John Wise – Page 542 – Dreams, Moments, Travels

Disney World – Day 3

December 13, 1999 JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

John Wise at Disney World in Orlando, Florida

The Animal Kingdom is where we started the day, and Hollywood Studios is where we headed afterward.

Disney World in Orlando, Florida

The owl. These special birds hold a place in my heart and identity. Back when I was a small boy of about six years old, I’d seen an advertisement for Tootsie Roll Pops featuring Mr. Oliver Owl, who was portrayed as a scholarly Wise Old Owl. Well, Wise is my last name and I learned then that my last name means smart and full of wisdom, and so I would aspire to be that. This was my first encounter with wanting to be a lifelong nerd.

Caroline Wise at Disney World in Orlando, Florida

Again, here we are with the t-shirts, and this time, it is Caroline wearing a shirt of the Kodama from the movie Princess Mononoke that just came out about a month ago. It, like Disney, our relationship, and so many other things are part of the romance in our lives that are great reminders of how beautiful life can be.

Disney World in Orlando, Florida

More parades and great characters, but the truly special, super special part of the day was to be had after dark when we witnessed the most spectacular fireworks and laser show we’ve ever seen. This Year 2000 celebration show brought both of us to tears; it was so amazing and profoundly romantic.

Disney World – Day 2

December 12, 1999 JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Caroline Wise at Disney World in Orlando, Florida

Epcot made up for any disappointment we might have felt yesterday in the Magic Kingdom. Caroline here is enjoying a cup of spiced wine which is also known as Glühwein back in Germany, which is also the theme of the area we are visiting right now in Epcot.

Notice the Euro Disney t-shirt she’s wearing? We bought that shirt back in 1992 for her 25th birthday at Euro Disney. Today is the anniversary of that day, meaning it’s her birthday. Caroline is turning 32. One other thing, the shirt worn around her waist was also bought that day seven years ago and then was subsequently worn on the day we were married back on January 12, 1994.

Disney World in Orlando, Florida

The parades and cast of characters are far different in this part of the Disney World complex of parks than we expected. Epcot alone is proving to be worth the price entry.

Caroline Wise at Disney World in Orlando, Florida

I don’t think I’ve ever taken a photo of this face and seen more freckles on it, must be the way the sun reflects off the Gulf of Mexico and the nearby Atlantic Ocean. Looking at her eyes, I don’t feel like she’s aged a year in the more than ten years we’ve been sharing in these adventures.

Caroline Wise at Disney World in Orlando, Florida

So I was going to end this blog post on the last photo, but there’s something special about this particular photo, and it has to do with what Caroline is holding in her left hand. She’s holding our photographs which we are saving to a floppy disk. After years of shooting rolls of film and often developing them ourselves, it is such a strange idea that our photos can be seen instantly and that they are on a floppy disk; crazy times.

Disney World – Day 1

December 11, 1999 JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Caroline Wise at Disney World in Orlando, Florida

History is kind of repeating itself, but more of that with tomorrow’s post. Here we are in Florida on the only cloudy day of the year they had in all of 1999, well, except for Hurricane Irene back in October, which attacked Florida with a lot of clouds, wind, and rain, so there was that. But otherwise, sunny Florida had to go and cloud up our arrival here in Orlando, Florida.

Disney World in Orlando, Florida

Our first partial day here in Disney World was kind of dismal, and while the Disney parks usually rank high with us, the Magic Kingdom here in Florida, compared to Euro Disney outside Paris and Disneyland in California, just didn’t measure up. No big deal, as we are just thrilled to be here in Florida, and there’s so much more to come.

Thanksgiving to Roswell – Day 4

November 28, 1999 JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

We spent the night in the pines near Luna Lake in Alpine, Arizona. Nice place, but not enough time in the area, like so many other trips where we race from place to place.

St. Johns, Arizona

There are some pretty plants worth checking out.

St. Johns, Arizona

And plants in a multitude of colors that make one think of fall. Oh yeah, it is fall, though this can be difficult to remember in the somber desert of eternal browns.

Caroline Wise and John Wise in St. Johns, Arizona

Our buried jar of various things on our 40-acre plot of land in St. Johns, Arizona. When Y2K goes down later this year, we’ll be ready to grab our toilet paper and head for the hills to get away from the approaching apocalypse that is almost certain to go down. Do you have your year’s supply of dried food to survive the chaos our computer-dependent culture has created?

Thanksgiving to Roswell – Day 3

November 27, 1999 JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Roswell, New Mexico

As one might imagine, aliens play a large role in this remote desert community. Lucky for the residents of this outpost, a spaceship crashed nearby back in 1947 because, without this as a tourist draw, I don’t believe there’d be much reason to stop here other than passing through on the way to Carlsbad for those coming from the north.

Mark Shimer, Caroline Wise, and John Wise in Roswell, New Mexico

We stopped for breakfast and ordered pancakes with green alien faces cooked into them, some green eggs and ham (oops, wrong story), and some cross-sections of abducted and dissected pigs.

Roswell, New Mexico

Checking out the local gift shops while they check us out. You just have to know that we left with more than one of these little guys; we left with three of them.

Roswell, New Mexico

The UFO Museum & Research Center is the main draw here in Roswell and is worth every penny of the few dollars it will cost you to visit the place.

Caroline Wise and John Wise in Roswell, New Mexico

Here on this Internet terminal, we paid to bring up our website, Alienzoo dot com. The t-shirt I’m wearing is from my last project called TheLinuxStore, which you can guess was focused on all things Linux. Now that I’m working on all things alien, I see lots of similarities with the Linux community.

Socorro, New Mexico

Oh wow, check out that amazing neon sign, said the driver as we sped by, not really giving a second thought to stopping in. But then we look at the map and consider where we are staying in Alpine, Arizona, and figure this might be our last best chance to get some dinner. Good thing we did, as this place rocks. When you find yourself in Socorro, New Mexico, be sure to stop at this kind of New Mexican Denny’s where green chili on their steak and eggs and a side of guacamole is a great way to enjoy dinner.