Greetings from Central Florida!  Another great week of adventure in food and photography. We set out on Friday for the town of Winter Haven (about a 40 min drive) in search of "Smokin Jims House of Bar-b-q".  Thats right, we wanted some good barbecue and were willing to drive a good distance for it, but it was really worth it.

Jims House of Bar-b-qThe outside eating area of Jims House of Bar-b-q

We showed up during the lunch hour and showed our carnivorous side by ordering up some brisket and ribs.  All I can say is it was delicious and worth the drive.

MenuSmokin Jims menu - Best Butt in Town!!

Theresas Lunch - Beef Brisket

Toms Lunch Ribs

The highlight of the weekend was our visit to Disney's Animal Kingdom.  It's not like we had never been there before, but this was a rare evening where the park was open past sundown.  Animal Kingdom always closes early, usually between five and six o'clock, which I find disappointing since the parks all have a much different look at night.  I always thought the early closing times had something to do with the animals, but now Disney is in the process of building a "Avatar" themed area and plans on keeping the park opened later at sometime in the future.  Of course I was excited because I love night photography and I was finally going to be able to shoot in Animal Kingdom at night.  I wish the park was open later so I would have had more time to explore, but this was better than nothing and there will be more evenings in the future.

Road to AsiaLooking to Expedition Everest at dusk Expedition Everest QueExpedition Everest all to myself EverestUsed a long exposure and my gorilla pod - "Slow and low"

One of the best parts about staying till closing was, for the last half hour or so, I had the park virtually to myself.  Good times!

-Tom