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Erik & Smisty's Florida Oddventures


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They won't even give you the last day on earth off? LAME.

 

As an atheist, I'd be pissed if I tried to go do something and it was closed because of The Rapture.

 

But yes, going to The Holy Land today would have been perfect. Alas.

 

Of course, we never confirmed Adam's availability, so I may not be the only problem.

 

/Can live without Chick-fil-A.

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If Central Florida is dominated by theme parks, then South Florida contents itself with mid-level animal attractions. This is yet another place we'd never even heard of until we started venturing south....

 

Butterfly World

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Butterfly World was actually founded in 1998, by a gang of butterflies that were tired of migrating.

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...as long as your dreams involve butterflies, and not sex or money.

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The entry lobby. Admission is $24.95 for adults.

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It's arranged as a single path self-guided tour. Also worth noting, their FAQ is exactly one question long.

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Here you can see how Butterfly World's animators draw and color the butterflies.

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But enough science, let's get on with gawking!

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There are lots and lots of butterflies in the picture. No, seriously. They're just hard to spot in a still photo. In person, flying around, it's actually quite impressive.

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Ladies and gentleman, an butterfly!

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If you like crazy signs, like I do, then really I can't recommend Butterfly World highly enough.

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This type of butterfly in known as a Flower Humper.

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There are also lots of butterflies in this photo. Look, just trust me on this. (Crap, this is the worst update ever.)

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Bananas make you ugly.

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The "Hanging Gardens" and Emerging area.

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This leads to the second, larger butterfly aviary. (Or is an aviary just birds? I think it is, actually. Oh well.)

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Butterflies. THEY ARE THERE.

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Just keep this in your mind for the next photo of a walkway.

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This path is wet for some reason. I guess that's okay; It was hot.

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Wow, those are some expensive butterflies.

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I like bridges.

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There are no butterflies in this picture. But the flowers are nice.

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People molesting butterflies are most certainly not reducing *my* enjoyment.

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"Um, also please don't molest lizards. Very important."

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There are, like, 20 photos of Misty in this update--but, for some reason, this is the only one of me.

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Having left the butterflyatorium, we find ourselves outside.

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And back into another aviary sort of thing.

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Only it's an aviary for freaky flowers!

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Yep, that's pretty weird.

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I'm not touching that.

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You can probably guess how this went.

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The English don't make very nice roses.

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Anther lorikeet feeding exhibit, another "not gonna happen" from Smisty. I'm never gonna live down the Parrot Mountain incident.

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Insectarium? Now Misty is excited!

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But...they're dead.

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Wait...what?

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Oh wait, there *are* live ones! (It was hard to stay in here for long though, as there was no air conditioning in this part of the building.)

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Um....

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Holy crap! And this lady has no freaking idea!! This is the greatest, most horrifying thing ever!!!

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An aviary, you say? Well, I like bridges.

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"Rawk! Polly want a butterfly!"

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Never say that our thread isn't educational. Also, why isn't this sign entitled, "Interesting Facts About Hummingbirds"?

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Welcome to Home Depot.

 

(I love you.)

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The cafe. We didn't eat here because it looked pretty standard/low rent. Plus, we were saving ourselves for Jaxson's.

 

The double doors on the right lead to the gift shop. The gift shop, however, does not allow photos inside. Which seems odd, because it's pretty standard crap, really.

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When I inquired as to why photos were not allowed in the gift shop, I was told it was because they had some artwork up on the back wall from an artist who didn't want their work photographed. Now, I can respect that, I guess...but, the whole gift shop?

 

Anyway, here's a photo of said artist's work hanging in the lobby (where photos are allowed), next to a window that looks in at the gift shop. So...yeah.

 

But, other than that bit of pointless and slightly-offensive stupidity, I rather liked Butterfly World.

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What did you think of Butterfly World, Smisty?

Edited by Electerik
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Yes, I looked up at my own ceiling when I saw this. Definitely don't think I'd be stepping foot in that room.

 

But...

 

 

This might just be the best sign picture you've ever included in an update.

 

 

Also, I just checked the ceiling again.

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F*** THIS PLACE! Anywhere with free roaming spiders is not cool with me... I know they're useful for fly killing, but I think all spiders should be eradicated ASAP... in fact it semi sickens me there is even a bug museum in the first place... which kinda makes me feel like a dick cause I enjoy Tough to be a Bug... oh well.

