Orlando Vacation Diary
Orlando Vacation Diary
Saturday March 15, 2008
Purcellville was blustery and chilly. Time to get the heck out. Dropped off Noah, our geriatric sweetheart of a dog at the boarding place down the street. I had to boost him into the backseat of my new car – his first ever ride in it. I had to write on the admission forms that he had a weak left hip and leg. The rest of the boarding instructions were in the “doggy day care profile” from before. Things like – Noah can only walk on the grass; Noah loves tennis balls but only yellow ones. He arrived with three medications. I drove back with all the windows open to blow all the dog hair out of the back seat. This mostly worked as long as I didn’t inhale while any of it was floating by my face on its way out the car window.
I got home in time to finish packing a very large black duffle-bag-on-wheels that Gil and I shared. I managed to corral Gil into the room for a few minutes to contribute his clothes for the bag. It was helpful but I didn’t approve of some of it. He gave me three pairs of sport socks. I put back the pair that is mis-matched and that always fall down. He gave me one pair of boxers. I added a couple more. It wasn’t until we arrived at BWI airport, and, eating airport food in the “Air Mall” seating area that I realized I did not remember him packing his medications. “Say, Gil, did you pack your pills?” “No. I thought you did.” “Why would you think I did? I never pack your pills. I wouldn’t know what to bring. That’s your stuff.” “I pack what you tell me to pack. You should have told me to pack my pills.” Some version of this conversation went on for about twenty unproductive minutes. Oh well. I guess we get to see what happens to an old man who stops taking his blood pressure, cholesterol and kidney medicine for a week. Maybe he and I will both keel over before we get home. I just discovered a wicked tick bite on me before I left today.
So, we got to the airport with lots of time to spare. Made it through security without incident, ate gross airport food. Seattle and Mary went to the candy shop and bought about three pounds of various loose candy – sour gummy worms, caramels, cappuccino cordial balls, chocolate covered coffee beans, M&Ms, gummy root beers, super-sized gummy bears, Mr. Goodbars, Reese’s pieces, Hershey’s dark chocolate minis, cow tails, pixie sticks, Starbursts and Skittles. These were mixed together all in one big plastic bag. The Harry Potter chocolate frog and the Fundip were in their own respective packages. I hope the seat pouch in front of them on the plane has a barf bag.
Gil signed up for AirTran frequent flyer program and got a 6-in-1 game compendium which we unpacked and opened, then Seattle and I tried to play checkers on a 5x5 inch board with checkers that were approximately half the size of a pencil eraser.
Then, Seattle said, “Oh, no. I lost my boarding pass.” After the family fussed at her for being irresponsible, and after she retraced steps to restaurants and bathroom, we took her over to Aaron, a skinny, maybe 20-year-old dude at gate D5 and asked for another one, which he printed for her. The marquee at D5 showed a 7:39 departure, which meant that we were really, really early. We had about 2 hours to kill. Oh. Wait. Make that 3 hours – they changed the departure time to 8:50. Dang.
So we went back to the eating area with chai tea, water, and café mocha and played Phase 10. We weren’t the only ones playing cards. At one point Seattle got up to check on our flight – oh, now it’s 9:15 departure. Geez. Seattle remarked that she liked the fact that to our left, there was a table of Japanese, next to them, African Americans, next to them a table of whites, next to them, a table of Indians. When finally it came time to meander back to the gate, young Aaron was on the PA system urging the boarding passengers to take their seats as quickly as possible and not dawdle in the aisles getting in each other’s way. This made Gil, weary and pissed-off by the delays, say out loud to no one in particular, “You’re asking US to help save ten minutes while boarding?? How about YOU delaying us for an hour and a half?”
Finally, in flight, there was an amazing light show outside the windows. Lightning everywhere, illuminating layers of clouds. I kept thinking, wow, that’s really beautiful and unlike anything I’ve ever seen before but uh… what if the lightning hits the plane?
The flight was not uneventful. It was turbulent – so turbulent that the little kids in the seats ahead of us would shout “Whoa!” and laugh with each big bump and dip of the plane. They made me smile as I closed my eyes and leaned my head back, willing myself not to get sick. I did not get sick.
