Imperial Swan Hotel And Suites Lakeland

Trin-i-tee 5:7 As In T57 Did A New CD!! Call Love, Peace, And Joy At Christmas And It's Excited!! I love The Trin-i-tee Look With There R&B Style And The Soul Look I Love Many Of There Songs Like The Christmas Song And This Christmas Those Are My Favorties.

... concert was beginning -- there are two everyday (at 1pm and 3pm). It was a program of Patriotic Music (as today is Veteran's Day), so I decided to begin instead at the Visitor's Center, watching the brief and fairly cheesy video. It did provide some background about the gardens and tower. Then, I started up the path to the top of the hill. The gardens definitely reflect local plants -- and paths wander through the palms and flowering shrubs as one climbs the hill ...

... chasing dolphins around the Gulf of Mexico on my uncles new toy (a cool boat!) the water is pretty clear (and frighteningly shallow at times without warning!). We were lucky to see a stingray flapping around and also not only to see but hear squeaking and just about touch some dolphins! They were so beautiful, coming right up to the boat and splashing around.

On halloween eve it was time to exercise the vocal cords and we were whisked off by the older cuz's visiting ...

... Wasn't all that pretty, but if you didn't know I did it, you might not be able to tell. The glue was the same color as the shoe. Over the course of the next two weeks, it did begin to separate again, but they made it until the end!
The airport shuttle was supposed to arrive by 9 or 9:15, but I think it was closer to 9:30. We got onto the shuttle, which was also loaded with other passengers. I had been hoping that they weren't all going ...

... that day.

Saturday morning, we will head to Kreuztal, Germany to visit Julia and her family.

Wednesday, we head down to Hanau to start the Fairy Tale Road with stops in Steinau an der Strasse and Kassel.

Thursday takes us to Göttingen, Sababurg, Bodenwerder, and Hameln.

Friday is Hannover and a bit of a rest.

Saturday we take ...

... bed (at least I hope)!
So we headed to my parents' house to say goodbye. There we got to meet George, the CUTEST little chihauha (is that spelled right)? He is SO CUTE!! I want to take him home with us when we get back. Mom & Dad are just fostering him, but I told her that I want him when we get home ...

... crossing the Atlantic on a flight headed for Dublin.

I’m flying Aer Lingus, and the quality of the flight has surprisingly impressed me. Not that my expectations were too high, as I purchased my roundtrip ticket from Tampa to Dublin for the price of a large Coach tote bag. The seats are spacious and comfortable with TVs in the headrest (in place of the pay phones that nobody ever used) that allow you to select your own movies, pre-recorded shows ...

Left Lakeland on our first leg of our trip rayandchrista

... and eat there. We had to wait awhile for our flight to get in, so Troy and I read a car magazine and a France trip planning magazine to deal with the wait. Sean and Jim got on the Internet and were surfing the 'net. On the flight back, we saw the Hoover Dam from the air and the Grand Canyon. Too cool. We had a layover in Albuquerque, and then a really full flight back to Orlando. Poor Jim and Troy we crammed in their row with, let's just say, several people that ...

... and Sign cards in hand. We were then instructed to wait in the boarding area in a large room with at least 1000 other guests. The room was kept cool and there were plenty of drinks and snacks available if you wanted them. We kept ourselves amused and in no time our group number was called to board the ship.

When we made it on board, the first thing I wanted to do was see my ...