Orlando

We had a wonderful trip. It was nice to just go do things when we wanted without having to get 4 other little people ready and did Kaydee get her nap? and will Lena get sick in the car? and so on. We arrived just after 11 pm Eastern time and hopped on the shuttle to the car rental, and conveniently our hotel was right across the street from Hertz. After we checked in and saw our room, went out for dinner and it was rather strange going out to eat at 2 am. There were actually places open at that time!

We pretty much kept Utah time while we were there. Most nights I would see the time and think that I really needed to get to bed when it was midnight, but really, it wasn't for us. Nevertheless, I had to remind myself every night. I really liked the hotel we were at. Some of the rooms had balconies, but the balconies weren't outside. They looked over the Bistro the hotel had and lounge areas. The ceiling was glass, so plenty of light, and I liked to hang out there and watch the people below. On Friday night, they hosted a class reunion, and it was rather noisy. We could hear them in our room, but it was definitely much better than outside the room. We headed out for dinner and it was so loud near the elevators, even on the 4th floor. I guess the highlight would be the women that had apparently had a little too much to drink down there, then had a room right next to ours. I think at one point they went out on the balcony and started yelling at people below. Sal was on the phone with the front desk a few times. And then it quieted down. Even with all the noise carrying up to us, I would stay there again. I really liked it.

On Friday, Sal took me up to New Smyrna Beach. 11 years ago, he stayed there while working with his brother-in-law for a couple of months. So he showed me the house and the lagoon that he swam in. There was a boardwalk where we could view the water and we saw a dolphin. We were hoping to see a manatee or two.

As you can tell, it was quite breezy. New Smyrna Beach is on a peninsula, and we were on the inside of it here, looking south and west. Then we walked about 1/4 mile, across a street, past a house, and we were at the beach. Sal had me test the water because he said it was warmer than the Pacific Ocean, and while it was chilly at first, it was definitely warmer. The wave came up rather quickly and splashed up my legs and got my pants wet. So then I had heavy, wet, sandy pants for the rest of the day. And beach hair too. Darn that wind. And the moisture made it frizzy. We collected shells for the kids here.

Then we drove up to Daytona Beach which was just up the road. I saw the Oceans buildings, 1-10, but I didn't see 8. Wonder what happened to Oceans 8. But to start off the day, he took me to Oviedo Marketplace, the mall he worked on 11 years ago. We got the kids some souvenirs there.

On Saturday, we headed to Universal Studios. It was quite crowded, no surprise for a weekend. We pretty much spent all of our time in the Islands of Adventure. We went on a tour of Poseidon's Fury (or something like that) - an awesome "show" with water and fire. We went on Popeye's Barge - a river raft ride and got drenched. My clothes still weren't completely dry when we got back to the hotel that night. And I had big hair for the rest of the day. And we went on Hulk's experiment. A crazy cool roller coaster. I was a good sport and sat at the front with Sal. I closed my eyes as we climbed the initial drop because that is always the worst part for me. Suddenly, before we even got to the top, it shot us right out of the tube right into a twist. It was great! I was so dizzy afterwards that I kept bumping into the walls on the way out. My tummy didn't like it much either. We made our way out of the park after that, and just strolled around, eventually getting on a water taxi headed for the Hard Rock hotel where we turned around and headed back. We wandered around City Walk for a while, looking for somewhere to have dinner and caught a band playing. After a couple of songs, we got dinner and brought it back to watch more of the band. They are called Orange Avenue, and did only one original song and all covers otherwise. But they were entertaining. As the sun went down, City Walk got more crowded,and we were ready to call it a night anyway.

Watch out for dinosaurs at Jurassic Park!

This is for Lena, our Suess fan. The Hop on Pop Ice Cream Shop.

Sunday, we went to the Conway Ward. Very nice people there. And they had a hot dog social after church, so we joined them for some yummy hot dogs, and visited with several members. After resting some at the hotel and talking with some friends and family on the phone, we headed over to Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral. I saw the launch pad from quite a distance, and we saw where some of the docks were for the cruises. Further on down the road, we stopped and took a walk on the beach. More beach hair for me. It was really windy then. But we strolled and enjoyed each other's company, and even found a bottle with barnacles on it, but there was no message in it.

Before I walked outside and got beach hair.
It was a very enjoyable trip. I can't wait to do another. If you ever go to Orlando, make sure you have quarters for the many tolls. There were tolls to get on the freeway and tolls to get off and tolls in the middle! It was nuts, but they were clean. We also had a GPS system and I think that contributed to us being able to go many places because we weren't trying to search on maps all the time. It also helped us find restaurants and malls too. I'm glad to be home and in my own bed, but maybe not so glad to get back to the daily grind. I liked the leisurely pace we had on our vacation.

Sunrise in Orlando right before we took off.