We got off the plane in Orlando and could definitely tell we were in Florida – 75 degrees at midnight and humid. I had a coating of sweat on my brow and upper lip in a matter of minutes. We found a shuttle to take us to our rental car. We drove the rental car to our hotel/resort place and we were in bed by 1:30 a.m. Palm Sunday. I messed up the girls’ pull out sofa bed. I put the comforter under the fitted sheet as a pad, and then a sheet. It would have been okay except, unbeknownst to us, Mary turned the air conditioning to 62 degrees. In the middle of the night I noticed it was pretty cold. Mary came into our room and grabbed what I thought was a blanket in the closet. Turns out it was the mattress pad. But, she put it on top of her and Seattle to keep warm. So, she had the top comforter as a mattress pad and the mattress pad as a comforter.
We ripped it all off in the morning.
Sunday, March 16
Weather: Sunny, 85, humid, no breeze (throw up after the roller coaster rides hot)
We ended up sleeping about 8 hours because we planned to leave for Winter Haven which is where baseball’s Spring Training is, before noon. We hustled and readied ourselves, Gil finally getting a shower and shave. He was ready to set out to see his beloved Cleveland Indians. He had the tickets for the game which started at 1:05. He had been tracking his favorite players in Cleveland’s farm team, among whom is a 25-year-old named Wyatt with whom Mary went to grade school, middle school, high school and the same college. He knows this kid’s batting average, every great play he makes, he knows when he gets sick or pulls a muscle (I’m being literal here). He knows the kid’s competition for a major league catcher’s spot. He gives Mary weekly “Wyatt reports” which she doesn’t ask for, but he can’t help himself.
So, we take off for the ball park. We pass two or three exits that say “Winter Haven” and Gil says, “No, I don’t want to follow those signs, I want to go via route 60.” Where’s route 60, by the way? We drove and drove. We saw groves of orange trees, with lots of oranges on them. It made us hungry and thirsty for orange juice. We saw cows. We saw some of the god-awfulest-ugly trees and flora I have ever seen in my life. This was a very, very unattractive area, not exactly "the scenic route" for all the f'ing driving. We kept going by shopping centers and asking Gil to stop because oh, yes, Seattle needed girly “supplies” she had neglected to pack, if you know what I mean. The girls and I were anxious to get them for her before we had an unfortunate accident to deal with. Gil just wanted to get to the ballpark, which he still wasn’t sure he knew how to get to. He finally stopped at a store to shut us up. Poor Gil, five years ago, he went to Spring Training on his own for a weekend. Just took off, without any of us girls! Imagine that. I know he was wishing he was solo again, but he put up with us, tampon shopping and all.
Seattle and I went into the drug store to get the supplies and some orange juice for our craving and granola bars for breakfast. Gil had said, “Don’t take long!” But, there we were, in a long line of very senior citizens, and only one check-out person. The old folks were remarking about the headlines in the trashy magazines as they flipped through. It sounded something like this: woman: “Oh my lord! Lisa Marie Presley! Is she that fat? My god, she is! Look at that!” Man: “She’s just like her daddy, she is. Too many of them peanut butter and banana sandwiches.” Woman: “Look at this picture. She really is fat!” Man: “Well, smoking marijuana. That makes you want to munch. That’s what they tell me anyway.” I have never been in a place where there are so many people my age and older. Herds and "herds of old people," Mary says.
So, got “the stuff” but Gil was too anxious to eat his “granola bar” breakfast. “I just want to get to the game.” Well, let’s drive some more, shall we? We drove “the long way around” and finally found Route 60 (which did NOT say “to Winter Haven” as all the others had), we found the town and the ball park. We were in time for the game. We beat the crowds. We missed the turn into the park. So Gil went down a back road and then cut through the grass and drove through the owner’s parking lot to get back to the entrance. We took pictures. We went to the pro shop. We bought a t-shirt for Gil and a hat for me. We walked over to the beautifully manicured field, and gee, it is about game time isn’t it? “Makes you wonder if you really even need tickets” Gil says. Um. The place is deserted. We go look at the big sign that lists the games and realize Gil had bought tickets for YESTERDAY’s game and we weren’t even here yesterday. Here is a picture of Gil and Mary enjoying our seats.
