Tale of a trip... part seis

Gulf to Atlantic

Thought you'd like to see the sign just outside our hotel here in Port Charlotte. Man, don't let the kiddies wander or let Fido out to relieve himself...

On our way out of town (we were headed to Fort Lauderdale as that was where we had to leave our Floridian paradise and head back home), we stopped at a beach called Barefoot Beach, so beautiful- white sand, blue-green water. The water on the gulf side seems to be quite peaceful- no big waves at all while we were there... a hurricane would cause a little more chop, I suppose. But the drive to this beach was incredible. The houses were amazing, and just check out the road... Follow the red brick road, follow the red brick road..." I wondered what kind of maintenance would have to be done on this type of road during the winter... then I remembered where I was. Too much sun perhaps?

The drive through the Everglades was uneventful, 'cept we sang campfire song and rounds all the way through it- right. I thought for sure there would be gator roadkill all over the place, but no! There were a lot more trees than I thought there would be- at least the first part had lots of trees. As we got closer to the eastern side, it did get more swampy and grassy. Anyway, a couple of pix on the drive east.

Remember on part cuatro that I was going to tell you about the story of the Pumpkin Juice that we were going to take home and share with all? Well, in the immortal word of Paul Harvey- "And now, the rest of the story...". After we checked into our hotel in Fort Lauderdale and unpacked out stuff, I was looking for the Pumpkin Juice to put into the refrigerator- it was not to be found anywhere. The only thing I can think of it that I left it in the refrigerator at the hotel in Port Charlotte- dang! Oh well, I guess that will be a good tip for for the cleaning person (lest I offend, I want you to take notice that I didn't say cleaning lady, as that would not be politically correct. And no, I don't know a lot of cleaning ladies). They can take it home to their kids or grand kids. I suppose we'll just have to make another trip to Potterland someday. :) "And now you know, the rest of the story.... good day!"

Tale of a trip... part cinco

Port Charlotte- Spring Training


Well, there are no more amusement parks to visit... what are we gonna do now? SPRING TRAINING!! I tried for several weeks before going down to FL to get some tickets at the Red Sox spring training home field, but to no avail. The only game we could attend during our time there was the Rays vs. Red Sox at the Rays' field in Port Charlotte. The place was packed! We were able to carve out a little patch of space on the lawn (as those were the only tickets I could get) and get comfy with our neighbors. I couldn't believe the number of Sox fans there were!... are.... well, I guess I couldn't, actually- Red Sox Nation baby! :)

It was a wonderful day for baseball, bright sunny day with a few puffies floating by. Very laid back atmosphere, no one up in arms if they didn't win. But, at the end of the day, the Sox prevailed... good thing I didn't have to get my arm up. We strolled around the park, ate and over-priced dog (why wouldn't we?) which I guess is the Rays farm team there, the Stonecrabs... what a name. So, there we were strolling around Stonecrab Field, and just the nicest people- especially the Hooter girls walking around in their orange hot pants, giving out coupons for free or discounted libations after the game. I don't know if they had a family-friendly four-pak or not :) You can see them in the background of one of the pix. And for the record, I did NOT take that picture. If I would have, it would have been a closeup... just kidding!

After the game, we went and found our hotel, then the next order of bi'ness was food! We all had a hankerin' for some good seafood and the concierge (motel-7 employee) gave us a couple of choices. Our motto when we travel is that we don't do national food chains unless and emergency, coming off a 40-day fast, or under duress of starvation. Well, it looked like the choices we had left much to be desired. The place we chose was I believe a shelter for the Snowbirds that congregate in the area. Seemed like the patrons and the owner/workers all knew each other and were saying their good-byes as they were "flying" back to the northern nesting grounds for another season. Now, lest I offend someone... may I say that I love old people, I have many old people that are friends, in fact, I hang out with old people quite a bit when I'm at home (my neighbors: Mom and Dad)- I expect to be old someday... (but today is not that day!) I felt so bad for our server, she must have been about 75, and might have had a peg leg or been One-eyed Willie's wench (she actually had a bad limp... but I expected her to blurt out a "How arrrrrrrr ya" any minute). Where was her eye patch? I didn't think she was going to be able to make it through our meal she was limping so bad (probably faking it to get a bigger tip- man, she pulled me in hook, line, and sinker! Just kidding- I love people that limp).

