It has become a tradition in my family to visit the Gaylord Palms in Orlando, Florida to see the ICE! Exhibit as well as the acrobat and light shows.  We love the festive atmosphere as well as the variety of restaurants available at this resort.  The 2016 exhibit is over but the atrium view rooms where you can see the shows start to book up several months in advance.  This year's theme was  "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and was one of my favorite so far and I wanted to share my photos.

The Holiday Lights event at the Florida Botanical Gardens in Largo Florida began on November 27th and ends on December 31st in 2015.  The hours are 5:30 -9:30 daily.  This beautiful display of tropical gardens is free, but they suggest a donation of $4.00 for everyone over the age of 13.

Not only are there beautiful decorations, but there is an array of free entertainers every night.  You can see a list of entertainers here:  2015 entertainment.  Santa Claus is also available to visit with and take photos!  This event is made possible by more than 450 volunteers, donations, and very generous sponsors.  It is the largest fund raiser of the year for the gardens.  

It would have been really difficult to use a tripod (for me at least) during this event as there were a lot of people there on the night my husband and I visited.  I did my best to capture some images.  Overall, I thought this was a really fun event that I would recommend to anyone and I can't wait to go again next year!

 Thanks so much for stopping by!  Please let me know if you have any questions as I love to hear from my readers.  I hope you are enjoying the holiday season.  Have a wonderful week and enjoy the final days of 2015! 

~Michelle

It's become a tradition for my husband and I to visit the Gaylord Palm's ICE exhibit in Kissimmee, Florida during the holiday season each year.  I really like staying at the hotel.  There is so much to do at the hotel itself as well as the Kissimmee area.

The Ice exhibit's theme for 2015 is "Twas the Night Before Christmas".  The event started on November 24th and ends on January 3rd 2016 so you still have time to go!  The prices for admission can be found here:  ICE Exhibit Packages and Prices.  Parking is an additional $20 at the Kissimmee, Florida location.  Please have your own gloves as they don't give them out this year!  It took my hands a good fifteen minutes to thaw after exiting the "The Frostbite Factory".

To make the ICE exhibit at Gaylord Palms requires 36 truckloads over a 3 week period of ice and several artists from Harbin, China which is near Siberia and temperatures fall to an average of 2 degrees in the winter.  I can't imagine having the skill and carving these awesome sculptures in 9 degrees F.

Here is the link for reservations or more information about the Gaylord Palms Convention Center.

 Here is a photo of my husband and I in the chilly entrance of the exhibit:

Here are just a few of my favorite ice sculptures:  It's not easy to take photos as it's a little dark in some of the rooms and there are a lot of people standing around the sculptures and having friends or family take photos of them in front of these beautiful works of art.

Here is one of the artists hard at work building/maintaining these gorgeous sculptures:


This crystal clear nativity scene is at the very end of the exhibit:






There are four ice slides.  There is an extra fee for them.

As I stated previously, The Gaylord Palms Hotel is very beautifully decorated, has a lot of restaurants and shows.  Here is a gigantic Christmas tree which took my breath away!
I watched several VERY talented acrobats performing neat the lovely Christmas tree.  Again, it wasn't easy to take photos.  Next year I would LOVE to stay in one of the hotel rooms overlooking this incredible courtyard!

Here is a dome and a sculpture I found just walking around:

There were a lot of small alligators and turtles in one of the ponds:


Thanks for stopping by my blog.  I hope you and are enjoying this holiday season.  Have a great week! 

~Michelle

Above photo is of myself, my father and my daughter who was visiting from out of state.

One of my favorite parts of Florida is the Naples area which is in the southwest part of the state.  I have relatives  there including my father so I get to visit the area often.  There is a lot to do in this area including some beautiful beaches. 

One of my favorite things to do in the Naple's area is to go on one of the many sightseeing cruises that go along the coastline.  I have cruised on the Naple's Princess two times.  One time was in the afternoon and the weather got quite stormy, but I was able to get some cool looking photographs of some crazy looking storm clouds (see photo below). 

The second cruise we went on was a sunset dinner cruise,  The Princess yacht has a full dining room where they were serving a prime rib dinner.  It would have been nice to have dinner on the boat, but I'm a vegetarian so we opted to go on one of the other decks and just enjoy the sunset.  There was a bar and they sold appetizer type foods so you could eat even if you didn't purchase the dinner, 

Please click on the following link if you want more information about the many cruises available and their timetable:   Naples Princess Cruises . 

TIP:  You can often get great deals for these cruises through GROUPON !

For other activities to do in Naples click on this link:  Things to do in Naples

For those of you who are interested in the nightlife in the area click on this link:  Nightlife in Naples

  Here is a photo of the yacht we sailed on:

My father and daughter on the yacht:

The Naples coastline is really beautiful and the architecture always amazes me.  Here are a few of the beautiful homes we saw as we cruised along the coast:

Here is a photo seen on the first cruise I took in Naples of a cloud that looks more dangerous than it really was.:

I will leave you with some photos of the gorgeous sunset we saw:

Have you been on any short cruises anywhere?  Please feel free to leave any comments or questions.  I treasure all of the comments I receive and reply to them as quickly as I can.  I hope you all have a wonderful week

~Michelle

During my visit to Miami Florida in June 2015, I had the pleasure of attending a baseball game at the Marlins new stadium.  This is a really new stadium that just opened in the spring of 2012.  The Marlins were playing the New York Yankees that night and it was a sold-out game.  I'm a Yankees fan so I was a little disappointed when they were losing eight to nothing in the first inning.  I know it's team can't win every game but it's not really much fun to watch once one team is winning or losing by that much from the very beginning.                                    

.  I thought the new stadium was absolutely beautiful.   It has a capacity of nearly 37,000 people and  has a retractable roof which many people feel has increased attendance to the games tremendously.   I love how you can see the skyline through the windows and the home run Marlin decoration that goes into action when the team scores a home run.  You can see a video of it in action here on Youtube:  Home run .  Some people see it as over the top or cheesy.  I thought it was fun and I loved the added color to the stadium. 



I usually try and photograph the players, but I was busy catching up with a friend I hadn't seen in years.  My favorite player was not playing in this game since the National League doesn't allow designated hitters.  Yes, I'm an Alex Rodriguez fan and I hope not too many of you stop reading this post here :)
We had great seats!

I would ask you to caption what the group of guys was saying in the row behind us in the photo below.  The score was 8-0 in the first inning and they were not happy about that being Yankees' fans as well.  I want to keep my blog family friendly though ;)
I'm not terribly pleased (at all) with this photo of the Miami cityscape, but I thought it was gorgeous with all the different colors and especially the red building seen on on the left.
Thanks for your visit.  I would  like to hear which baseball stadiums you have visited and are your favorite.  Have a great week. 
~Michelle