Well. We kinda just raised our eyebrows and our shoulders and said, whaddya gonna do? Gil went into the business office to tell him their sob story. They felt sorry for him but couldn’t give him tickets to another game. So they gave him four Grady Sizemore bobble head dolls. Oh boy. In the meantime, Mary and I wandered out to the nearly deserted fields – nearly deserted except for a pair of men standing in the shade in conversation. They’d been there quite a while. “I think that looks like Wyatt,” Mary says. “But I’m not sure. I can’t tell from here.” So, I mustered a furtive paparazzi pose and zoomed in on his head with my telephoto lens and took a quick picture. “Yep. That’s him!” So, Mary went over to him and said hello, and that it would make her Dad’s day if he could talk with him for awhile. And that’s what they did. Holy cow. This made the day all worthwhile.
He and Wyatt jawed about baseball, injuries, who is in the pipeline behind Wyatt, what it’s going to be like playing in Bufflao where he has just been transferred, gossip about other players, how well-positioned Wyatt is in the minors (triple A in Buffalo), and how it is only a matter of time now before he gets called up to the majors. Wyatt said for Mary to contact him on Facebook and he’ll see about getting us tickets to come see him play in Richmond. The whole thing was heavenly for Gil, the consummate fan, in Florida, at Spring Training.We had more time in the day so we went to Cypress Gardens Adventure Park. The traffic line to get in was long, but we had nowhere else we had to be. They directed us to “satellite parking” which meant wa-a-ay out in a cow pasture somewhere. Then, they picked us up in what I called aluminum “cages” and what the park called a tram. It was a rectangular platform box with metal bleacher-quality seats that bounced and rattled over the rocky cow paths, kicking up clouds of dust. Packed around us as far as we could see were all these “retirees” in their manicured, seersucker, jeweled and jaunty-hatted best. Good lord, I thought, what are all these “old people” going to do at an “adventure park?” I mean, there were roller coasters and all manner of rides and shows and lots and lots of walking here. So, I asked them. They answered in three words: “Oak Ridge Boys.” Ohhh. The concert. And they told me the Beach Boys would be here next week, yahoo!
Well, Seattle and Mary were not interested in the Oak Ridge Boys, so we went in and looked around
the tourist shops and the silly shows. There was one pirate show that was one corny joke after the other, like this one of the pirate holding a discovered long lost treasure – the mirror of queen Varicose the Vain. We sent the girls to the adventure part of the park to ride to ride the roller coasters without us. Gil and I went to see a butterfly conservatory.
This is us there, taking a picture in front of a mirror.Then we walked through a topiary garden with giant, multi-story, sculptures of greens and flowers shaped like animals. There were ducks, cardinals, a swan, a peacock, an Easter bunny, a snail, and more. There were waterfalls and flowered archways and beautiful teen girls dressed as Southern Belles in their puffy pastel dresses and frilly umbrellas walking around just looking pretty and serene (nice work if you can get it, huh?).
We had planned with the girls to meet them at Adventure Grill. We got a call from them: “I’m done. We’re at the grill.” Seattle and Mary had gone on three roller coasters in a row, and the heat had gotten to Mary, who just plopped down with some cold water and called it a day. This part was not fun. Especially for Mary. But, we tried to stabilize her and then slowly walked to another restaurant because it turns out the Adventure Grill was gross with outside picnic tables and annoying hillbilly music blaring from a nearby speaker. We had a late lunch indoors, with air conditioning, which we hoped would help Mary recover. She took a few bites and packed up her food to take back with us. The “cage ride” through the cow pastures seemed extra bumpy as the “tram” shuttled us back to our car, and while I laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation, Mary held on to the aluminum struts and did not hurl on anyone.We stopped at a super market on the way back. This place was like a 7-Eleven that was trying to be a Dollar Store. We managed to get some fresh fruit and orange juice, Chex Mix for snacking, yogurt and for the girls, Pop Tarts. I also bought a six pack of Corona (heat, humidity and beer go well together) and a six pack of those fruity cooler drinks for Mary. We drove back to our small hotel suite and went to bed.
