Back to Reality after being on vacation..Part 1

I flew Southwest to Orlando on this plane. I took the photo as the plane was pulling up to the gate as we were waiting to board
I hated leaving Orlando yesterday (Friday, March 16) for home after 9 days.

I loved those long days of sunshine and temperatures in the 80's. We had 1 day of rain, so we went to the outlet malls to shop that Sunday.

So sad,  to come home to 43 degrees, drizzle and gray skies.  I had a very relaxing  and much needed vacation at the condo that my brother, Richard and sister in law, Terry rented. It was so very nice to see so much green, beautiful flowers and birds and just to get away to relax.

The following photos' below,  I took are while on board the air plane flying out of Providence, which really is in the town of Warwick, RI.
seated and waiting for

every0ne to be boarded at Providence
taken on the way to Florida. I was seated in back of the wing.
cloud photo that I took from my window seat on my flight to Orlando. The plane ride was quite bumpy, but we arrived a 1/2 hour earlier than expected. I arrived in Florida...3/8/2012, at 10:15. My brother, Richard picked me up from the airport. When I landed it was 82 and sunny. Wonderful!!!!
The condo we stayed at had many pools, kiddie pools, hot tubs, playgrounds, mini golf, tennis and basket ball courts, restaurants, bars, a market, and a kids activity center. There was so much to see and do right at the resort. It was wonderful for my niece, Trish her husband, Ronnie, the twins and baby Cassie.
  
I took mostly pictures of flowers, animals and birds this trip.
Below are some of my flower pictures
beautiful red hibiscus were in bloom everywhere
Bottle Brush 

see the bug on the flower. This may be some type of lily.

don't know what this flowering shrub is either..do you?
Azalea's were blooming all over the resort grounds
pretty pink and white hibiscus reminds me of a pinwheel.  
another flowering tree that I don't what it was.

Below:

These are the seed pods hanging from the tree with the pretty clusters of yellow flowers.

Bird of Paradise blossom on big tree
orchids..photo taken at Epcot

orchids taken at Epcot

taken at Epcot reflections on the water.
 

taken at Longhorn Restaurant in Orlando.

beautiful orange yellow Canna Lily growing in the  edge of the water at the condo

Bougainvillea

shrimp plant

 

Bird photos I took:
I fed these mallards everyday and they would follow me quacking to be fed.
mama Mallard duck with her babies at waters edge in one of the ponds at the condo
baby mallard ducklings
more baby mallard ducks swimming with some yellow ducklings
baby mallard ducks swimming with their mama. The ducklings weren't very old.
baby mallard going into the water.
great blue heron. I watched so many beautiful birds at the Sheraton Vistana condo resort we stayed at.
ripples in the water
white egret
white egret and male mallard duck

white egret..so regal looking 
little blue heron
little blue heron on the hunt for fish. I kept snapping pictures as he walked along the waters edge in back of our condo. 
 
male hooded merganser
this poor Muscovy duck that was at the condo had wing problems, but it could still fly.
flamingo's at Sea World
 
Taken at Sea World..pelican sitting on her nest with mate watching

Now for some photos of squirrels, a fish spawning in one of the ponds at the condo, chameleons and other little lizards.
The photo of a gecko was taken at night on the outside of a restaurant building, but he moved so fast, I was only able to capture part of his body. See his suction cupped feet?
my little friend as I sat by the pool

this little guy was going after his dinner...a worm..Yuck. Taken at Sea World

taken outside on a building a big ugly cockroach. He moved so fast it was difficult to even get this picture.

as I sat drinking coffee in the screened porch every morning I would see numerous squirrels. I fed them bread, and they were really quite tame. The squirrels would scamper along the walk ways and on the tops of the fences.

 
A fish spawning on the bottom of the pond in a spot it cleared away to lay it's eggs. Taken at the condo.

Just want to share one more photo with you today. The photo below is for real. I couldn't believe the price of gas at this Shell station, and I made my brother pull in so I could take a picture of the sign. Gas was mostly $3.72-$3.93 around the Orlando area. Not many people were stopping to fill up their tanks at this station. Geesh, talk about price gouging.I was told several gas stations had pricing like this the closer you got to the airport. Guess the gas station owner really want to stick it to the tourist who have to fill up the gas tanks before turning in their rental cars at the airport.

I will add more pictures as I get them downloaded off of my camera over the next few days. I hope you enjoyed my vacation photos. Until tomorrow.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!
Elaine