To Florida and Back… Again!

We got home yesterday evening from another trip to Florida.  We’ve made a lot more trips to Florida than usual this year, but this is our traditional trek for Thanksgiving.  The Farmer’s oldest daughter and her family live there, and his oldest son also makes the trek, so we have a big family Thanksgiving.

Once upon a time we made the trip in one day.  But 11-12 hours driving is more than we want to do these days, so on the way down we stopped in Valdosta, Georgia.  We decided to really treat ourselves, and went to the Austin’s Cattle Company Steakhouse to eat that evening. 

Besides excellent food and service, they have a  fun decor.  On the wall behind our booth was a Santa Buffalo . . .

For whatever reason, that kind of tickled my fancy.  But near the front, they had something I liked even more, a marine aquarium.

What really intrigued me was the black, spiny creature.  At first I though it was something like a sea anemone, but then I saw it looking back at me!

  After some research, I discovered it’s a black sea urchin.  It was too cool to watch it move across the bottom of the aquarium.

The Farmer liked the old coke machine in the foyer. 

I think it reminded him of the “good old days” when he was a kid.

I’m thinking it’s been a while since you could buy a coke for 6 cents!

Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies

When we were in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, last month having a grand time with the grandkid and kids, we spent one morning at Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies.  It’s one of my favorite places to visit when we go to that area.

One of the first things you see when you walk in is the kids area on the lower level.  It’s a pretty neat place!

There were some places Ellie could get up close and check out the fish.

Sometimes she needed a little more help from Dad to be able to get a close look.

Sometimes the fish looked back at her.

Other times the fish seemed to be looking at themselves.

And sometimes things got a little crabby. . .

And remember the first picture showing the kids area?  Here’s Ellie inside one of the aquariums enjoying a close encounter of the finny kind.

We all got to travel through a sort of tunnel to look at fish all around us. There were lots of these sawfish.

Some of the fish were HUGE!

The jellyfish were kind of interesting to watch.

And some fish are just strangely beautiful, though deadly.

Other creatures were just beautifully colorful.

And others were just strange. . .

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There were just so many fish and critters there I can’t post pictures of them all!  Poison dart frogs, mudskippers, four-eyed fish, reef fish, anenomes, piranha, catfish, leafy seahorse, octopus, Alaskan crabs, and all kinds of sharks and rays.  Oh yes!  And they have a new penguin exhibit also.

And a whole lot more I can’t remember right now. It was a great way to spend some time and neat to see all the different creatures!

Parrot Mountain, Part II

I had so many pictures of parrots from Parrot Mountain and Gardens, I just had to share a few more.  Here are some of the birds in the “Parrot Garden”, where you could touch and feed them.

 This bird was a beautiful blue, and liked to do a trick pretending to be an eagle.  Being a macaw, it is a BIG bird.

There were also some smaller birds in the garden, like these Sun Conures.

These birds are also known as the Sun Parakeet (Aratinga solstitialis).  It’s native to the north-eastern coastal forests of South America, specifically eastern Venezuela, North-eastern Brazil and Northern Amazonas.  They can live for 25 to 30 years.  One thing interesting about this bird besides the beautiful colors is that a sun conure is noted for its loud squawking compared to its relatively small size. It is also capable of mimicking humans though not as well as some larger parrots.

Then there were the birds in one of the “bird cottages”, or smaller aviaries, some of them quite big birds, like these Green Wing Macaws.

It strikes me as kind of funny to call them “Green Wing” macaws, when their predominant color is red.  Yes, they have a row of green feathers on their wings.  Still, I think I’d have dubbed them red macaws, or at least red and green macaws.

This little bird, however, is more appropriately named.

Mustached Parakeet is a very apt name with that black bar over top of the beak.  It’s a pretty bird, too.

This bird comes from the Himalayas and southern China to Indonesia.  This is a medium-sized parrot, averaging 13 – 16 inches in length (33 – 40 cm).  In most subspecies of Moustached Parakeets, the males have red beaks and the females have black.

