So... it has been awhile-far longer than expected-since I've done one of these. Quite frankly, I've had various ups and downs this year and it's just now that I've felt the motivation to do one of these. During the long weekend coming up will be a separate posts where I mention the various theatrical movies I've seen since late February, as there definitely have been quite a few of those. But, the only negative I'll mention here (besides all the drama still going on in the world, especially since late last week) is that during Mother's Day weekend I did feel rather blue. On that Saturday was the Kentucky Derby and as mom always loved horses, that was a race she looked forward to each year. She would have been quite excited that the ultimate underdog Rich Strike won the race.
I only have a few highlights to share but at least they are worth mentioning. I went to Walt Disney World more than once; the most interesting occasion of those was when I was in Epcot experiencing the annual Flower & Garden Festival. Those always provide scenic beauty and for about a half hour was an aural delight as performing in the concert area was The Commodores. Sure, it was only one of the original members of the band but it still drew a big crowd. The songs played were what you'd expect... except for Brick House, unsurprisingly. Also on that day I visited the new area of the France pavilion that had a new Ratatouille ride. It was a 4D experience and even if the rides that Disney does now seem familiar in design to each other, this one was still fun. A few weeks later I actually saw the Ratatouille movie for the first time and while it's not necessary to enjoy the ride, the context does improve the experience. For such an odd premise it was a very good film.
Late in April I actually hung out with family, some of whom I hadn't seen in years or hadn't met period. They were visiting from across the country, you see... the meet-up was in Vero Beach, a city I hadn't been to in 15 years. A night was spent at a quaint pleasant little resort (I mean, it only had 17 rooms) then the next day a few hours were spent on a boat. It was a neat experience as besides hanging out w/ family, dolphins and manatees were spotted and while I was literally handed a fishing pole out of nowhere to fish for a bit (nothing was caught), even that was fun.
Soda wise, I am glad that Mountain Dew has some new or returning limited edition flavors; the one I'll mention is Purple Thunder. “A berry plum flavor” was not something I was immediately sold on but it was fine. In terms of restaurants & food, not much to report there in terms of new places. Last week I was at the Mexican restaurant Los Magueyes in Wildwood which had fine food but the colorful décor was perfect for what food they offered. While at Disney Springs recently I had ice cream from the recently-opened Salt & Straw (nominally a west coast chain) and naturally that was rather tasty.
I'm sure there are minor experiences that aren't coming to mind right now—the last one I'll mention for now is that just this past weekend I went to a grocery store in the Southeast part of Orlando for the first time. Freshfields Farm is a local thing in a building shaped like a barn where product “directly” from farmers is sold-in this case that is produce, fruits and vegetables. It was interesting to look around at what was available and a few items were purchased. As you can see, I haven't done too much as of late; gas prices is one reason why. I realize the infrastructure is far from being practical for a lot of people but boy do electric cars suddenly look a lot more appealing... a dork that I am, I was excited to see some in the wild: the awesome retro-looking Hyndai Ioniq 5 compact SUV, the Rivian R1T pickup truck (made in Normal, Illinois at the place where they used to build Mitsubishi cars) and the Lucid Air luxury sedan.
As I promised-and this time the promise will be kept-during the 4th of July weekend I'll talk about all the theatrical movies I've experienced for the past 4 plus months.
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