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Holy Crap!!! Haven't been able to post in a while. Should be able to get some freetime this week. Still have lots to post on my visits to Flordia, California, and Nevada. More stories coming up soon...

Boat Ride

This is my last weekend here in Florida and so the guys were cool enough to take me on a boat ride around. Can't really say you've been to Florida without spending a day just chilling in the middle of the ocean in the blistering florida sun... so I went with them. Besides, what was really my alternative? Stay in my room and read a book I've read twice already?

It turned to be another fun day. Pretty choppy water at first, but awesome ride nonetheless. We spotted a pod of dolphins and even saw several rays jumping out of the water. It was awesome. Nobody even knew that they did that... heck I've never seen rays do that even in Animal Kingdom. Of course, no one ever got it on film or camera. At one time, Steve jumped into the ocean to try to play with the dolphins.. but I guess they were only interested in playing with the boat's wake and quickly swam away just when he was approaching them.

We had lunch at Barnacle Phil's at North Captiva. It's a small restaurant in an island... dont really know if it's accessible by land. Probably not. They served some pretty mean jambalaya and some really tasty ribs. The whole place had 1 dollar bills stapled all over the walls and cieling as mementos from previous customers. Of course we all did ourselves, but instead of clipping another dollar bill... I used a peso bill. They now have the first and only philippine peso bill there... signed by yours truly.

Took a pic of this direction sign post at the docks...



And then this egret(?) who was so distracted by some fish bait at the back of the nearby boat that he let me come really close and take a nice pic...



An otter actually beat him to the fish bait. I quickly ran around to try to get a shot and I startled the little guy and he was actually staring at me for a good 3 seconds and I couldnt get the camera working. By the time it was on, the little flipper had already jumped out of the boat and back into the ocean. Would have been nice to show it to my daughter.

This is the boat docked at North Captiva...



And this is a pic of a mini schnauzer that just happened to be in a small novelty shop there. If my landlord would've allowed me, this is the breed that I would've gotten my daughter. Well, ok maybe my second choice after a Jack Russell Terrier.

Busch Gardens

During my first weekend here in Florida, the guys at the office were kind enough to schedule a trip to Busch Gardens in Tampa. It was a great themepark complete with their very own zoo and serengeti park. They had about 7 rollercoaster rides in there... some week ones, but some of them were pretty awesome.

This was one of the best, and it's called Sheikra...



This is actually the beginning of the ride and they hang you on top for like 10 or 15 seconds. Of course, there really is no other way to ride this fucking thing except to be on front... and I actually rode this twice. Both times queueing up on the extra longer line just to be on front row. And during both the times that I was dangling for my life... I was thinking "Holy Crap.. what have I done!!!"

This pic actually shows the curve way too much. Coz from the experience itself, I swear that the 200-ft. drop was more than 90 degrees coz you would actually tilt inwards.

Most of the day was basically spent going through all the best rollercoaster rides first... and then going around to view all the animals. Took some good pics for my daughter and made some interesting discoveries myself. For example this picture of a sleeping hyena...



It doesnt quite show it, but I was surprised how big these fuckers really are. I mean you always see them in National Geographic or Animal Planet and I always wondered how they posed any threat or at least competition to Lions on the african wild. And then I see them up close and see that they arent really like dogs... which is what exactly they look like in TV. They really are huge... and almost the size of the lions themselves... well.. ok maybe not, I think a better comparison would be a Great Dane with a body of a St. Bernard. Yeah, thats it.

And then check out this gorilla scratching his ass...



And this tiger taking a piss...