Very cool! 
I saw the cutest baby lion, adult and 2 baby kangaroos, alpaca, some unidentified mammal that started fighting with the free roaming lion through its bars, laughed about the kid who calle dthe parrots "turkeys", got dive bombed by a hawk stretching its wings, contemplated riding a stinky camel and laughed out loud at the creativity of the kids who mummified 2 chickens (King Cluck I think) for their exhibit on Egypt. (free at the fairgrounds)
Then I saw the photo display featuring a very cool lady (and her husband) who spent the 1920's and 30's on safari in Africa - riding Zebras, shooting alligators and lions, producing films for Hollywood, and mugging for Bisquick to finance the whole thing! Her husband was a perfectionist - so the 15,000 still photos the display are culled from are just the GOOD ones. (free at the community center)
Then I got a cool lecture on the State's geology and how Florida used to be connected to Africa in the Pangea days - the panhandle was more part of S. America, while the peninsula was connected to W. Africa (near Senegal). Fun Fact - the Atlantic Ocean basin is growing bigger at the same rate that our fingernails grow - just under 2" a year!
Yummy dinner at Bogey's in Hotel Defuniak - we all got various $10 Early Bird dinners (shrimp stuffed w/ crab, grouper almandine, chicken piccata) and hoovered our plates clean because it was so good!
Capped the evening off with a highly entertaining dance/music performance - complete with audience participation from local school kids, audience members, and teachers. The drummers were all originally from W. Africa and very good! One is currently completing his PhD at Gainesville - he got a laugh when he said how he much prefers the weather here to the Connecticut college where he worked on his Masters! The xylophone type instrument w/ gourds attached underneath was very cool, as was the advice from the teacher of the musicians to the schoolkids present about how important education was and how lucky they were compared to so many others. Great costumes and performance!
And that was just an afternoon/evening!
I saw the cutest baby lion, adult and 2 baby kangaroos, alpaca, some unidentified mammal that started fighting with the free roaming lion through its bars, laughed about the kid who calle dthe parrots "turkeys", got dive bombed by a hawk stretching its wings, contemplated riding a stinky camel and laughed out loud at the creativity of the kids who mummified 2 chickens (King Cluck I think) for their exhibit on Egypt. (free at the fairgrounds)
Then I saw the photo display featuring a very cool lady (and her husband) who spent the 1920's and 30's on safari in Africa - riding Zebras, shooting alligators and lions, producing films for Hollywood, and mugging for Bisquick to finance the whole thing! Her husband was a perfectionist - so the 15,000 still photos the display are culled from are just the GOOD ones. (free at the community center)
Then I got a cool lecture on the State's geology and how Florida used to be connected to Africa in the Pangea days - the panhandle was more part of S. America, while the peninsula was connected to W. Africa (near Senegal). Fun Fact - the Atlantic Ocean basin is growing bigger at the same rate that our fingernails grow - just under 2" a year!
Yummy dinner at Bogey's in Hotel Defuniak - we all got various $10 Early Bird dinners (shrimp stuffed w/ crab, grouper almandine, chicken piccata) and hoovered our plates clean because it was so good!
Capped the evening off with a highly entertaining dance/music performance - complete with audience participation from local school kids, audience members, and teachers. The drummers were all originally from W. Africa and very good! One is currently completing his PhD at Gainesville - he got a laugh when he said how he much prefers the weather here to the Connecticut college where he worked on his Masters! The xylophone type instrument w/ gourds attached underneath was very cool, as was the advice from the teacher of the musicians to the schoolkids present about how important education was and how lucky they were compared to so many others. Great costumes and performance!
And that was just an afternoon/evening!
Woodcarver wasn't doing a demo this time either, so phooey on him! They had a big (snapping?) turtle out for people to see - with its mouth open so we could see the little appendage it wiggles to draw in fish.