Photo time at the Gaylord Palms

I've spent the past week in Orlando, Florida with my friend Brittany, as part of my final summer trip. We both attended the National Society of Collegiate Scholars conference, appropriately titled Scholarcon. It was a great conference with many impressive speakers, ending with John Legend as the keynote speaker. Of course, Legend couldn't leave without performing a few songs for us, and I have a fantastic video of part of his performance that I will upload for you in my next post. For now, take a look at the photo shoot I did with Brittany while at the Gaylord Palms Resort. If you've never been to the Gaylord Palms, I highly recommend it. It's like a small city inside with shops, several restaurants (including one on a boat), a full-fledged convention center, and a lot of wildlife to look at . . . hence it made a near perfect backdrop for our photo shoot.

Fellows Riverside Gardens Photo Shoot

What do you do when you have a camera, a beautiful friend, 

and the Fellows Riverside Gardens at your disposal? You do a photo shoot, of course! 

Mystina, my friend of almost 8 years, and I decided to brave the overcast weather today and head on over to the gardens. Here's what came of our fun! 

One of my favorites of the day!

The flag still looks great, even in cloudy weather

Probably my favorite of the day!!!

My African Adventure Part 2: Cheetahs become my new favorite animals...besides elephants, of course

Let us get right into the post, because I'll be honest... there's a LOT to cover. 

So first things first, this hunk of a cheetah's name is Zulu. He's a full-grown ambassador cheetah at Shingwedzi, and obviously, I'm a little partial to him. Most of the volunteers decided early on who their favorite ambassador cheetahs were, and Zulu is without a doubt, my favorite little (or should I say big) man.

On day 3 at Shingwedzi, we went on a morning safari tour/adventure. 

We were able to watch the Wild African Dogs in action, as Peter, one of the Shingwedzi staff members, gave them their morning meal.

 We also got the chance to see a couple of the wild cheetahs in action. To clarify something, there are both wild and humanized cheetahs at Shingwedzi. The wild cheetahs are there for various reasons . . . some are used for breeding, some are older or previously injured and they can't be re-released, and others were born at Shingwedzi and so they'll be kept there. The humanized cheetahs are what I'm referring to as ambassador cheetahs, and their jobs vary from being runners (which I'll explain later) to being Shingwedzi representatives for tours and schools, and above all, they're used to educate people on cheetahs and cheetah centers.

A Zazu bird!!!

Standing in one of the vulture enclosures that we fixed while at Shingwedzi!

A pack of wildebeest on our morning walk to breakfast

Thor, another ambassador cheetah, sitting on his mound.

Then came the cub encounters!!! 

The first encounter my group had was with the three 9-month old cubs: Jordan, Pickles, and Simba. We basically got to spend the morning just hanging out with them, and it was surreal.

Needless to say, this counts as one of the best moments in my 20 years of existence.

With Jordan the cheetah!!! He's the teddy bear of the bunch.

Nancy and I with the cheetahs in the left corner of the picture.

Jordan

Simba

The cheetahs love their mounds!!

Speaking of cheetah mounds, that was one of the first tasks we completed as volunteers. 
We built a brand-spanking-new cheetah mound for Forest, the ambassador-in-training. 

Our mound!

Now, back to the cubs!

Sleepy Pickles...

That one time I charmed the nonexistent pants off of Simba the cheetah cub. Simba tends to be a bit sassy, so I was honored that she accepted, and even more, seemed to enjoy my presence.

Lastly, here are a few short videos of the cubs for you to enjoy.

Cheetah rough-housing

Sleeping cheetahs

Cheetah Purrs

Next post: feeding rounds, runner cheetahs...................

AND BABY CUBBIES!!!! Be prepared! :)

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to share them below!

A Day at the Lake

On Saturday, my family, including my dogs, and I spent the day at Pymatuning Lake. I managed to get some photos of the day and I figured I'd share a quick post with all of you. Feel free to peruse and leave comments below, if you'd like.

Sittin on the dock of the bay...

Gizmo taking a quick swim in the lake.

Pico after his lake swim.

My step-dad Don with Gizmo on the dock.

Pico is practically a water-dog.