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VirtualTourist Member Michael_D


Michael_D's VirtualTourist Home Page
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Michael_D   
~Greetings from the Sunny Florida USA~


Real Name: ~Michael-Stephen~
Lives In: Orlando, US
Birth Date: March 29
Member Since: Aug 07, 2000
Last Login: Nov 10, 2008   17:00 UTC
Member's Time: Nov 22, 2008   02:53 EST
VT Rank: 1067
Deals Rank: Unranked
Travel Interests: Theater, Romantic Travel, Cycling, Rail Trip, Architecture



 > View Larger Map
Orlando, US  88  25
Saint Petersburg, RU  53  51
New York City, US  48  36
Ithaca, US  38  40
Tallinn County, EE  39  39
Mount Dora, US  40  36
London, UK  29  26
Rochester, US  26  26
Eustis, US  31  21
» more...
 

Page Views: 26,785            

~Welcome to Sunny Florida~

by Michael_D - last update: Sep 16, 2008

When in doubt,,,try KINDNESS;-)

ORLANDO LAKE EOLA


****************************************************

STUFF

MARCH...JAX/OTOWN/VILLAGES/ST AUGUSTINE....

-INTERNATIONAL BOWL TORONTO
Rutgers 52 Ball St 30
One great day.

-Then on to the warm weather to usher in the New Year...Orlando/Daytona/Villages..St Timothys...luvly weather,,heaven at 84F...I loves MY FLORIDA!

12/7
MT DORA XMAS PARADE
My friend Broadway actor and radio host Richard Ryan(we did PHANTOM together) was "grand marshall" called out "there is ONE incredible actor" as he drove by LOL(that would be>ME! LOL) Talk about "old home week"! DOZENS of old friends. What a GREAT DAY! I LOVES my Florida!

12/7
"Light Up Mt Dora" sang "ill Be Home For Xmas"etc ,, Felt like a Charles Dickens vignette. Mt Dora= New England town architecturally that reminds me more of up north than most places up north..I consider Mt Dora it my town..inasmuch as Iived there the 1st 20 years;-) Last night felt like it was out of Dickens story....twas a nice/nice time.

11/26
Peter from Russia visits with his Marriot Volvo truck enroute to Miami. Villages, Starbucks, Golden Corral, photo albums and laughing into the wee hours.

3/25
Jewish Art Week Celibration LOCH HAVEN PARK
sponsored by the Jewish Community Center in Maitland

A great time. Artwork, jewelry, ethnic food, Klesmer music, Israeli folk dancing & ooodles of great conversations,,a South African Charlize Theron look alike, to scads of New Yorkers, Israeli guy passing thru Orlando & Cornell grads who I LOVED sharing Ithaca NY memories with!
ST BASILE'S RED SQUARE

Sweet Sixteen


In 8 years on VT ive ranked as high as #6 and as low as present. FOUR VT format changes have left many pages splattered. Some text isnt perfect now.( I fix em as I go..sorta ;-)

~My 16 Favorite Cities~ (click on links if you like)
1-London
2-New York
3-Tallinn, Estonia
4-Barcelona
5-Paris
6-Budapest
7-Amsterdam
8-Edinburgh
9-Helsinki
10-Oxford
11-St Petersburg Russia
12-Kiev
13-Moscow
14-Rome
15-Orlando, Florida
16-Ithaca NY/Cornell

I LOVES MY FLORIDA

I live in the Greater Orlando Florida area Y'all!
**********************************************************

I grew up amidst bone chilling temperatures & mind numbing blizzards of (Rochester New York)7 month WINTERs. After my studies at Cornell & Rutgers~I raced to the warm embrace of my ORANGE BLOSSOM EMPIRE in Central Florida 24mi N of Orlando.
-YES! ...Florida IS wonderfull ...its FEB and 72F..hello!
-YES Southern folks are as friendly & hospitable as they say


Though I have had a Disney World yearly pass since 1985, you will find my Florida pages have very little about theme parks & alot on the REAL Florida>> nature, wildlife & charming INLAND small towns like Mt Dora, Eustis and Tavares....far from the devastation that hurricanes exact on those who choose to live in overcrowded beach communities along Floridas Coasts.
(Orlando Florida)
(Mount Dora Florida)
(Eustis Florida)
(Tavares Florida)

The picture is of Fort Matanzas beach, my favorite beach. It may not look like much...but its virtually the LAST beach on the east coast of Florida you can drive on and see absolutely NO high-rise condos;-)
-YES! ...Florida IS wonderfull ...its FEB and 72F..hello!
-YES Southern folks are as friendly & hospitable as they say
The REAL FLORIDA is more than the theme parks(though I am a seasons passholder at Walt Disney World) the REAL FLORIDA is so much more:
~DeLAND..Stetson Univ & a 16 sq mi historical district.
~NEW SMYRNA BEACH where locals go to avoid Daytona crowds
~St AUGUSTINE .. oldest city in America 5 different national flags have flown over it
~the clearwater springs & lofty trees of THE OCALA FOREST
~the Kentucky-like rolling HILLS & horsefarms of OCALA/Marion County
~Mt DORA...a city that was built to look like a New England town
~CROSS CREEK..home of author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlins
~WEKIVA FALLS...YES there are waterfalls in Florida!
~ROCK SPRINGS ..a river current strong enough for tubing comes out of a cave.
~the abrupt hills of CLERMONT(where WORLD CLASS triatheletes train and compete on HILLS) & a place most tourists bypass on their way to Disney World .
(Orlando Florida)
(Mount Dora Florida)
(Eustis Florida)
(Tavares Florida)
(click on any of the above)
CAPE FLORIDA
BROOKLYN BRIDGE