Monday March 17. St. Patrick’s Day
Weather: 66 in the morning, 82 by 5:00 and a beautiful, merciful wind the whole day
Ok, I get up and make myself some breakfast – strawberry yogurt, sliced bananas, strawberries and red grapes all in a bowl together. Trying to bring some “normal” to vacation eating. I took it outside and sat in the morning calm listening to the birds and enjoying the balmy breeze. Then, I had to laugh out loud when Gil joined me on the balcony with his breakfast: Captain Morgan Parrot Bay Pineapple Colada drink and Wild Berry Pop Tarts. Oh, what the heck, lemme have one of those Pop Tarts.
The resort we are at has a fitness center, so, I wanted to go and try to keep up some of my daily weight-training and core-strengthening routine that I do. Gil and I walked to the fitness room. It was a room with about six treadmills of differing fanciness and a behemoth weight training machine that did about 50 different things, none of which I understood. The body-builder males came in and knew how to work the damn thing and I watched, skeptically, from my treadmill. I walked a mile. Next to me was a woman probably 10-15 years older than I, who was walking longer, and slower than I. Behind me and to the left was a little wiry tan woman, again about 10-15 years older, who was running and oh, man, I can’t do that. I had set up Gil in the outer room with our wireless laptop so he could surf the net and read sports news. When I was finished, I had worked up a good sweat, but was frustrated because with my good intentions of going to the “fitness center” I had now just reduced my Universal Studios walking stamina by 1 ½ miles, having used up my energy on a dumb treadmill as well as the walk to and from the center. 'Not doing that again! I’ll just have to let the miles and miles we walk around Universal be my exercise this week.
We drove to Universal. Parked in the E.T. lot which was w-a-a-y out there. But, woo-hoo! there were moving sidewalks the whole way between the parking ramps and the entrance to make the walk easier. I love moving sidewalks. It makes me feel like a superhero where every step equals 5 and I am so powerful as I cruise by. Unless you have dummies standing in front of you who think that the moving sidewalk is a pedestrian potato conveyor belt. Unbelievable. Why would anyone just stand on a moving sidewalk (especially if it is the beginning of the day, so you haven’t even had the chance to make your feet hurt yet)? OK, so anyone reading this blog, here is your “city education” concerning moving sidewalks and escalators: STAND TO THE RIGHT; WALK LEFT. Just remember that. Don’t clog up the whole moving apparatus and impede those of us who are trying to rudely get from point A to point B because we are already late for our appointments, or, in the case of Carrie on the Universal Studios moving walkways, don’t get in the way of a 50-year old woman who is having fun and imagining she is a superhero with super leg power trying to keep up with her girls and get to the park so she can have fun.
At the end of the walkways was Universal CityWalk, which is a haven of shops and restaurants, bars, and entertainment that is open till 2:00 a.m. We were arriving around noon, so we decided to go to 
Margaritaville, where we could relax with expensive margaritas and look over a tropical lagoon and pretend we were Jimmy Buffet fans. It was crowded. So I did not wait for a table but sat at a bar that faced out over the lagoon. The service was unbearably slow, but it was the beginning of our fun, so we had patience to spare. And we were just happy to be together. 
We carved our names and other messages into the wood at the bar, and when the food arrived it was really, really good. I had the proverbial Cheeseburger in Paradise, Gil and Mary had amazing, fresh club sandwiches, Seattle had a high quality chicken Caesar salad (it tasted like they had crushed the anchovies by hand); we added beer and water which was less expensive than the margaritas we started with. The wall next to me had a portrait of the Lost Shaker of Salt. It was great. Properly fortified, we took off to explore. We had tickets to two parks – Universal Studios and Universal Islands of Adventure – plus CityWalk.
