I love the PhilharMagic! I especially like it when I have my grandchildren with me. It is great fun watching them react to the 3D magic by reaching out for the desserts in the Beauty and the Beast sequence and the thingamabobs in Little Mermaid. 
Tomorrow, I'll turn 53. I am not going to be in the World to celebrate. But I will be in a very nice place nonetheless; with my family and whatever friends would like to journey to Nashville to celebrate with me. I may be getting physically older, but I am trying ever so much harder to not grow up.
I must have been the last hold-out on riding The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. I just could not justify waiting in what is usually a very long line. But, in October of 2007 that all changed thanks to Cast Member named Bryce over at Peter Pan's Flight. After my first ride through Pan I happened to mention to him that it was my favorite ride. He worked a little magic by giving my five more FastPasses. I proceeded to use these; one after another. Near the end of my passes, he saw me coming off the attraction and gave me a FastPass for any attraction I wanted. I thought, you've just rode Pan six times, why not try something else. So I walk across Fantasyland, and rode Pooh.Now, it is in my early morning ride sequence whenever I am in the Magic Kingdom. There is something about hearing The Rain, Rain, Rain, Came Down, Down, Down and Hempfalumps and Woozles.
One, of the many things, I enjoy about Epcot are the festivals. In the fall there is the International Food and Wine Festival and going on right now is the International Flower and Garden Festival. Sadly, this is my second year in a row of having to miss the festival.
There are two things I specifically like about this festival. The first is that there is usually a whimsical garden design here or there that I find inspirational. This may be an old wooden ladder that is covered in various colors of dipped paint and holding paint pans as planters. You may find an old iron bed that has been transformed into a planting bed. And the creativity goes on and on.
The second thing that always, always draws my attention is the bonsai exhibits. These can be found in China and Japan. I have been a fan of bonsai long before I discovered the festival exhibits. In fact, it almost became a regular occasion of any visit to stop in the Mitsukoshi Department Store and purchase a bonsai starter kit to take home. After helplessly watching three or four of these become kindling, I decided that my money could be better spent. Yet, my inability to cultivate a bonsai did not diminish my admiration of them.
Bonsai is an art form and a form that requires years of practice and patience. It also has a history stretching back to 4000 BC. The Chinese called it penzai during the Jin Dynasty. Other oriental cultures took up the form and Japanese began developing their own versions of the form during the Heian period between 794 and 1185 AD. They used the term “bowl” or “bon” trees. One of the oldest known living bonsai has its beginning in 1610 and is now considered a national treasure of Japan.
To celebrate the festival and the magicians who cultivate these masterpieces I want to share a few bonsai photographs from the 2007 International Flower and Garden Festival. The first two are the miniature landscapes of the Chinese penzai tradition and the remaining three are some of the magnificent displays found near Japan’s Torii Gate.
Virago - Nashville - 11.22.07
Editor's Note: also my favorite place to each sushi and home of the Doc's Family Thanksgiving Buffet.
This past February I had Alice in Wonderland's Mad Tea Party added to the collection. 
Looking at the carrousel, I can not help but think how important they are to the design of the Magic Kingdom, first in Disneyland and then the subsequent parks. To me they are symbolic of Disney, the man."The idea of Disneyland came about when my daughters were very young and Saturday was always Daddy's day with the two daughters. So we'd start out and try to go someplace, you know, different things, and I'd take them to the merry-go-round and I took them different places and as I'd sit while they rode the merry-go-round and did all these things - sit on a bench, you know, eating peanuts - I felt that there should be something built where the parents and the children could have fun together. So that's how Disneyland started. Well, it took many years...it was a period of maybe fifteen years developing. I started with many ideas, threw them away, started all over again. And eventually it evolved into what you see today at Disneyland. But it all started from a daddy with two daughters wondering where he could take them where he could have a little fun with them, too."
So, when I look at the carrousel, the merry-go-round, I think of Walt and can almost imagine him holding on to a young Sharon and Diane Disney as they went round and round.
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