The ambiance at the restaurant was very nice though. We ate out on the deck overlooking the water- the sun was starting to set and dang- it was a beautiful site- check the pic. While we were eating, there was a family of three that came and sat next to us. The woman ordered some wine and while she was waiting for that to come, I thought she should have ordered some cheese as well as she brought a whole bagful of whine with her. She was whining about everything it seemed. They finally brought our her beverage which was in a plastic cup. That was the proverbial straw that broke the proverbial camel's back. I thought she was going to rip Ms. One-eyed Willie a new one. They were done. They left a couple of Washingtons, spread wing, took flight and were outta there faster than a snowbird in a Winnebago. What is this place thinking- serving wine in a plastic cup? The impudence! The audacity! The unmitigated gall! Guess the lady forgot her meds today- "Yo lady- this ain't The Plaza. At least they wiped the lipstick off the cup before they gave it to you. Take a pill" (I actually love people who take pills- I mean no disrespect).

Ah, what a day... thanks for the good times- good night Port Charlotte.

Tale of a trip... part cuatro

Universal Studios

Another glorious day in southern FLA. I am having such a great time... I wonder what the poor people are doing today- oh, we're here in FLA! (again, lest I hurt someone's feel bads out there, I mean no disrespect to poor people. I know a lot of poor people (I'm one) and many poor people are my friends- I love poor people!) We didn't get as early of a start as we would have liked, so by the time we got to Universal, it was hoppin'. The parking area was ginormous! I'm was worried I wouldn't remember where I parked... as it turned out, I didn't! Good thing the kids were watchin'.

We wanted to get the speed passes for this place for sure. So we got in a ticket line which we thought was going to be quicker than the normal lines. I must have missed the line for speed passes to get the speed passes- ha! There were about 3 people ahead of us and they must have taken 30-45 minutes- could not believe it! People, tell your life story to 1-800-WHOCARES, I've got rides to do, what? So much to do, so little time..." Then I had thoughts of Yoda in my head... Patience, patience, soon you'll be there." Well, sorry Master Yoda- you're wrong this time. Wish I had been trained in the Force, I'd have been tossin' a few people aside.... just kidding! I'm pretty mild-mannered these days ;)

There is so much to do and see here, you really do need a couple of days to enjoy it all. The fist thing we did was go right into the Shrek show- a 4D diddy, 3D plus seat shakin', slobber splashin', etc. for the other D.... (you see, if you remember your math: 3D + 1D = 4D)- it was fun. Then we did the Twister thang- man, felt like I was right in the movie when that tornado came through and wiped that outdoor movie screen away! The Mummy ride was next on the list- dang, I thought we were gonna burn up on that ride as the heat from flames was quite intense on a portion of it. I think we also went on the MIB (Men In Black) ride... or did I get flashy-thingyed? There were a lot of people, must have thought they were..."hosting and intergalactic kegger here". It's a ride where you shoot little aliens with your Noisy Cricket. I was trying to beat Carson's score- you know, he's a video game enthusiast (duh). When we were done, come to find out that this old lady behind us just kicked our trash! Made us look like noobs (sp).

Of course we tried to hit the best stuff as our time was limited. They've got a lot bigger rides here than they do at Disney, but you can sure tell that Disney does it better... the staff is nicer, it's cleaner, but I still enjoyed myself. We probably spent most our time in Harry Potterland. I was skeptical about it, but it turned out to be very awesome. The detail of the castle and Hogsmeade was fantastic, like some of the pictures moving in the castle, just like in the movies. The Harry Potter ride, kind of a 3D thang, was great. I can see where they make a little more money off of this one as I was almost upside down and all the change was shaking out of my pockets! Carson almost lost his phone- whew! Then there is the dragon ride. I think you get the choice of the Chinese Firebolt or the Hungarian Hunchback (or whatever it is)- wicked awesome! Wish we would have had more time to ride it again, but even the fast pass line was long on this one. We wanted to get into Olivander's wand shop, but that line was probably longer than for a rides- unbelievable! Luckily they had a little cart just outside the rides where you could buy wands- high quality ones. Expensive, but great detail. The kids bought a few for them and some for their friends. Another thing we were looking forward to was the butter beer. Oh my goodness, but I didn't expect it to be as good as it was. No wonder the lines were so long! They had it in a big keg on the back of a wagon. I guess you had the choice between regular and the frozen kind- we chose the frozen. It was so good. I would describe it as a cream soda, butterscotchy concoction, with a slushy vanilla ice cream top... I don't know, but I want some more. There was also pumpkin juice that was bottled, but we didn't want to carry them with us, so we decided to come back later and get some. We just hung around there for a while, just soaking up everything Potter
and trying to find a backdoor into Olivander's... dang! Oh well.