The girls got air brush tattoos. Then we moseyed over a bridge and went through security and ended up in the Islands of Adventure park. Wait a minute. We don’t want to be here. This is all roller coasters and other rides. We just ate. We are supposed to be at Universal Studios. Oh, that’s way over there! Gil is rolling his eyes and huffing about how nobody ever listens to him ‘cause he had told us how to get to Studios, but here we went and walked to Adventures. Blah blah blah. Get used to it. We’re on vacation. We are wandering around and the brain is not necessarily engaged. So, we exited the park we just went through all the trouble to get to. (Yes, it was trouble. We had to cross a bridge, then wait in long lines for people to check our tickets, fingerprint us and finally tell us we could get in.) We hoofed it over to Studios and the girls and I went into the Men In Black “ride.” We swirled around and had to shoot aliens. I got the highest score of the three of us. It was fun. We
also saw a ridiculous and fun Beetlejuice performance – Beetlejuice, Frankenstein, Dracula (who was very hot), and night-of-the-living-dead cheerleaders danced around to rock music, changing the lyrics to be monster-like. Silly but very fun. Gil and Mary went into the Jaws ride because Seattle and I refused ‘cause we didn’t want to be scared. They enjoyed it. Oooh, and before leaving we all went into the Disaster exhibit. Frank Kincaid is the master of disaster movies and there were movie props from several of his movies that we got to walk by and inspect. There were quotes of his hanging from the ceiling, like this one that reminded me of Ian: “Reality is overrated; fantasy is wimpy. Give me hyper-reality, life with the volume turned up.” And when we got into the exhibit itself they had this amazing holographic Frank Kincaid standing on stage talking to us. It was a holograph, but looked totally real. It was hot. We had lotsa water and Mary got Dippin Dots, which is ice cream the consistency of small peas, and very fun to eat. We had dinner reservations at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company! We went in and sat down. About 2 minutes later, at the table next to us, a guy picks up a tall pina colada glass and it explodes in his hand! No blood, lucky for him, but glass everywhere. About 10 minutes later at another table next to us, the server drops an entire bucket (they served some food in buckets) of some sloppy goo on the floor next to us. Half an hour later, some kid at another table next to us drops his entire drink on the floor. I guess we brought the Kincaid “disasters” with us! We had no big
disaster personally unless you count the waiter bringing Gil the completely wrong meal and having to go back and get the right one while the rest of us ate ours. We took that in stride, drinking some fruity alcoholic beverages out of tall plastic (not taking any chances on the exploding glass) glasses with flashing multicolored lights in the base, and mardi gras beads wrapped around. We also watched Forrest Gump, the movie, which was of course playing continuously in the background.In addition to serving some food in buckets, Bubba Gump Shrimp Company had ping pong paddles with drink and dessert menus on them, and, one of my favorite things was a license plate sign for the table that indicated to our server how things were going at the
table. One plate said, “RUN, FORREST, RUN” and the other said, “STOP FORREST, STOP.”Gil finally got his food and we also ordered some sinful dessert to share, paid the bill and took off for the thrill of the moving sidewalks that would take us back to E.T. and our car for the short drive back to the resort.
Tuesday March 18
Weather – Windy (thank God) and overcast, 78 degrees, humid
We headed back to Universal, with enthusiasm. We parked in the Cat-in-the-Hat lot, and dashed to the moving walkways, experiencing once again the hoards of clueless "standers." That's okay. We're on vacation. We got no stinkin' schedule. We can wait.
At Universal Studios we went into the Twister attraction where we got to experience what it is like to be in the middle of a killer tornado. We went on the Mummy ride which the girls and I loved, with all its scary skeletons, roaches, gouls and Egyptian villians. We stopped at Ben & Jerry’s, then caught a fun-fun-fun Blues Brothers act. This part was a good "education" for the girls in some classic fun music. 
The girls went on the roller coasters while Gil and I meandered around and feigned frailty ('can't be going on roller coasters whe Gil doesn't have his blood pressure medication!) We explored the Discovery Center at Jurassic Park. Then we ended up in a medieval-themed area of the park. We ate in the Enchanted Oak Restaurant which was basically a cave with torches on the wall, birds flying through, big ol’ turkey legs to eat and roasted corn on the cob with the husks hanging off the end of the plate. We got a kick out of it. Here is what it looked like from the outside. The inside was cave-dark. After dinner, we hoofed it over to the Hard Rock Café for more "music education." This time it was the real George Thorogood. We waited outside in yet another security line, including people poking through our bags. "You don't have a camera in there, do you?" Why, yes I do. Then they made both me and Mary go to the office and PAY $3 each to give up our cameras so that we wouldn't take them into the concert.
