When You Live in Florida...

...You upgrade.

Spanish Moss

I took a very long walk yesterday (I like to explore) and the intent was to take pictures of the spanish moss that grows around the south. I have a not so secret love affair with it. Yet, as all things in life are unpredictable, this post is also turning into one that includes birds and backyards. It's only fair to include everything on the walk.

If I start from the beginning, I was headed to the man-door gate at the edge of our apartment complex and ran smack into a family of sandhill cranes. Literally, one more step and I would have stepped on ones toes. I have no idea how I missed them, it's not like they're small creatures. I had seen this family before when I was leaving for work one day because they were blocking the road, I hear them all the time too. Their calls are loud. After further research, I found out that sandhill cranes in Florida are endangered, and these are three of the 5000 remaining (I've seen up to six before). I think that there is a mom and a dad - they mate for life, and their most recent offspring. They don't seem too scared of people by how close I was able to get to them.

I didn't use any zoom in these pictures:

They were essentially trapped in the complex because of the gates, so when a car left and the gate automatically opened, I watched them calmly head that way and exit. Of course, they are proper birds and used the crosswalk.

I proceeded with my walk and took pictures of my favorite species of tree here - the southern live oak. I like all of the branches they have.

There is a specific road that I like to walk down because it has a long line of oak trees and they are all decorated with spanish moss. I've seen armadillos here before and large toads too. Spanish moss makes everything kind of look like it was transplanted straight from Sleepy Hollow, which is probably why I love it so much.

At the end of this particular road there is a backyard with one of the coolest treehouses I've ever seen. I creeped as close to the house as I could while still feeling like I was outside of shotgun range and took pictures of it. Legit treehouse items include: a swing, a pulley system, two floors, screened windows, a porch, furniture, and a ceiling fan.

Finally, on my way back, I found an ideal backyard. Drying wetsuits, hammock, palm trees, and a garden.

Other notables:

-The part horse stable, part tennis court where lessons are given

-The man falling off of his lawnmower because he was going too fast in the field

-The trailer park barbeque with blaring music

-The pack of vultures flying overhead

-Almost stepping on an anthill

-The man riding his bike with 2 gallons of water strapped to the handles (it was 100 degrees)

-Trying to find the blue heron that I could hear, but not see

-Passing the completely gold colored buddhist monastery

-Listening to the noon church bells at a church next to the trailer park

-Chasing after a butterfly and looking like a lunatic

Summer Bash

There was a cast member party today at EPCOT. Eric (another intern, not the brother) and I had the day off, so we just met the rest of the marine mammal team during their lunch time. At this hidden warehouse behind "Canada" in the World Showcase, we walked in to a prepared lunch, music, DJ, games, Mickey, Minnie and Goofy, ice cream, vendors selling things, trivia, and each of the World Showcase countries had booths where the chefs cooked you samples of food. You had to try each sample and then vote for your favorite. I was stuffed. Germany's BBQ shrimp with mango chutney and coconut rice won my vote. It was really fun to hang out with the other interns and trainers in this type of non-work setting.

Hayley and I were partners in one of the games. They gave us a box of nuts and bolts of different sizes and we had one minute to match as many as we could. We got second place with 20 matches and a keychain as a consolation prize. After the boys scoffed at our score, they tried...and got 20 matches and a keychain as a consolation prize. Before everyone left, we took a picture with Mickey and Goofy (Minnie was MIA).

Dolphins in Depth

There is a program at The Seas called Dolphins in Depth. Guests get to interact with the dolphins and learn more about the research and training done here. It's about three hours long. The trainers want all of the interns to do the program so that we can explain to guests exactly what it's like. Um, sign me up please.

I got a call in the office this morning from one of the people who runs the program and there was an extra spot available today. So, instead of paying a bajillion dollars to play with dolphins, I was paid around 30 dollars for my time spent. I love my job.

Annie and Calvin

A Friend of a Friend

It just so happens that we have a "friend" that knows Minnie Mouse. Uh huh. At least, this is what you're supposed to say when you go to Magic Kingdom to specifically see Minnie...when you know she'll be there...from 8:45 to 9:15 pm and from 9:45 to 10:15 pm. No, you can't do this for any character in the parks, for all of you hoping to use this trick, you actually have to know someone who is "friends" with Minnie. I hope I'm hinting well enough here that you get my point. So my roommate Lindsay and our friend Lauren and I wanted to see and surprise Minnie when she was working.

We wandered over to Mickey's Toontown Fair and hunted for Minnie Mouse. The characters in this area are in special indoor rooms instead of outside, so this was harder than it seems. When we finally located the right set of rooms, we let the person monitoring the line know that we were here to see Minnie (there were some code words involved). We then bypassed the 30 minute wait line (sweet!) and stood in the front. Not only did children hate us for this, but we got several glares from parents. Before I could feel too bad about myself we were ushered into a room where Minnie and Mickey were waiting. We got the special VIP treatment as we were the only ones in there. It was right before Minnie's break time so they didn't expect to see anyone else. She was super excited to see us because we didn't tell her we were coming and hopped around for a bit before making everyone pose for a picture. Minnie, who is up to date with technology, made sure to text us later and thank us for visiting.

Quote of the Day:

Lindsay: "That was SO cool!" She repeated this phrase for a couple of hours.

