Central Florida

The "boil" pool at Blue Spring State Park

Way back when explorers were first getting to know Florida, they sent a party up the St. Johns river to find the source.  When they got to the area near present day Orange City, they followed the short tributary and found that it dead-ended in a blue pool that had occasional "boils" surfacing.  They had found the warm spring that feeds this little creek.  But the manatees had found it eons ago.  Manatees don't do well in cold water (below about 60F is deleterious to their health), so in winter they swim a couple of hundred miles up the river to this warm sanctuary.  The Blue Spring State Park provides a board walk along this stretch and we must have seen well over 100 individuals (which you can see if you look carefully in the photo below which Kathy took).

Manatees hanging out in the "hot tub"

As it happened, we also saw a Bald Eagle up close and personal when it swooped in just a few feet away (twelve perhaps) to harass a Cooper's Hawk, which later perched less than ten feet from us.  There was lots of other wildlife including alligators, anhingas, black vultures, white ibises, etc. etc.

We really had a very enjoyable morning there.  It felt really good to get out into the fresh air after all that bridge.  But it didn't stop Kim and I from going straight back in to the two-session open pairs at 1pm.  We did fairly well, although we definitely could easily have done better if tiredness hadn't intervened again.

The timeshare condo which we had this time at Cypress Point was really nice.  There was a very nice pool with large jacuzzi which was only a stone's throw from our door.  The apartment itself was palatial and included its own jacuzzi.  There were about five TVs altogether, none of which ever got switched on.  Furthermore, we also got lucky with the car from Alamo.  Not only are there no lines now (because they have an automated check-in kiosk) but they are also on-airport.  When we got to the compact row, we could choose any car, including one of several minivans.  That turned out to be a great boon as we several times had quite a few in the car with us.  And all for less than $20 per day :)  Alamo gets kudos from us!

Chef Remy

Our favorite place to eat was Tommy Bahamas' which we visited three times.  It was a 15-20 minute drive so wasn't the most convenient for the tournament but was well worth it.  They do a $33 prix-fixe menu which has smaller portions than the regular a la carte menu: perfect for people who have to go back to the tournament and think!  I had a great Dark and Stormy on the one evening we weren't going back to play bridge.  We also ate at Roy's which was actually even better than Tommy's and Bahama Breeze which I liked more than my fellows.

Our day at Epcot was very enjoyable.  No lines, lots of fun, and two pretty good meals (Chefs de France and the brand new La Hacienda de San Angel).  The former was enhanced by a visit from Chef Remy (Ratatouille) - see photo above.  The firework show at the end of the day was really terrific - I think they've improved it quite a bit in recent years.  At right is a picture of two happy Disney-goers at the start of the day.  Note the magic sunbeam which was a good sign.

Flying High

Not everything about air travel is increasingly irritating.  Yes, we have more complex scanners to go through, and we have to pay for baggage.  And of course, meals are a thing of the past.  Long gone are the days that you could run to your gate with 15 mins to flight time and get on the plane.

But with laptop computers and, now, wi-fi on the plane, I can sit here at 34,000' a little East of Washington D.C. on my way to Orlando and the fall North American Bridge Championships and write this blog :)

I've been chatting to Miranda on gtalk, I've checked my email and facebook.  It's all good.

This is my first time flying with Airtran and the experience has been pretty good.  Also my first time on a Boeing 717.  Must be one of the shortest take-off jets I've ever been on.  We'd barely made it to the half-way point when we were up and away.  I tried to take a photo with my cellphone of downtown Boston but yesterday I upgraded the iPhone version and it took about 10 seconds to update my library - then the view was gone.  Oh well.

We're really looking forward to our bridge experiences this week.  This is the first time that we've planned to enter all "National" events.  Usually we try one or maybe two National events and spend the rest of the time in the Regional events.

But our philosophy is that we can enjoy regional competition at, well, Regional tournaments.  The only opportunity to go up against the best in the world is at one of these NABC tournaments.  Why waste it?  As I'm fond of pointing out, Bridge is one of the few competitive endeavors where you can find yourself playing against current world champions without any qualifiers.  Some claim that poker is like that, but I'm not sure if that's really true.

Kim and I are playing with different partners in the first event, the Life Master Pairs.  In fact, Kim will be playing in the Women's LM Pairs.  Our partners are a married couple, Dave and Donna.  Kim and Donna have played lots before, but I've only had four sessions with Dave.  It's going to be interesting!  The Life Master Pairs (and Womens) are four-session events.  About half the field will make it to the third and fourth sessions.  So far, we've always managed to get through but who knows.  The competition is tough!  The good news is that if you get any points at all, they are "platinum" points.

Kim is busily planning a day at DisneyWorld which is scheduled for the third day of the Blue Ribbon Pairs.  But if we make it to the third day (wouldn't that be nice), we would have to go a different day, I guess.

So, we have a busy time ahead and all so far augurs well.  We'll keep you posted.  I probably will be posting a few bridge blogs so if you want to stray into that territory, go ahead :)