The opening act was a gifted guitarist (Suhler), innovative, if undisciplined and he probably played too long. The girls were polite, but were kind of in shock when after playing for an hour, Jim Suhler & Monkey Beat announced that soon the Great George Thorogood would be coming out. They thought he was Thorogood.
Well, by now we had finished our beers and were hungry again, and so ordered pizza from our waitress Natalie. WORST PIZZA IN THE WORLD. But, we had great seats — a table in the balcony hanging right next to the stage. There were only a handful of tables in this "exclusive" little balcony. At one point some interlopers came up there and sat down at an empty table. I said quietly to the girls, "Hey, those are interlopers. They don't have tickets to sit there." And, sure enough, the real ticket-holders showed up and the 'lopers were busted. The new people somehow didn't have to pay to check their cameras. They sat there taking video and photos all night.
From our front-row vantage point, we saw all the shenanigans going on in front of George, including crazy drunk girls who taunted the beefy bouncer/guard guys with lap dances and other stuff. One finally "took it all off" in front of Thorogood and the bouncer bounced her OUT. Others followed. The music was wonderful, though. Ian is a big Thorogood fan, so I made sure to send him a text message telling him where we were and what we were doing. Turns out, he got the message at work where he was working very late and my enthusiasm was more like taunting or torture to him. Oh well
. Spring vacation, baby.Wednesday March 19th
Weather – Breezy but oh-my-god-88 and humid.
Wednesday the resort staff were supposed to come by and replace towels, vaccum, clean up. I think I had gone out in the morning in search of coffee, and so I was not there when "the Towel guy" came to door. Mary answered. He spoke not a word of English, but grunted and made little circles with his hands. She tried to tell him No, Seattle is IN the shower... can't you come back later? He got the point. Too bad I wasn't there to try my limited Spanish on him. That would have been fun! As it was, when I came back, I had forgotten my key, and spent a half hour trying to get into the room because the girls wouldn't answer the door!
Frazzled and frustrated by being locked out in the heat, I quickly forgave them and we focused on the day ahead at Universal's Islands of Adventure! By this time we had been at Universal for two days, and because we vowed not to rush, or hassle each other, we just made notes of all the things we didn’t get to do one day and said we’d do it the next day. So, on this, day three, we knew precisely what we wanted to do.
First of all, since it was so hot, we had to really plan how to stay cool. Mary got to the park and had to sit down in the shade after about ten minutes! So, we decided to go shopping for all those cute things we noticed the past two days. They had lots of Mardi Gras stuff around too, and Seattle and Mary enjoyed dressing up.
Gil got a black casual button down shirt with yellow palm trees on it. Then, the shop attendant dude tried to sell him black and gray camouflage cargo pants to go with it. GEEZ-OH-FLIP ARE YOU INSANE, MAN? Well, that’s what was going on in my head. What I really said, while pointing forcefully, was, “NO. We are not buying those to go with that shirt.” We spent a long time trying to buy Seattle a sun dress but the only changing area was a tent contraption whose flaps did not close all the way, and which always seemed to be occupied. So, we had her try clothes on over her t-shirt and shorts. No good. Then, we finally got in the tent and I played attendant and brought Seattle one after another choices of adorable tops and skirts. She finally picked a combination she liked a lot. It was nice to get some Florida memory clothes but the important part was that we stayed out of the sun. We were all sweltering in the radiant heat and humidity but we were refreshed enough to go on.
We had rides to go on. I had studied the Hulk with Gil while we watched the girls go on it the day before. It is a remarkable, acres big, towering over the entire park, roaring, looping, amazing feat of engineering. Accelerates from zero to 40 mph in 2 seconds flat with the force of an F-14 jet. It goes up over 150 feet and goes up to 67 mph, 7 inversions and 2 subterranean trenches. What's not to love?? So, I said I’m going on! Whoo-hoo! I was a lil’ scared, but I did it and it was great!
Later that day, inspired the thrill of the Hulk, I agreed to go on the Dueling Dragons with the girls. Not as big as the Hulk, but you don't sit in this one so much as hang with your feet dangling. Fabulous. Here's the description and the video:
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Between those adventures, we went to "the best theme park restaurant in the country" - Mythos, on the Greek Island part of the park. Our waiter Robert had "Team Lead" on his name badge. He was great. The food was wonderful, and Robert told us we MUST go on the Spiderman ride, which was great advice. You have to see this restaurant.
