A weekend with the Mouse

Posted on September 21, 2023 by dinajohnston

Brett and I drove over to Disney (not to a theme park though) in early June for a one night road trip for our 29th Anniversary. After checking into our hotel we headed over to Disney Springs to walk around a little bit and have an early dinner. I’ve only been here in the winter and it was so hot even at 5pm. After walking around for a half hour we decided to go ahead and eat early and then head back to the hotel.

Our hotel was nearby (not a Disney hotel) and we could see the fireworks from the theme parks in the distance. A nice little storm moved through at the same time and we got a great lightning show from our window.

A quick video of the fireworks (on the left) from the Magic Kingdom and the storm (on the right).

After a quick breakfast at the hotel we headed to the Disney golf course. Brett was going to play a round of golf and I was driving the golf cart (I’m not a golfer, maybe some day though but it’s fun being out and driving the course), This Mickey cart was out front at the clubhouse. It was so cute (the carts everyone uses looks like a regular cart).

There was a little bit of color along the course.

We saw a lot of raccoons along the course and they come right up to the carts. We had caught up with some guys playing ahead of us and they told us that people are feeding them. One guy said he came back to his cart from the hole and a raccoon was up in his cart digging through his snack bag. There are signs warning not to feed the wildlife but no one seems to listen anymore.

It was a beautiful morning out on the course and after a big lunch we headed back home. It was a perfect quick getaway.

Waking up on a golf course

Posted on November 4, 2021 by dinajohnston

The golf course behind our home was closed for maintance the first few weeks we were here. One morning I got up right before the sun came up and went out for a walk. I had been seeing people jogging or walking on the cart path and knew that would all stop once the course opened back up again. I am not a golfer. My husband plays golf (when he has the time which is rarely) and I’ve ridden with him in the cart when he plays when we are on vacation but it was strange to walk out the back door and be on the cart path. I only walked a few holes and passed several ponds and tons of birds. Now the course is open and I can still go out early in the morning and walk along the tree line but need to stay out of the way once the golfers come through (we’re on the 13th hole so it takes a while for them to get to our hole in the morning).

Across the street from our townhome is a big pond (with a few alligators swimming around) and I’ve been trying to catch the sunset here.

Critters out the back door

Posted on October 30, 2021 by dinajohnston

This red shoulder hawk was stalking my cockatiels through the window. I heard Harley starting to scream and ran over and looked out the window and saw this. He was sitting in a low branch right up against the house. I ran outside and walked right up to him. After picking up a big branch and shaking it at him, he finally flew off. He was not intimidated by me at all. I don’t think he realized he couldn’t get my birds that were inside the house. He came back again the next day and I went back out and shook the big branch at him again and I haven’t seen him since.

I think this squirrel mistook the hanging plant for a bird feeder. He’s looking at me like “Lady, where’s the food?”

I saw the deer from the kitchen and grabbed my camera and ran out to the back porch. The deer were across the fairway and glanced at me for a second before continueing to eat. This was late in the afternoon. They stayed out there until right before dark and then headed off into the woods down the street. It’s a little strange for me to see deer grazing right out my back door.