We then left Pottersville to enjoy more of the park. I think the next thing we went on was the Jurassic Park ride. Wasn't expecting to get wet this late in the day... again. But, we all got blasted from the waist up, and were almost eaten by the T-Rex and the raptors- whew, it was close! Saved the camera again apparently.

They have this whole section devoted to the comics. I wish we would have had more time to enjoy them all. We spent most of our time in the Marvel comic area and went on the Spider-man ride. It was very cool, another 3D action adventure. Brenda enjoyed it so much that she had to close her eyes as she was starting to get sick. I didn't want another 4D ride on my hands- no spewage please! We spent a while looking for t-shirts to take home to the other kids- so many cool ones made it hard to choose... and since I couldn't decide on one, I didn't get one- weird, eh, Pacha? There was a Dr. Doom drop ride and a Hulk coaster ride. Sydney and I went on the Hulk ride a couple times... so much fun just screaming like little girls all the way through that thing.

It was getting late and we were ready to leave. We then remembered that we wanted to get some pumpkin juice, and I didn't come all the way to Florida to not. So Sydney and I high-tailed it back to Pottersville whilst Brenda and Carson went shoppin' for more t-shirts and shoes. When Syd and I got to Potterland, it looked like they were closing down. We asked the guy at the butter beer cart if we could buy some, he said the cart was closed... "here, just take this one, they don't keep good count anyway." I told him that I wanted to buy two (one to drink now, and one to take home and share), so he just gave me another one. I told him I didn't want to do that, but he insisted. I then quickly thought about how much money I spent here today...... yeah, I still think they came out ahead ;) So, I thanked the kid for his kindness, I quickly put on my hat and dark sunglasses, stashed the beverages in my trench coat(jk), and slunked away into the darkness. As we were walking away, Syd said, "I should have asked that kid for his number, he was cute." Where are her priorities, really... we just scored pumpkin juice! So we all shared one and are going to take the other one back to Utah to share with everyone else... we are so thoughtful (more about this story later).

Tale of a trip... part tres

Sea World

We slept in, of course, as a result of our late night last night- or would it be better said, early morning? I think we had McDonald's breakfast today, as we did a couple of mornings- I just don't think my bank account could afford another $40 Disney yogurt, bagel, and juice breakfast... but the staff is nice :) Well, all that's on the agenda today is- Sea World! I hope that everybody stayed another day at Disney- oh, but I doubt it.

Again, back in 'ot whenever when we went to Disneyland, we also went to Sea World, CA- it turned out to be more fun than Disneyland, at least for me. Now, this scene looks very familiar, 'cept that Sydney wasn't so happy when I took a pic of her at Sea World, CA- Shamoo got us wet... she was crying and could not be consoled- so funny. Sydney has grown up and apparently, so had Shamoo, cause we got super-soaked! I bought a new camera for the trip and I was trying to keep it from getting wet- I was worried it was going to be ruined. Guess it was OK (since I got the pix). We were walking around "chafed" and sore for the rest of the day. Man, where's some Vaseline when you need it?

There were a couple of fun rides there too, The Manta and The Kraken. I couldn't stop myself from saying "Release the kraken" every minute or so. It makes you laugh- try it! "Release the kraken"... see? There were a lot of birds, fish, sharks and dolphins, etc., so much to see. We fed the mantas and the dolphins, saw a dolphin/bird/people-dressed-in-funky-outfits show, which was crazy! Then we rode the The Manta and we released the Kracken one more time... "release the kracken!"

A little slower paced day and we got back to the hotel a little earlier. We needed to be well rested, for tomorrow... Universal Studios- here we come!

Tale of a Trip... part dos

Di'ney World

It's a small world after all??? Are you kidding me? Eight billion people on the planet and they all decide to show up at Disney when I'm there- what's up with that? Guess that's why they call it Disney WORLD, hello!

