No story about our vacations would be complete without including our trips to Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida. This is where we spent our honeymoon and have returned several times since. There is so much to do in this area that a week’s vacation is barely enough—and Disney is constantly adding more parks and attractions, so there is even more to do each time we visit. Below is Cinderella’s Castle in the Magic Kingdom.

EPCOT Center has always been our favorite park at Disney World.  We have made many visits to Spaceship Earth, listening to Walter Cronkite tell the story of the history of communications.

At the Land Pavilion, one can learn much about the land and the food we eat, from its origins, how it is cultivated, and the basic food groups.

Journey Into Imagination is one of our favorites – Sponsored by Kodak, it explores color and imagination.  Some of our other favorites in Future World are Communicore East and West, which are now called Innoventions and are full of hands-on demonstrations of the latest technology,  Horizons, which explores life in the future, and the Wonders of Life, which explores the human body.

The other half of EPCOT is the World Showcase, where one can learn all about the world’s countries, including Mexico, China, Norway, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Great Britain, Japan and Morocco.  Walking around the World Showcase, one can sample food, drink, and entertainment and see items from different countries.  Many of the countries also have a ride or film that exposes you to the sights and culture of the country.  The restaurants are our favorite part of this park – we have eaten at least once in just about every country and several times at our favorite restaurants, at Mexico, Japan, and China.

EPCOT is a beautiful place at night, with light and fireworks shows, and dancing fountains throughout the park.

Fireworks Over World Showcase Lagoon

In addition to the three major parks, there are several water parks that are worth a visit – River Country, Typhoon Lagoon, and Blizzard Beach (which we have not yet visited), several Golf Courses, the Walt Disney Marketplace – an open air Disney shopping mall,  Discovery Island – an island full of unusual birds and greenery from all over the world, and Pleasure Island – a night spot with restaurants, shops and night clubs.  There are also many Disney hotels – we have stayed at the Polynesian and the Caribbean Beach resort.  Each hotel has a different theme and stays amazingly true to its theme.  We dined at the Wilderness Lodge and could have sworn we were at Yellowstone or Yosemite.

The third major park at Disney World is MGM Studios.  Here you can learn how movies are made, be part of a game show being filmed, learn how animated films are created, and be part of a famous movie like the Raiders of  the Lost Ark, Star Wars, or the Muppets.  Below is a picture of my favorite ride, the Tower of Terror. where you enter the Twilight Zone and ride in an elevator to the top of the Hollywood Tower Motel only to free fall to the bottom!

In addition to the Disney parks, there are many other parks in the Orlando area that are worth a visit.  These include Sea World, Universal Studios, Busch Gardens  (1 hour away in Tampa), and the colorful Cypress Gardens, pictured below.  Also an hour east of Orlando is the Kennedy Space Center, where one can take a bus tour to see the building where the Space Shuttle is built and housed, the launch pads and even a Saturn V rocket.  When the timing is right, you may even get to see (and feel!) a launch.   We have also gone on several fishing charters in the surrounding Indian River, where there we have caught redfish and tarpon.

We’ve taken quite a bit of video and pictures over the course of several trips to Walt Disney World in Orlando. Below is a video montage of our trips.

Here are some useful links for planning a vacation to this area:

• Orlando Convention and Visitors Bureau

• Orlando Hotels Directory

After many of our Antelope hunts near Gillette, Wyoming,  we took a few days to do some sightseeing in the Black Hills of South Dakota, which is only a short drive from Gillette.   The first stop along the way is at Devil’s Tower.  This National Monument is best known from the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind.   On the road toward the park’s entrance, a prairie dog town can be seen.  When you reach the tower, there is a visitor’s center and a short hiking trail that takes you around the tower.  If you bring binoculars, be sure to check out the climbers making their way up or down the tower.