 

The KILL EM ALL Ghost

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F*** THIS PLACE! Anywhere with free roaming spiders is not cool with me... I know they're useful for fly killing, but I think all spiders should be eradicated ASAP... in fact it semi sickens me there is even a bug museum in the first place... which kinda makes me feel like a dick cause I enjoy Tough to be a Bug... oh well.

 

The KILL EM ALL Ghost

 

i 100% agree with this post, as a severe Aracnaphobe, that is the room from hell, im baffled as to why they have spiders just freely wandering about!

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I went here! I really had a nice time, the gardens are actually really nice and the area is alot bigger than you think it would be.

 

The Loritkee exhibit has a almost completely white floor (And it wasn't painted white )

Also the Free Roaming Spiders freaked me out too, I pretty much walked quickly out of the building when I saw that.

 

Still a good (A little pricy) way to spend an afternoon!

 

Thanks Erik and Smisty for the great report!

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Butterfly World was actually founded in 1998, by a gang of butterflies that were tired of migrating.

1988. I know this because I remember being forced there on a school field trip in 8th grade....which sucked. It's another place I'm amazed still exists.

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I'd really love to see you guys do the Lion Country Safari down here. That place is quite the gem.

 

It's on the list, for sure. I'm fact, we were going to do it on our last trip down that way, until we found out that their Ferris wheel was down for rehab. But, yeah, we intend to go.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Located on Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway (Kissimmee's tourist strip) is Bonanza Golf & Gifts. Which is quite weird. But why just tell you when we can show you...!?

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Among other things, Bonanza Golf hosts a CiCi's.

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For those of you who live in less-civilized parts of the country (or even *gasp* beyond), CiCi's is a pizza buffet chain. And while it's common enough that it wouldn't normally be worthy of an Oddventure, we wanted (you) to get the full Bonanza Golf experience.

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Let's go ahead and get the "photo that Misty is going to kill me for posting" out of the way, shall we?

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Chock-full of all the "pretty good for the price" pizza that we could possibly eat, it was time for some mini golf!

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You must purchase the golf inside the gift shop. But don't get distracted!

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Hey, what could be more family-friendly than mini golf?

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This one is for Elissa.

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And this one is for Barry.

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Okay, on with the golf! Hmm, too bad "no graffiti" isn't one of the rules, eh?

 

Wait...is that an advertisement for ice cream?!

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Ah yes, Hershey's! The ice cream that says, "We wanted to sell a name brand, but that's really expensive."

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Smisty was becoming almost as impatient as you all are to get on with the mini golf, but after all that pizza and ice cream, I really wanted to check out the "clearance" restrooms.

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On second thought, maybe I'll hold it.

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Okay, so there are two courses. But they're laid out in a very strange manner. They cross themselves and each other seemingly at random. And since there's no difference in coloring or style between them, it's very easy to suddenly find yourself playing the wrong course or hole midway through.

 

On the other hand, it sort of adds an extra challenge to the courses--and it made us laugh--so I'm not quite willing to say that it's a bad thing, for our purposes.

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Ask about the "mistery" hole!

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Looking back from the furthest point on ground level. Note how we'll eventually be playing golf on top of the gift shop and entryway to the parking lot.

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It's certainly a "mistery" to me how I'm supposed to putt my ball from here.

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The courses are nice enough. I guess the theme is mining or something...?

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"Mountain Bob"/Gandalf wishes you luck.

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Well, why *wouldn't* you have to walk past hole 18 to get to hole 5?

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Tressle putting!

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I guess they...haven't quite finished this part.

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Hole 8? Hole 13? I honestly have no idea what's happening here.

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This really needs to be my profile picture somewhere.

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Mini golf, by MC Escher.

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If you have any idea what the hell is going on here, please write to: Bonanza Golf, 7761 W Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway, Kissimmee, FL 34747.

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There appears to be a rock in the way.

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I just thought this was a nice photo. What, does everything have to be a joke?

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Well, that's...surprisingly boring.

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At last we come to the last hole. And how can you tell that it's the last hole...?

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Ta-da!

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Oh, crap! Seriously?! You can get married here?? I hope you get to change in the restrooms!

 

Aloha.

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Love the shout out, but I have a request...next time don't put my shout out next to Barry's. It violates the restraining order.

 

Also, I've passed this golf place roughly 849372 times as it's right near where we rent our TPR Houses, it's always struck me as kind of boring so we never bothred with it.

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Thank you for the underwear photo. I was actually looking for a new pair after I got a skidmark on my recent one. The one in the gift shop will do quite nicely!

 

I should do a PTR of the Shell Factory in my area. It'll make the Orlando gift shops blush. I just have to find a Green Lantern t-shirt...

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