"Travel only with kindred spirits"

REPORT CARD

-New York City..A+
..... St Pats, Battery Park,Staten Island Ferry, Central Park,ground zero,Union Square, Grand Central Station, B'klyn Bridge, Chinatown.

-Staten Island..A+
.....Yankees farmclub park,Russian churches,cheap eats,free place to stay,Gateway Bay Park, friendly NYers

-Rochester NY..A+ (if I ignore the downtown area LOL)
.....80 old friends, Drum Corps,Nick Tahou's, Swillburg, Cobbs Hill, Paetec Park, Clarion Hotel, Monroe Ave....childhood memories ..feel the love;-) Just dont stay downtown after dark;-(

-Ithaca NY........A+
... My Alma mater>Cornell campus, Cayuga Lake, Gorges, libraries, Taughannock Falls,Treman State Parks..I may be in Florida but my heart is in Ithaca.

-New Brunswick NJ..Rutgers A+...(NJ D+)
..Rutgers my other alma mater,Old Queens, Kirkpatrick Chapel, downside? its in NJ;-( but I survived!(NJ has some nice places but avoid Camden, Passaic, Hawthorne and RT1 at all costs!)

-Port Jervis NY..B+
.... tattered but quaint, 20mi r/t to NYC by train, Delaware River, High Point Park..I could live there

-Brockport NY...A
...uncrowded quaint Erie Canaltown, peacefull days, SUNY, friendly people,30mi from Rochester

-Albion NY.........B+
....even less crowded Canaltown, library/historical buildings, backroads, farms , the way life should be

-Buffalo NY........C-
...nice new subway but the Queen City(like a dowager in decline) has seen better days, 20% of the population has left, local GOV is asking for public donations to demolish 5,000 abandoned houses over the next 5 years...but Bocce Club Pizza is still king! I have nightmares of living there in winter

-Niagara Falls....D+
"Scarytown USA">cab driver shootings, boarded up main st and nasty cops(Niagara Falls NY) a slice of NJ in upstate NY. I was stranded here for 9 days(just sayin;-)

Toronto A+
(Toronto)

Outstanding parks, great subway, Ontario Lakefront,Kensington/Chinatown/food, Pacific Mall, Vaughn(Israel or Russia ?)Scarborough Bluffs, U of Toronto, North York(my fav),Dempsey Park. Eaton Center,City Hall/Pakistani Independence Parade,$1 breakfasts at IKEA, bike rides. All done with my best friend of.... 26yrs ...MapleLeaf Dorothy.

favorite sayings



"When in doubt...try Kindness"
-ME;-)

"I am a mirror, ill pretty much treat people how they treat me"
-me ..again;-)

"Distance,,,solves many things"
Moisha-Stebbinsky

You get..what you "get".
-Werner Ehrhardt

"Hows that workin out forya?"
Dr Phil
TOWER BRIDGE, LONDON(MY FAV CITY)
NIAGARA FALLS

New York New York

Like I said
I am originally from New York YO!
(Bayside Queens originally, then upstate NY)
************************************************************

ITHACA,CARL SAGAN, GORGES and WATERFALLS

PICTURE on the right is on a quaint rural backroad near Ithaca in Upstate New York's Finger Lakes .
***********************************************************

"As hard as I have tried to,,I just dont understand people"
~Miguel Esteban del Lago Florida Garcia (y Lorca)~

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity"
~ Albert Einstein ~

"Dont complain, dont explain...your FRIENDS don’t need it and your enemies won’t listen or believe it anyway."
~(me)~
NEAR ITHACA UPSTATE NEW YORK

Michael_D's Albums
Title [Click to view]Travel YearPictures
HOME sweet HOME~Eustis/Mount Dora/Tavares Florida- 4
Growing up in ROCHESTER New York- 8
CORNELL UNIVERSITY AND Ithaca New York- 4
Rutgers University and University of Buffalo- 4
THEATER STUFF/PERFORMANCE VITAE- 6

Comments for Michael_D
Maria250 Wed Oct 8, 2008 20:22 UTC
 Same here! Glad to see you! And thank you for stopping by. Been a while. Like your new HP intro!!
annk Sun Aug 24, 2008 16:35 UTC
 Congrats on your continued weight loss Mike. But it looks like you've completely melted away!
margaretvn Sun Aug 10, 2008 11:44 UTC
 I really enjoyed your HP and albums... found you while checking out tips for an upcoming trip to the States
hotsauce28 Fri Aug 8, 2008 21:36 UTC
 holy crap!! it must be all that o.j you're drinking!! ;)
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