This is the ceiling.
This is the kitchen. The oven mouth is beyond the chef there.
And, in honor of Loretta, who always wanted to know what the restroom was like, because it was an indication of the quality of the restaurant, here is a picture of Seattle doing her best Top Model pout and slouch pose in the restroom.
So, Greek island theme was pretty amazing. Thought my mom would have really loved it. Fountains and sculptures everywhere. We went through the Poseidon attraction which was fabulous - came out wet. Here is the beautiful rocky fountain - find the two faces.
By the time we finished Poseidon, we were really tired and it was getting dark. We were walking on blisters. But we knew this was the last day at Universal, so Mary tried her first Cinnamon Churro from one of the stands. She said it tasted like cinnamon pork rinds. We also stopped back at Margaritaville so the girls could buy t-shirts. Gil really liked the Adirondack Margaritaville chairs and wanted to buy a pair for home. (I wouldn't let him. 'Didn't think their tropical designs would exactly fit into our country garden decor!) This picture shows how tired we were, as we waited for the girls to finish shopping.
I stopped into Bubba Gump Shrimp Company to order one of their amazing smoothies. And then, dead tired, but with mischief in our eyes, we said, "How cool would it be to ride the Hulk at night???" Let's do it! It was fabulous.
As we drove home we saw Disney fireworks from the highway. It was so late we had to park a block away, cause all the spots near were taken. Each step to the condo was punctuated with "Ow." We all crashed into bed. It rained that night.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Weather, overcast, until the afternoon, and then it was sunny (everybody-got-sunburned sunny) and about 80.
We all slept in till about 9:00. We were finished with Universal and today was the day to try to see a baseball Spring Training game again. So, we drove back to Winter Haven again. Saw cows and orange trees again. 
TThe ballpark was much more populated than the last time we were here. Gil went to see if the guys were working out. The girls and I went to the concessions and had “breakfast.” We bought the very first funnel cake of the day and pizza and hot dogs. We were there to see the Cleveland Indians play the Tampa Bay Rays. These were the game tickets we bought on Sunday after we arrived for a Sunday game that wasn’t. Now, the “Sunday” (really previous Saturday) tickets were nice, in the upper deck, in the shade of the overhang. These last minute tickets for today were out in the bleachers, down the first base line. Totally exposed, in the sun. So, Mary and Gil looked like lobsters by the end of the day. Seattle and I did okay. The Indians played to a tie.
Afterward, we had free tickets to go back to Cypress Gardens but we were too tired and Mary did not want to “return to the scene” of where she got so sick the first day. In addition, Mary and Seattle and I had blisters from walking Universal Studios parks for three days in a row. So, we couldn’t imagine walking any more. We looked at a tourist guide and picked out a “Black Angus Steak House.” On the way there, Gil spotted a Books-a-Million which is the store Seattle has been pining to find because it has a $10 Jonas Brothers magazine that she just had to have. She went in and found it, and came back with the biggest smile and many, many thank-you’s. We went to the restaurant then, and had dinner. We were all so tired.
Friday March 21
Weather: mostly sunny, breezy and 78 degrees
We were finally finished with Universal Studios and Adventure Park and knew that our next stop before going home would have to be Sea World. We had good intentions to get there “early” but once again, our family on vacation gets mobilized by about 11:00. 
We get to the park and holy cow, the lines are so long that it takes us an hour from the time we enter the parking lot till we are finally inside the park, map in hand, planning out our day. The park closes at 10:00 pm and at prices like they charge, we are determined to wring every last bit out of the hours we had there. We spec’d out the “must see shows” – Shamu’s “Believe” at 1:30, “Shamu Rocks” at 8:15 pm, and dinner at the Shark restaurant at 9:00 pm. In between those were a host of other attractions and fun.
