A Tribute to Dr. Seuss

 

If you keep up with the news you already know Dr. Seuss's books have been in the press lately. I truly believe there are bigger fish to fry and I am appalled this childhood memory I made with both my kids has been tarnished. Or at least there is an effort afoot to tarnish it. Today's post is all about the seussical, the fun, the kid-like happy days. Or at least the days of 2010 and 2017.

Both my children grew up listening to the books of Seuss. Both my children have their own set of books to share with their children. It's a tradition in our family. When I made this journal page in 2017, the prompt was to journal a page about someone who embodied your focus word for the year. My word was hope. I figured who better than Dr. Seuss who talked about hope in many of his 44 children's books. 

Born Theodor Seuss Geisel, he faced many challenges before his first book was finally accepted by a publisher. His book Oh the Places You'll Go is often given as a graduation gift. It speaks of unlimited adventure, success, and hopefulness if you will just get out the door and get on your way! That is why I chose Dr. Seuss for my journal page. 

Oh! And he and my Kali share the same birthday. 

Now, if you don't care a Thing 1 or Thing 2 about Dr. Seuss you may stop at this point. Because I am going to take you on a quick jaunt through the magical Seuss Landing at Islands of Adventure at Universal Studios in Florida. These photos were taken back in 2010, and they all have that photography logo thrown right on them. I don't do that these days but back then you protected your work so no one could steal it. Let's get started! There is even going to be a video! I hope!

From the Book McElligot's Pool, this is the first thing you walk past entering Seuss Landing. Spraying water, shooting water, and if you are lucky on a 100+ degree day you can feel a little of it. 

We walk through the Landing every time we go to Universal. Because . . . Harry Potter is on the other side. Hahahaha! Win/win!

The top of the Caro-Seuss-el, shot from the train that runs around the top of the attraction. And there is Horton from Horton Hears a Who!

From the book If I Ran the Zoo. This is one of the in-question books. We read it many times. Maybe my memory is faulty but I don't recall ever having a problem with any of the Seuss books. Except Fox In Socks, I could never get all the way through the tongue twister to save my life. The kids thought is was great stuff listening to me trying to read it out loud. 

And it is always Christmas at Seuss Landing. 

Great little shop. Nice air conditioning. Hahahahaha! One of the rides empties out into this store that sells all things Cat in the Hat. There is a character stage outside and on the left side. 

Reminiscent of Cindy-Lou Who. 

From the book The Lorax, they have a really cool set up you can walk through and re-live the book. Kali and Kember competed with a duo interpretation of The Lorax, so of course we had to get lots of pictures there. The Street of the Lifted Lorax.

We got lots of photos to share with Kember. 

The Once-ler's house. You can see the bucket to the left up top and there's the phone slupping down at the bottom. Straight out of the book. 

Truffula Trees. So much detail went into this little bitty section.

Kali in front of the Once-ler's house. 

The whisper-ma-phone. And it really made sounds, too!

There were a couple whisper-ma-phones.

The whole reason - to keep the park alive. To keep the world alive. To care about someone other than yourself and to take care of each other. And that's all the reason I need. 

I am not going to apologize for all the photos of my daughter in Lorax-land and you will understand more why in just a minute. 

The hummingfish. 

From the book And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street. One of the six books they are trying to ban. 

We are a proud law enforcement family. Mark and I are both retired officers, Jason was a 9-11 dispatcher in Orlando with ten years dispatching experience, Bobbie was an officer in Gainesville and at Disney World in Orlando. Thank God, Kali works in an asthma clinic and didn't follow us. Not the right time to be a police officer. 

At the end. Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!

The details are amazing! They jump right out of the books. 

This is part of an interactive area.

From the book Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can you?

And that's it. No matter which side of the argument you are on - Thing 1 being 'for' or Thing 2 being 'against' - Dr. Seuss is a magical memory for many childhoods. At the beginning I said there would be a video. When Kali was in high school she competed in speech and debate with the National Christian Forensics and Communications Association. Her first year, she and Kember competed in Duo Interpretation using Dr. Seuss' book The Lorax. It could run ten minutes max which meant the girls had to decide which parts of the book to keep and which parts to leave out. Memorized, acted out and no eye contact with each other. So much fun! They presented everywhere they could to get practice and they qualified to regionals. Not bad for their first year. Kali later went on to compete nationally with a different piece. In her junior and senior years of high school, Kali traveled with a team of teens teaching speech and debate all across the United States to both teens and adults. For today, I am pulling out a video of her and Kember performing The Lorax for one of the Florida elementary classes. Enjoy.