The Rose-breasted cockatoos were another pretty bird.

One of them was intensely curious about us, and kept climbing around trying to keep close.

This last bird is not a parrot, and I don’t think much of anyone keeps them as pets either.  But they are interesting birds!

Do you know what this is?

Here’s a hint – these birds are terrestrial kingfishers native to Australia and New Guinea.  Their call is described as sounding uncannily like loud, echoing human laughter.  These birds are carnivorous, and will eat lizards, snakes, insects, mice, other small birds, and raw meat.  So have you guessed yet?

Yes, it’s a Kookaburra bird!

There were just so many different types of birds at Parrot Mountain!  It was a treat to see so many in one place.

I’d love to go back!

Parrot Mountain and Gardens

Parrot Mountain is just what it says… you climb up a STEEP road to the top of a mountain to see LOTS of parrots!  We’ve been to the Pigeon Forge / Gatlinburg area of east Tennessee many times, but this is the first time we’ve visited Parrot Mountain.  If I have my way, it certainly won’t be the last!

Nestled on four acres of beautiful landscaped gardens, there are hundreds and hundreds of beautiful tropical birds at Parrot Mountain and Gardens.  I’ve never seen so many macaws, cockatoos, and African Grey parrots in one place!  It was amazing!

One reason they have so many parrots is because they are also the Wings of the Smokies Foundation, and provide a home for abused or neglected birds.  When you consider the average life expectancy of a parrot is from 40-80 years, depending on the type, many parrots outlive their owners. 

And sadly, many people get a parrot because they are so colorful and seem like they’d be a neat pet, without any idea what it’s like to live with a parrot.  They are wonderful creatures, but there’s no denying they can be noisy, messy and that beak can inflict a painful bite!  If you don’t realize what it’s like, or how to properly care for a parrot, you may decide living with one is not for you after all!

There are all kinds of tropical birds sitting on open perches lining the pathways.  There are also big wire aviaries with many birds of the same species.  I saw one with African Grey parrots, and there must have been a dozen birds in there, all in perfect feather.  (If you know anything about African Greys, they are notorious for feather plucking!)

There were also some pairs, like these Eclectus Parrots. . .

I’ve always thought they were kind of cool because the males and females are totally different colors, making them look like two different species.

They had some peacocks, too, plus this exotic looking pheasant-type bird.

I’m not sure if there was a plaque describing that bird.  I don’t remember seeing one.  Getting the picture was a challenge.  The cage wires made some blurs in a lot of the pictures I took.

Close by is the door to the “secret garden” with aviary netting over top so birds can fly.  At the time we were there, we only saw two birds, both toucans.

Then there was a ‘bird garden’ with around 70 birds on open perches.  The Farmer let one walk onto his arm.

Of course, once it was there, it didn’t want to leave!  In fact, it kept sticking it’s leg out wanting to be picked up.  I would have liked to take it home. . .

Some of the birds talked or sang or did tricks.  It was so much fun to see them all!  There was also a lory aviary next door. You can feed the lories nectar from a cup in your hand.

And one of my favorite places was the baby bird nursery.  Talk about temptation!  All the little African Grey parrots and cockatoos, and a few other species also.  There was a little blue parrotlet (pocket parrot) I would have really loved to stick in my pocket and bring home.

Unfortunately, no picture taking was allowed in the nursery.  And there were just so many birds at Parrot Mountain, I can’t begin to include all the pictures or descriptions here.

All I can say is if you like birds, and you are in the area, do NOT miss a trip to Parrot Mountain.

Another take on the Fiddlers Convention. . .

To tell the truth, I’m a tad ambivalent about the video I did yesterday.  I like being able to add the music, but the pictures were small in the video, and when you made it full sized, they weren’t very clear.

So here’s a different version, a slideshow.

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(Update 9/6/2013: Sorry, the service I used to make the slideshow went out of business.)