Kudos To You Spider

Bulls-eye

Whistle While You Work

Finally! Pictures of where I work and what I do. I'll start with the manatees. We have two of them, Lou and Jasper, and they definitely have distinct personalities. You start to understand their behaviors and recognize their moods when you have to stand on the manatee stage and answer questions for a few hours a day (we have to mark down how much they eat). I also give informative speeches about these two guys and West Indian Manatees in general at various times.

Fun facts about manatees:

Disney is a rehabilitation center, so all of our manatees are rescued and re-released.

The average weight of a manatee is between 1500 and 1800 pounds.

Lou is 15 and weighs 1404 pounds (he was weighed yesterday so that number is freshly updated), Lou is also missing almost all of his tail paddle because a boat hit him.

Jasper is 4 years old and weighs 604 pounds and he is with us because he got manatee "hypothermia" over one of Florida's unnaturally cold winters.

Their closest living relative is the elephant.

Each of them eats between 60 and 100 pounds of lettuce per day (that I get to clean) - Herbivores!

My man Jasper having a lettuce snack

These guys are in a separate tank. I SCUBA dive in the mornings and vacuum up their poop. I know, glamorous. The main environment is made up of 5.7 million gallons of man made salt water and houses close to 2000 individuals, including rays, sea turtles (2 greens and 1 loggerhead), sharks, fish, and dolphins. We dive in this tank too. We did one dive just for fun to explore the environment and I've also scrubbed algae away from the man made coral reefs. Watch out for the sand tiger shark. He has an intimidating set of protruding teeth.

As far as the dolphins go, I participate in research training sessions, make their food buckets, clean their toys, and assist in dolphin presentations for the public. At a later date I will be narrating the dolphin presentations. We have 4 guys: Ranier - early thirties, Khyber - eighteen, Calvin - sixteen, and Malabar - ten. They are all very playful and give you the side-eye when you go up to the dolphin quad (where we go to feed them) on the top floor and don't offer them anything. They are part of the main environment but separated from the other animals with a fence. The spaces in the fence are large enough for the other animals to pass through yet they don't. Dolphins tend to "play" with other fish - including sharks, and the other fish don't usually survive. I've seen this happen when a fish wandered a little too far over.

Rainier on the left and Khyber on the right

This is a view of what the public gets to see of the main environment. There is an upper floor, but only employees are allowed up there and I'm not supposed to take any pictures. It's cool though, you can take my word for it.

Diving in the main environment: this was such a cheese-fest. I was trying to clean the windows in the dolphin area and I was posing with people's babies.

When you enter and leave The Seas there are some colorful large Nemo statues where everyone takes photos.

Close up of Marlon and Dory...they look a little cracked out to me.

Park Hopping

I'm still wrapping my head around the fact that I can go to any of the parks for free. Luckily, one or more of my friends will have the same day off as I do every week, and if not we just go to a park after work. I bring a change of clothes and off we go.

There was one day that all interns had off so a bunch of us went to EPCOT and Magic Kingdom to navigate through strollers, ride some rides, and take pictures with various characters just for fun. It's so weird to not feel rushed. If we don't see something, we can just come back later.

Random FYI - I get mildly creeped out when I see a Disney character who is not in a full out costume (they don't have something over their heads). It's definitely a quirk of mine. I tend to observe them from a distance because I don't want to talk, just take the picture. Which is why Mickey, Minnie, Donald, etc are so awesome. Hugs = OK, weird conversation = uncomfortable. There are mostly photos of us with actual people characters. Kaite made me do it.

Chip and Dale (from a day earlier in the week).

It's kind of difficult to find these two together, so right after one of our training days Kaite and I spotted them and had to stand in line out of principle. Disregard my Disney approved shoes and socks (all white, covering the ankle).

Mulan.

She was very nice and actually treated us like adults. She asked us how our day was going - thank you for recognizing my age Mulan.

Snow White.

She was exactly the opposite of Mulan. Pure Disney all the way through. As soon as she finished staring at her dress and twirling (weird?) she noticed that we were next in line. She looks at me, bats her eyes, and asks if I'm the fairest in my land. Without missing a beat but wanting desperately to run away, I reply "absolutely".

Eric and Ariel.

These two are a rare find together. I'm going to start by saying that they looked a lot less creepy in person. When I posted this on Facebook, the comments were hilarious. They are as follows:

Amy: Homewrecker!

Terry: Seriously creepy smiles on those two...

Kaleo: You would. Love splitter upper.

Tim: They are plotting on how they will kill you and then escape from Disney jail haha.

Justin (my favorite): Remember when that bitch abandoned her family just so SHE could be happy with some random ass cute guy she never met? Seriously...where are her values?!

First Day

My first day was a few weeks ago (there is so much to catch up on!) and we got our "costumes" at the cast services center. I am really happy with the outfit because everyone who works at The Seas knows that we have the best, least embarrassing work wear. It's a normal pair of shorts that look like the type you would wear if you were a lifeguard and the shirt is just a blue polo with the logo. We also got our own wetsuits and SCUBA gear to use at least for the duration of the internship - I want the wetsuit to be mine forever. My favorite part though, is the fleece. I know...a fleece in Florida? I must be from the Pacific Northwest. At least I can wear it in the winter. This is the picture on the back:

I make my roommates jealous by wearing it around the apartment.

Happy Fourth of July!

Love, Magic Kingdom