New Year's Urbex Adventure!

I can't believe we've been in Orlando for nearly 2 months already! Now that we are all properly moved in, our old house in Tampa is for sale, Christmas is all done and we have a few days off work, we had a 6 hour Dallas mega-marathon and planned out a little road trip to 'get away from it all' and do some urban exploring...

Daytona Beach is only about an hour and a half away and we had heard about some pretty interesting things to see there including an 11 story abandoned hotel right on the beach and concrete dinosaurs in the woods :). We stopped off at the Daytona International Speedway racetrack as we were passing through. I was blown away with how incredibly massive it is - the primary loop is 2.5 miles long and the infield section in the middle is 180-acres!! It also includes a 29-acre lake, Lake Lloyd, which was created by  Florida's high water table when the earth was removed to create the famous 31 degree angle banking on the track...

Good stuff. Then we went to Daytona Beach where you can actually drive on the beach! It was Michael's 'first time' and he was just a bit excited...

Every good urban explorer knows to check that the abandoned hotel you are trying to visit hasn't been demolished already...roh roh...

As we were driving away we flagged down an ice cream truck. He gave us all of the details about the demise of Treasure Island Inn. I thought he was making it up as he was going along. Mike believed him despite the fact that he was missing half of his teeth and I don't think it was caused by too many waffle cones...

Just five minutes later we ran into the very much undemolished Treasure Island Inn! Mike said: "that's the last time I trust the word of an ice cream man with "meth mouth""

Here's what it looked like in 2004 prior to hurricane Charley...

The hotel was never repaired after it sustained over $75 million of damage during the storm and the owners filed bankruptcy in 2008. Due to a tangled legal dispute over ownership it has not yet been destroyed and has remained empty ever since. Here's what it looks like now...

Check out that green pool!

And the beach bar...

It was difficult to tell what damage had been caused by the storm 7 years ago vs. vandalism. Regardless, it was fascinating to poke around the spooky place although none of us dared go inside for fear of who may be living there now...

We had heard about the local Drive-In Christian Church where the services are conducted outside and people can stay in the comfort of their vehicles...;)

We rounded off the day with a trip to the tourist attraction formerly known as Bongoland! Dunlawton Sugar Mill Gardens was originally the home of sugar mill plantation ruins destroyed by the Seminole Indians in the early 1830s.

In the 1950s several attempts were made to create a more viable tourist attraction at the location. With the addition of a baboon named 'Bongo' and several replicas of dinosaurs, Bongoland was created...I know...you can't make this stuff up...

Anyway, it didn't work and so that's why there are several dilapidated concrete dinosaurs in the woods...

It was a great day to round off a year that has been quite an adventure for us with a new job, new home, new school and a new town! I wonder what 2012 will bring...? We're excited ;) Happy New Year to our wonderful family and friends!!

A Perfect Family Christmas Day!

We spent the couple of weeks leading up to Christmas Day having way too much fun and Maddy got to see her first cheetah up close and personal at Animal Kingdom's Conservation Camp. Since it had already been a bit of a non-traditional season anyhow, we decided to switch things up and open gifts (that we had bought just that day;)) at midnight instead of on Christmas morning. Maddy loved her lego sets and practically built a whole town while we snuggled on the couch watching 'It's a Wonderful Life' at two in the morning :).

In the morning we headed over to Rita's with the family gifts that we hand-made for the first time (craftsy gift stuff here!)

Our beautiful girls...

Declan, Liz, Jen, Rita, Sue, Richard, Matt, Maddy, Mike, Mya and Rich!

Matt and Declan :)

Can't believe we got everything done in time!

Jen, Rich and Mya...

Mike, Jen and Liz...

Rich and Rita taking care of the fantastic food (Liz did a stellar job with dessert :)

The girls loved showing their cousin how to play with Cookie Monster...

And modelling their new matching jackets ;)

It may have been a gag gift - but I bet you Mike uses this. I'll keep you posted...and the camera handy...

Merry Christmas to all of our family and friends! We love you!

Our Disney Christmas Weekend

Life has been crazy lately and we have spent every available second trying to get ready for Christmas next week. Next week!! In fact, we haven't bought a single gift for each other yet :(. Anyway, last minute shopping is what Christmas Eves are for so we didn't let a small detail like that get in the way of our Disney plans for this weekend...

On Friday night we started out at Disney's Hollywood (formerly 'MGM') Studios for their annual Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights. No it's not anything to do with Ozzy and family. This display is a bit more wholesome and one of the most popular Disney attractions during the Holiday season. It features an expansion of the private Christmas light collection started by Jennings Osborne in 1986. Apparently he displayed over 3 million lights at his home for 35 days each year until 1993. Turns out his neighbors weren't exactly impressed with the amount of visitors who came from all over the place to block their roadways each Christmas season and the family was eventually shut down by a Supreme Court order. I know, Bah Humbug, right? Anyway, that's when Disney stepped in to save the day (I feel sure that the liklihood of massive amounts of extra guests at their park had nothing to do with it;)) and expanded the collection to over 5 million lights! They are on display from 6pm-8pm each night from November through January at Disney's Hollywood Studios and if our experience is anything to go by, expect it to be absolutely packed! I had also just heard about 'Hidden Mickeys.' Evidently Disney imagineers have been hiding images of Mickey all over the place for years now. In fact, there's a massive one in the layout of Disney Hollywood Studios itself when viewed from space! A lot of the image is obscured by recent construction but here's how it looked originally:

Pretty cool. Here's a website all about Hidden Mickeys if you're into that kind of thing...click here!). Anyway, we had heard that there are over 40 Hidden Mickeys in the Osborne lights themselves so we decided to see if we could find any for ourselves!

The lights are totally gorgeous...

And there are Hidden Mickeys everywhere!!!

Every seven minutes the lights 'dance...we loved it! Check out Mya discovering a Hidden Mickey in the first clip:)...

In the morning we met up again at Epcot. It was a perfect day for a theme park :)

Mike and I left Maddy in Mexico with the Simards and rushed back to get ready for my first Christmas party as a Disney cast member :). This is the kind of traffic you can get caught in on our street if you're not careful...

The party was at the House of Blues where we met...aaaahh...

And the live band was awesome :)

After the party we headed back to Epcot. Here's Mike at one of my favorite Disney spots - the Epcot ball...

So excited to be here!

Had to grab a beer at the Rose & Crown in England...

Epcot fireworks are just the best :)

The grand finale...