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Today we arrived in Orlando at about 6:00 pm. We checked into our hotel, The Country Inn & Suites and got settled into our room. We booked the Jacuzzi suite, which had a big Jacuzzi whirl tub right in the middle of the room. After we were settled in we went to Downtown Disney to eat dinner.

We decided to eat at T-Rex, a restaurant kind of like Rainforest Cafe, but themed around dinosaurs. The inside is amazing with moving dinosaurs and lights that make entire rooms change colors. Since there was an hour wait, we walked around the shops for a bit until it was time to eat. We finally ate dinner around 10:00 pm and it was very good. Dessert was even better. The portions were huge and we suggest going there with a bigger group because when we were done we were stuffed and still had leftovers. After dinner we walked around a little more and then headed back to the hotel.

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Today Karen and I took went to the Seminole Indian Reservation with Mimi. I have never been out there and we decided today to take the hour drive and see what they had to offer. Initially we were going to go on an air boat ride, but then we decided to go on the swamp buggy tour. The Indian reservation is really cool and has lots of animals including a black bear and panther. It was a fun day but I still want to go on that air boat ride.

   

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Seminole_Indian_Reservation.zip (810 KB)

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The last day of geocaching started out with a C.I.T.O. event. CITO stands for Cache In, Trash Out. Basically it means you always leave a cache site cleaner then when you found it. You can clean up a little at each cache site while you are geocaching, or you can even have C.I.T.O. events where lots of people get together to clean up an entire area. This particular C.I.T.O. event was put together to clean out all the vines and weeds that have been taking over the shore line of the Loxahatchee River. About 50 people showed up and we all started to pull out vines and weeds from along the river. In about 2 hours we pulled out almost all of the weeds. You could actually see the river now. After the event we hit the trails again to find a few more caches.

Everyone who camped out had to leave that afternoon but Karen and I stayed in Jupiter and extra night. So after we were done geocaching we headed back to the hotel and I took Karen to dinner at a nice seafood restaurant overlooking the intercoastal and the Jupiter Beach Lighthouse. We had a really great time and met lots of really great people. We got a total of 67 geocaches even though there were over 250 in the entire park. We plan on going back a few times in the next few months just to get some more geocaches that we couldn't get during the event. We also can not wait to go to Cacheapalooza 5!

           

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Cacheapalooza_4_-_Day_3.zip (20830 KB)

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Saturday was the main geocaching day. We started early and head out to the trails. It rained all day long, but that was OK because it kept us nice and cool. We ended up riding our bikes 15 miles thru the woods and found about 45 geocaches. For dinner everyone that attended the event got together for a pot luck dinner and BBQ. About 150 attended and we had so much food. There was also a raffle going on during dinner and although we bought tickets, we didn't win anything. After the dinner we headed back to Steve and Sharon's camp site and lite a fire. It was freezing out so we kept warm by marking shmores. Later that night we attended another night cache which required us to use flashlights and find little glowing markers in the woods. We followed these markers for about 3 miles until we found the cache. We were the first people to find it out of a group of about 50 so we got to keep the actual cache container which was an old ammo can. At around 1:00 am, we made it back to the hotel, took nice warm showers and went to bed. One last day of geocaching awaited us.

                         

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Cacheapalooza_4_-_Day_2.zip (3999 KB)

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Cacheapalooza is a big geocaching event held every year in Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Hobe Sound. Since Karen and I just started geocaching we decided this was a must do event. A friend of ours Steve is also into geocaching and he was going to attend the event too with his son, Steve Jr. We also planned on meeting a few other local cachers at the park that we had met and talked to online. Steve and everyone else was camping out in tents for the weekend, but Karen and I were staying at the Jupiter Beach Resort and Spa just up the street. After we checked into the hotel we went to the park and met up with everyone. We all hopped on our bikes and headed out to grab some caches before it got dark. We had a nice bike ride and got about 15 caches.

