December 14, 2015 - Celebration & Orlando, FL

Wow! Again, we slept in til 9 am. 

We visited the Basilica of the National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe that was built in 1980's. It is at 8300 Vineland Ave in Orlando, FL.  The architecture is wonderful and impressive. The main church can seat 2,000 people, with standing room for many more.  The diocese decided to have it built to welcome Catholic tourists when they visit the attractions in Orlando. Besides the main church there is a beautiful Rosary Garden and there is a path of stones that are laid out in the shape of a rosary.  The garden has flowers, small ponds and Florida landscaping. After the death of Pope John Paul II a large bronze statue was added in the Garden. There are few bronze sculptures outside of the church. 

The Rosary Garden

St. Micahel the Archangel

We went to Colonial Photo & Hobby at 634 N. Mills Ave. It is a great camera store that has a lot of stuff in stock. Salespeople were great, very helpful and patient. Lots of stuff to choose from. They had a tripod that Edith had been looking for, but it is not in her budget right now.  However, she bought a selfie stick that is specially designed for Erwin’s IPhone 6+.

Not too far from Colonial Photo is Lake Eola.  Anytime we are in Orlando we always visit the lake because it is a very popular area to see swans and ducks.  A nice path to walk around the lake.  There were not as many swans as the last time we visited.   New sculptures were added. One of them is 40 feet long and is made of limestone and earth and is titled "Muse of Discovery".  One of the maintenance guys, who happened to finish adding Christmas lights to the Muse, instructed us how we were supposed to sit in the hand and watch the lady's eye for a while and see if she communes with you telepathically. 

Great Blue Heron

While we were casually walking along there were two black swans doing courting/mating ritual on the water.  Of course, we stopped to watch the action and it was fantastic to see how it was done. 

Black Swans doing courting ritual

We wanted to visit other places, but were already dead tired, so we headed back to the resort.  After supper we did not go anywhere, so we just stayed put and rested.

By the way we cut off cable service for TV more than two years ago.  Well, the room has a TV and we turned it on to watch some shows.  Oh boy, we realized we did not miss anything.  Most shows were worthless to watch especially reality shows.