The Black Hills of South Dakota are the home of  Custer State Park, one of the nicest state parks we’ve ever visited.  There are two very scenic routes, Needles Highway and Iron Mountain Highway, on which you can see towering stone pillars.   Riding the Wildlife Loop, we have seen quite a variety of wildlife, including Buffalo, Burros, Elk, Whitetail and Mule Deer, Pronghorn Antelope, Bighorn Sheep, and Prairie Dogs.  The pictures below were all taken in and around Custer State Park.

In addition to Custer State Park, there are four National Parks in western South Dakota – Wind Cave, Jewel Cave, the Badlands, and the most famous – Mount Rushmore.

About 40 miles from Rapid City, South Dakota, is the town of Wall, a small western town made famous by the Wall Drug Store.  Wall Drug is much more than a drug store – there is everything from Western Wear to Jewelry to Camping Gear.  There is also a great ice cream/soda shop and fresh baked donuts.  Wall is also close to the entrance to Badlands National Park.  The colorful formations in the Badlands are an incredible sight – and a stark contrast to the Black Hills.

Here are some links that may be useful in planning a trip to this area:

In mid-October of 1995, after our annual trip to Gillette, Wyoming to hunt Antelope, we decided to drive over to the western part of the state to visit Yellowstone National Park. It was an 8 hour drive from Gillette to Cody, much of it through the scenic Bighorn Mountains. Yellowstone is an incredible park – there is so much to see and do there – beautiful mountain and lake scenery, geysers and other thermal features, and wildlife.

We stayed at the Old Faithful Inn, the only place within the park that was still open in October. This was the last weekend before they closed for the season. October was a nice time to visit the park – it was not very crowded and the snow and cold weather seemed to enhance the scenery. We stayed in a room overlooking Old Faithful Geyser, so every hour or so, we could look out our window and see it go off!

The first morning we ventured out to photograph Old Faithful. Old Faithful is only one of a number of geysers in the Upper Geyser Basin. We took a leisurely walk along a trail that passed by a number of geysers, and saw many of them erupt. Each geyser has a different schedule and length of eruption – and they erupt with differing regularities. We saw one that erupted for several hours.

Also, along the trail are other thermal features, such as colorful hot spring pools. The most famous of these is Morning Glory Pool – with colors resembling the Morning Glory. The cold weather enhanced the steam coming from these pools and geysers and made them an even more spectacular sight.

Later in the day, we took a ride on the main road that forms a loop around the park. We stopped at several points around the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River. This area is one of the most beautiful spots in the park. The canyon is very colorful and there are several waterfalls along the Yellowstone River. We took several short hikes, one of which descended to the bottom of one of the waterfalls. It started to snow on one of the hikes and it was interesting to see parts of the waterfalls that were starting to freeze.

As it approached dusk one evening, we drove to the north end of the park, towards Mammoth Hot Springs. We had read that this stretch of road was a good place for spotting elk. We were not disappointed – we saw a large bull elk eating grass at the side of the road. When we arrived at the town of Mammoth we were amazed – this town appears to have more elk residents than humans. They were everywhere – on people’s lawns, in front of the post office… it was an amazing sight. Along the roads in the park, we also saw a wolf, many buffalo, and some moose. Yellowstone is truly a great place for watching wildlife.

As we headed back to our hotel on our last evening in Yellowstone, we noticed that it was starting to snow quite heavily. When we awoke in the morning, we discovered that it had snowed over 9 inches and all of the roads in Yellowstone were closed. We were quite concerned since this was the last day the Old Faithful Inn was open and we were scheduled to fly out of Salt Lake City early the next morning. We packed up the rental car and headed out to the road where we were stopped for about 4 hours until the road was opened. We left the park at 2 pm and proceeded to drive south through Grand Teton National Park. The Grand Tetons also provided spectacular scenery, as did the drive south through Jackson and the Wyoming Rockies. We were disappointed when the sun went down since we missed out on more beautiful scenery.

As we flew home, we promised ourselves we would return to Yellowstone one summer when we would have time to see even more of this incredible place.

If you would like to plan a trip similar to this one, here are some useful links:

• Big Horn Mountain Country Coalition

• The Total Yellowstone Page

• Wyoming Division of Tourism

• Yellowstone National Park