Kissimmee

01.24.08

Leaving the grim London winter behind, B.O.B. and I sailed south during the holidays. It was in Florida where we swam with the top contender for world's cutest animal--the manatee. It is the mascot of Crystal River, a teeny town on the Gulf Coast where the manatees rest during the winter. They are friggin' adorable and as we hung out in the shallow waters, they swam up to us and turned on their backs in hopes of receiving a belly rub. One of the best experiences EVA. I recommend it.

Then there was South Beach, Miami, where anyone longing for old Hollywood glamour and the world's most divine architecture can go to restore their faith in human taste. I caught the flu the night we arrived, and stayed in bed for three days (at the very fine and very '30s Raleigh Hotel) with my Ava Gardner biog and the New Hampshire primaries. Next up was Disney World (no sour faces, please)--home to the "It's A Small World" ride, Mary Blair's beautiful mural in the contemporary hotel (pictured below), EPCOT, and its recent addition, Living With the Land. This Nestle-sponsored ride turned out to be a frightening celebration of genetically modified food. Why grow a regular-sized lemon, when you can have a 15 pound lemon that produces enough lemonade for the whole family?! SCARY. And upon concluding the ride, the creepy enthusiastic voice informed us that every fruit and vegetable served in Disney World comes from the laboratory you just visited! Sooo Walt Disney's vision of the future wasn't quite implemented as he intended.

Under the Mary Blair mural

After two days at Disney, we made a quick stop in Celebration, FL, where we thought we'd find Disney-cloned humans and houses, but it was very normal. Not the Twilight Zone we were hoping for. Kissiimmee, however, was properly strange, although very very sadly, the house we were most looking forward to visiting--Xanadu, the House of the Future (pictured below) is no more.

But this fabulous gift shop made us feel better.

And lastly, Savannah, the stunning, moss-covered Georgian city so aptly portrayed in the Midnight In the Garden Of Good & Evil. Trees never looked so beautiful.

On the drive back to Atlanta, we stocked up on Bible lessons, country radio, collard greens, and sunshine before jetting home to London (with X-Factor star Leona Lewis sitting in business class).

Sheila

Posted by Sheila at 06:31 PM