Ya gotta love a place that has a castle on every corner:

Truck-eating alligators:

Mary Poppins:

And China dolls:

We found Orlando/Kissimmee to be a very different place from our sleepy little island. It’s very touristy, beautiful in some places and pretty tacky in others (see aforementioned truck-eating alligator). We loved Epcot Center. I have never visited a tourist attraction where the people were so gracious and nice. We loved the animals at Sea World, but it was very, very crowded and seemed more blatantly “touristy” than Epcot. It was hot – up in the 80’s and we had to laugh when the weather forecaster said it was going to be “cold” – 64! That’s summer here in the Pacific Northwest. In all fairness, we only hit the touristy spots this time. And, as Kris reminds me, there are some beautiful spots to visit that are much less “manufactured”.

All said, we will certainly go back again. Why, you ask? Because our children will be staying there. The day after we arrived, the company that Ben had been contracting for offered him a permanent position. It was one of those too-good-to-turn-down offers. They did talk to us before accepting, but we assured them that our first concern was that he have a decent job so they can start building a life instead of traveling from contract to contract. We are greatly relieved that he has such a good job. We will still hope that some day they end up out here, but in the meantime I’m sure we’ll burn up the airways going back and forth. And it’s certainly closer than England!!

So now I need to start thinking of cool, cottony knits instead of woolly Baby Dales:

Well, maybe one Dale a year for the winter months, don’t you think? Stay tuned for more – knitting was accomplished on the trip.