The Wandering Disciple

As we celebrate Halloween today let's take a look back at one of our Halloween traditions, the Jack O' Latern. The yearly practice of carving the pumpkin actually began over in Europe. Around Halloween, they would carve laterns from vegtables, mainly turnips. As they immigrated over to the United States, the vegtable carving tradition came over with them but they began to carve larger and more readily available pumpkins. Since then, the practice of carving pumpkins has grown to become a symbol of Halloween. (Photo: October 29, 2011)

Another year has come and gone, its amazing how quickly time flies. Around the World in Pictures has put the finishing touches on its second year of bringing you great photos and stories from our travels. The past year saw some changes to the site in an attempt to keep things new and fresh. I added a photo of the day and a cruise deal feature to the site to keep things exciting when I do not have new travels to write about. The photo of the day feature is a random photo chosen out of my photo archive along with a brief story about the subject of the photo. The cruise deal feature is courtesy of Dick Gothner of Skyscraper Tours and features great cruise deals. The addition of these two features will hopefully fill the gap between new content. This year we switched our annual passes from Universal Orlando to Walt Disney World and made a few trips up to the house of the mouse. However with the sluggish economy, the travel budget has not been there so we did not have a real vacati...

The Ecto-1 from the 1984 Ghostbusters film is just one of many Hollywood movie cars on display at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. Ecto-1 is a 1959 Cadillac Miller-Meteor and was used in the original Ghostbuster movies. It can be seen along with cars from the Blues Brothers, Mummy, Jurassic Park and more at the theme park where movies come to life. (Photo: September 21, 2003)

For the past twenty years, the Seminole-Gulf Railways have transported passanger on leisure trips up and down Southwest Florida. Over a half million passangers have climbed aboard their trains and embarked on day excursions, murder mystery dinner trains and many more special events. The railway has been in operation since 1987 when they purchased a section of freight tracks from CSX. In 1991, they expanded their opertions to include dinner trains and eventually sightseeing trains. Today guests hop aboard four vintage railcars to embark on a journey through the area as they are transported back to the time when rail travel was the life of luxury. (Photo: March 29, 2008)

Conch shells and other native crafts line the tables of the Straw Market in CocoCay. The market is the only shopping venue on the private island. CocoCay is a small private island owned by Royal Caribbean International. It is located in the Berry Island chain of the Bahamas. (Photo: April 22, 2010)

Fort Myers, Florida: A highway for wildlife, the Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve provides a safe corridor for wildlife to travel from northern Lee County to the safe haven of the Estero Bay Preserve. The preserve is home to many wildlife and plant species. The preserve actually got its start thanks to hard work of a group of students. In 1976, he students were working on a project when they learned how quickly natural habitats and ecosystems were diminishing due to development. The group petitioned to preserve some of this natural landscape and won the support of Lee County residents. The result of their hard work saved the slough from development and led to the nature preserve opening to the public in 1991. Today, thousands of visitors come to the preserve to catch a glimpse of wildlife along the one mile boardwalk. The boardwalk meanders through 80 acres of the 2,500 acre preserve, allowing visitors to learn about the different ecosystems within the preserve as well as view the ani...

A white peacock butterfly resting on a blade of grass in North Port, Florida. This white peacock butterfly can be found in warm, tropical climates with a range extending from Argentina in South America to as far north as South Carolina. (Photo: October 22, 2011)