Of course, this was a walking park and the must-see’s were often at opposite ends. This would have been fine if I hadn’t wrecked my feet with blisters from the vigorous three-days-straight of walking at Universal. There were two redeeming things that offset the considerable agony I experienced while walking: 1) it was Good Friday, and I had my own personal “via dolorosa” going on. My catholic roots encouraged me to just “offer it up” for the sake of his sufferings and those of the world. And 2) SeaWorld and all its treasures make Mary so happy she just about walks on air. What wouldn’t any mother give to see her kids so happy? So, everyone pretended I was just slow, and I pretended I was not dying. It worked out fine that way.
Mary is a Pisces. This must be one of the reasons she has such affinity to the water, to water mammals like dolphins, killer whales, manatees and sharks. She loves them! She feels right in her element. The Shamu shows were pretty darn remarkable. The “Believe” show’s message was to share with us the awe of humans working with, playing with and caring for the greatest predator of the sea, the “top of the food chain,” the great killer whales. To think we could be so close to them without them having us for lunch is an amazing thing. But, beyond that, it speaks to our oneness on this planet, oneness not just of humanity, but unity between species. Here the message sounds a lot like Chief Seattle’s – that we are one with the Earth and all its inhabitants. 
In the middle of the day, we saw an acrobatic water ballet story against an elaborate background. It was colorful and produced lots of oohs and ahhs, one favorite part of which was when they released tropical birds by the dozen to become part of the flying, swinging, diving choreography. Once, for dramatic effect they even had a condor sweep over our heads and the watery stage.
We also went to look at the tanks and watch the wonderful mammals swim right up to us. We went to a place were there were fish above us, and fish through the floor. Mary was infatuated and dreamily watched and communed with her friends.
The nigtttime Shamu Rocks show was great fun – stories-high brilliant geometric light shows pulsating to wonderful classic rock music everyone knew (like Queen!) and couldn’t help but clap and move to. A guitar virtuoso wailing away on a high platform above the water, cascading sheets of lighted waterfalls, and buff whale trainers in tight wetsuits performing gasping feats of acrobatics with humongous whales in a dark pool lit up with purple and blue lights under the watchful eye of a full moon – well, you’d think that would just top off the night. You’d be wrong. Because Mary had one more dream to fulfill. We left the Shamu rock-n-roll and went to the restaurant where Mary had already arranged reservations for 9:00 pm.
“Excuse me, but would there be any way possible for us to get a table right next to the sharks?” “Why yes,” they told her. “As a matter of fact we had a cancellation and we have a table open there.” Well. You have to picture this. The entire curving, back wall of the restaurant was glass. And behind that glass was an aquarium of very large fish – schools of them. All these photos were our table-side view.
There were saw fish, white, easily, 16 feet long, with two and a half foot noses that looked like a lumberjack’s saw. There were every kind of shark, from the sleek, handsome grays to a hump-backed Forrest Gump shark with buck teeth that was just embarrassing. There was a soft, pinkish brown 10 foot long nurse shark we named Barbie. We think she was pregnant. There were a trio of cute striped smaller fish (one foot long) who reminded us of a boy band, the way they went around together, posing and dancing in unison. They were the smallest. Most of the fish in there were several feet long, lively 
and altogether enthralling for Mary especially, who had a hard time concentrating on the menu to decide what to eat as she stared at the watery wonder of it all. The food was gourmet, and wonderful, of course. The wait staff were knowledgeable, and one even pointed out how to tell girl sharks from boy sharks – a piece of information which, afgter I knew I kinda wished I didn’t. Eww. We closed down the restaurant, a full half hour after the close of the park, and made our way out under the glow of the park and the moon, me limping along like Quasimoto, Mary walking on air. And that was the perfect end to the day and the vacation.
Copyright (c) 2008
aww! this was SO fun-- best spring vacation we've had in a while! i'd like to point out that you were only slightly off in the flaunted reputation on Mythos - best theme park restaurant in the WORLD (according to some theme park magazine) for five years in a row! (03-07 i think)
but all in all, i LOVED the vacation diary. brought back all kinds of amazing memories =)
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To my readers: I apologize for the annoying scroll bars on this entry, which make it hard to read. I have tried to adjust and remove, but have thus far been unsuccessful.
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What a great trip! I have to share with you that I have had the EXACT same conversation with Ian about packing. "What? You didn't pack my toiletries? Why not?"
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Amy, that made me laugh out loud! It's pretty amazing, isn't it??
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