I can’t believe we even did it. It was really quite fun. We didn’t do that well, but Disney isn’t a place where that matters as we still finished in the top half.

Afterwards, we went to The Villages and met Lynn, Dad’s cousin, for lunch. Later, we stopped by Showcase of Citrus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4BiJKlYb0g

Again, on Sunday, Andrea and I woke up early around 3:45 a.m. as we had to be at the volunteer post by 4:45 a.m.

We were stationed at mile marker 20.5. We had to set-up three water tables stacked three high. The wheelchair racer got to us pretty fast. We were not even fully set-up, but we were by the time the runners arrived.

This time around it was pretty tiring, but not as bad as running 26.2 miles. I even felt sorry for them when they made it to our  stop as they had 6 miles to go!

Disney cleans up pretty fast. The custodial crew descends on the grounds and cleans it up so fast.

Afterwards, we went to the finish line at Epcot. We went inside and cheered on the final runners whom we had just seen 6 miles before.

Then, we went to Magic Kingdom and FastPassed Big Thunder, Buzz Light Year, and the Mine Ride.

We woke up on Monday morning around 3:45 a.m. again and I took Dad and Andrea to the airport.

I really like my Chromebook for the most part, but it isn’t recognizing my phone tonight, so I will upload pictures from the weekend tomorrow and post them tomorrow night.

After updating the blog last Saturday, we went to Magic Kingdom and rode Buzz Lightyear, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and Peter Pan’s Flight.

On January 3rd, we ate lunch at the restaurant in Japan. Then, we went to Hollywood Studios. We rode Toy Story Spin, Star Tours, and saw the Dancing Lights. I thought the Dancing Lights last show was that night, but they kept the lights on a few more nights.

On Monday, I returned to work.

After work, went to Disney Springs and ate at Earl of Sandwich. Andrea and I went to shopping at the outlets until 11 p.m.

After work on Tuesday, we went to Sweet Tomatoes and went to see the fireworks at Hollywood Studios. The Dancing Lights were still on! We saw them one last night. Now the lights are permanently closed as they make room for a Star Wars land.

I have included movies of the Star Wars Fireworks and the NYE’s Epcot fireworks. I didn’t have much time to edit them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5inFMrbqVw4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9O9fHkaBgw