Later that night there was a night geocaching event, where we had to look around for caches using flashlights. This event was really fun and was a different kind of geocaching experience for us. We then headed back to the hotel and called it a night since we had a long day of geocaching ahead of us.

           

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Cacheapalooza_4_-_Day_1.zip (15435 KB)

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Tim & Michelle's Annual Spooktacular

The famous Halloween party is here. This year the theme was masquerade. But before we get to that has anything been missing this trip? Auburndale Pizza! And I dragged all 12 of us there! It was a really great lunch and everyone loved the pizza and garlic rolls. After lunch we walked around downtown Auburndale and went to the local art fair. Then it was time to go back to the hotel and get ready for the party.

Karen had found us really great masks when she went to Key West a few months ago. I wore the mask with a shirt and jeans but Karen got all dressed up. I actually picked out and put together the entire costume. She looked amazing and was the sexiest, prettiest, best dressed person at the party. Michelle really outdid herself with decorations and food. She had games to play and prizes to be won. We had a blast and partied till about 2am.

Here is a link to the full photo album from the trip and party. http://picasaweb.google.com/fla030/HalloweenParty2009?feat=directlink

             

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Halloween_Vacation_Day_3.zip (25533 KB)

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On Friday we got to sleep in a little bit. Everyone was kind of doing there own thing today and Karen and I wanted to geocache around Auburndale some so we put on our hiking boots and set out for some trails in the area. We found 3 different geocaches in about a 2 mile radius so we decided to go to that area. The first one was an easy find and the other 2 were off a really nice trail called the Teco Auburndale Trail. It is a really nice trail and we would love to come back soon to bike the trail from start to finish. The last geocache we found marked the 100th geocache that Karen and I have found!

After geocaching we went back to the hotel and got ready for Howl-O-Scream. We met at Tim's house and 13 of us headed out to Busch Gardens to get scared. We had all purchased the freight feast which is a big buffet before Howl-O-Scream starts. After you eat and see a show, you have an hour in the park before it opens up for everyone else. We were able to hit 5 of the 7 haunted houses really quick before it got busy.

The haunted houses were really cool and we had fun going thru them and scaring everyone else. (Tim and I are mean). We walked around the park, saw some of the shows and went on some of the rides. (Well they did, I don't do rides). We got home around 1am and went to sleep. Party tomorrow.............

           

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Halloween_Vacation_Day_2.zip (19117 KB)

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We woke up early to pack and get ready for a 3 hour trip up to Tim & Michelle's house in Auburndale, FL. Biagio and his wife Michelle were also driving up with Biagio's sister Marie and her husband Trevor. We left around 11:00 am and met Biagio, Michelle, Trevor, & Marie at a Wendy's in Clewiston for lunch. After lunch everyone started for the hotel in Auburndale. Karen and I wanted to go geocaching along the way up, so we stopped off at several places along US 27 to grab some geocaches.

We arrived in Auburndale around 5:00 pm and checked into our hotel, the Best Western. Biagio & Michelle and Marie & Trevor also stayed in the same hotel. The hotel was in a perfect location and was only 5 minutes away from Tim & Michelle's house. After we settled into the hotel we all met over at Chili's across the street, where Tim's wife Michelle joined us along with our friend Kim. We enjoyed seeing everyone again and after dinner we all went to met Tim and Kerry at Cypress Lanes Bowling Alley. They are in a bowling league there and have tournaments on Thursday nights. After the tournaments were over we all bowled together and just goofed off. The first day was nice and relaxing and we went back to the hotel after to get ready for a really busy next 2 days.

         

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Halloween_Vacation_Day_1.zip (17190 KB)

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I can't wait for this years Howl-O-Scream at Busch Gardens. It will be Karen's first time going. She will be soooo scared!!

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This Chophouse in Haines City, FL was so so good. We waited 45 min to get in but it was so worth it. Went with Tim & Michelle, Kerry & 2 other people they bowl with.

   

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Mannys_Chophouse.zip (1352 KB)

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