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Although I would have preferred Pandaland, I went to Gatorland today. I had a lot of fun. I saw that they were having a FL resident deal of $9.99, so I took advantage of it. I have never been before even though I found out today it is really close to where I used to live.

The people and signs were really funny. They played on their backwoods Florida humor. They didn’t try to be Disney. I went to an Alligator Wrestling show and a show where they fed the animals. I saw white gators which there are only 12 left in the world. They had a variety of other gators. I saw snakes, raccoons, deer, parrots, and a cougar.

There was a neat swamp walk. The headwaters of the Everglades start around there.

Gatorland was really close to Disney, so I went to see the Christmas displays at Epcot and the hotels near Epcot. I really liked the poinsettia tree at Swan. Beach Club did not have its chocolate carousel up yet. Boardwalk’s display was not as neat as in year’s past.

Epcot is slowly getting its decorations out. I noticed the Monkey King story in China has been replaced with a Lion story. France had neat Christmas blubs in the pavilion. Germany always looks festive.

I was invited to go on a harbor tour of Port Tampa Bay. I activated a new phone last night (Wahooo!! I now have picture messaging again!! which I haven’t had since February!!), but I couldn’t find the navigation on it and Google Maps wasn’t helping. I got lost and arrived at the port at 4 p.m., but I was at the wrong terminal which was completely my fault. They waited for me! The speaker came and picked me up in his jeep and we drove the boat. Evidently, they wanted to get out before a cruise ship was set to leave.

Some Port Tampa Bay facts:

Energy gateway. Largest footprint port. All the ethanol comes in the port that goes to Florida. Known for fertilizer. 5000 acres compared to Port of Miami’s 500 acres. 85,000 jobs. Ship repair center. Building new ships. Top ten cruise homeport. 56 million tons of cargo per year. Interested in growing automotive market with Mexico. Largest number of distribution centers in Florida are located in Central Florida. Amazon has two centers in Tampa. Just received two new post Panamax cranes. 5 cranes in total at Port Tampa Bay.

I went out to eat on the waterfront with a friend I know who works there. She was actually in charge of it tonight and held the boat for me. I am getting later and later for things.

When I got home, I baked some pumpkin and also caramel apple cookies for our Thanksgiving potluck at work tomorrow.

You can see 286 pictures from the harbor tour here:

We had a Thanksgiving potluck at work today. I took pumpkin flavored and caramel apple flavored cookies and stuffing.

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I forgot to post Sunday afternoon’s pictures. I can’t even remember where I went. Oh yeah, I ate at Earl of Sandwich. I went to The Polynesian, but the hotel is being refurbished. Everything was hidden from view including when you walk into the resort and the main pool. I hope the guests got discounted rooms. I walked over to the Grand Floridian and saw their Gingerbread house. I made the 3:00 parade at Magic Kingdom. Then, I went to The Contemporary and saw the Frozen chocolate display. I really wasn’t down at Disney for more than 2 or 3 hours.

I tried to work with aperture on my camera, but it didn’t go too well. (The poinsettias are made out of chocolate)

I decided to take some time out of yesterday and create some things for the Thanksgiving potluck on Friday. I collected hand prints/turkeys and glued them to the canned food donation box. The millennials in the different organizations really liked creating the cutouts. As I walked from organization to organization, I was surprised (or not really) to see how each millennial googled “hand print turkey” or “turkey” to get ideas. It showed a desire to want to do well, but it also showed a reliance on Google and lack of originality.

I also created name tags and little cards with jokes on them.

Happy Birthday, Andrea

I have created a video of last Friday’s events. First, we met Jerry (my boss) close to the airport at a Turkish restaurant. We drove about 30 miles down to the race expo to pick up our packets. I ran into a former chef who was nice to see as he believed in me while I was at Disney and tried to encourage me, so it was nice to tell him what happened to me since I was living in a tent a while ago. We didn’t have time to check-in at the hotel, because I wanted to get to the Frozen Sing-Along. We rode Toy Story, Star Tours, and saw the Dancing Lights. We drove to Epcot and walked around the Food and Wine Festival and saw David Cook. I think we left before IllumiNations. I will try to create another video tonight, but I am still tired. I even had the day off today to honor Veterans, but I am still tired.