We stayed at one of Disney's resort hotels, it was the Coronado Springs Resort (see pic in part uno of Brenda). Very nice place to stay- there are nicer... for a price. And one bit of advice if you're ever going to go to Disney World- staying at one of the resorts is the best way to go. They have buses running about every 20 minutes from the resorts to the theme parks- don't have to worry about parking or anything... you just have to remember where you're staying, which bus to get on, or which monorail to take (more about that later in the Magical Kingdom part) :D

We got up early to hit the parks. Our goal: hit Disney's Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Epcot, and Magic Kingdom- all in one day. Impossible you say? Well, we shall see...

Animal Kingdom


This is a very cool park- probably our most favorite. Unfortunately, since we were on a very tight s'edule, we could only hit the highlights. Brenda had her show this day, but we all went to the park together, then she left for her show at about 10:30a and would be gone for a few hours. She'll meet back up with us @ Hollywood Studios. Anyway, there is this awesome tree in the middle of the park. The trunk has all kinds of animals carved into it (I guess it's really cement)... see the pic- but so cool. The animals were awesome- the birds, monkeys, lions, tigers and bears... ok, we just saw monkeys, tigers, and birds, and Carson had a staring contest with a gorilla- he was quite a show-off. People say that when they go to Disney World, they usually do a full day at each park. You know why? Can I just say that I think whilst we were there, the Slow-Walker's of America must have had their Convention as well and followed us around all day- good gravy! Make a hole, would ya? We always felt like salmon trying to swim upstream. Mount Everest was an awesome ride. After a few hours, we had to bug out to our next park- the time was going much too quickly. Our regret here was that we didn't have time to take the safari ride- line was too long and the FastPast wasn't until late in the evening- dang!
















Hollywood Studios


This was pretty cool too, but not a lot of time here either. We were getting pretty hungry and we needed some lunch. Brenda was done with her morning show and met us here... guess where we ate? Pizza Planet- why wouldn't we? Double prizes- no way!" We went on the Star Tours ride- some 3D action there, which was more fun than I expected. We also hit the Indiana Jones show- a stunt show which was very well done. Carson thought it was the real thing and that Indy got run over by the big ball- funny! We saw a few more things here, like the Tower of Terror (fun!), and we wanted to get on the Aerosmith roller coaster, but the line was over an hour long and the FastPasses were not available until about 10p! I'm sorry, but we'll be in another kingdom, sir (alas, not the Celestial one).

Epcot


Sydney, Carson, and I were reticent about this place as we were not that excited about it. But we went, we saw, but forgot the t-shirt. When we got there, I was wondering if they were shutting the place down, as there weren't too many people there (yahoo!). We did go on the ride in the big round ball- I thought it was going to be a screamer, it turned out to be was a yawner- the slowest ride in the world... although it was very informative- OK, I liked it. But after the "ballroom blitz", we woke up and cleaned the drool off our shirts then high tailed it outta there. We did look around a little bit, but nothing really attracted us to stay. Remember when I said earlier that you had to remember where you are/were and how to get back? Well, we had a hard time finding how to get to our next destination.... we had a date with Micky at the Magical Kingdom and our coach was soon to turn into a pumpkin! After a wrong bus or three, we finally figured out how to get to the mayhem at Mickey's maniacal Magical Kingdom.

Magical Kingdom


When we went to Disneyland, back in 'ot whenever, when it was getting late and the kids were all crying and the parent ticked off, they started pouring out of the park... just the opposite here. They took everybody out of the other kingdoms and dumped them off here. The place was wall to wall Mickymani-ites! Unbelievable! First thing we do is grab a map so we can figure out where we are (usually that big 'X' labeled "you are here") and where the good stuff is. We were getting a little hungry again, so we tried to find a vender of victuals that wasn't too busy, but, we saw Pirates of the Caribbean! Had to do it, even if it is a little goofy, it was fun anyway. Then we wolfed down some kind of meal as we had to bee-line it to Space Mountain. We were hung up a bit as we had to wait for Tink and her Electric Light Orchestra Parade to pass by- totally cut off our route! We even tried to get around her by going up the Swiss Family Robinson tree, but dang... it just came back down (because what goes up....). Anyway, we finally made it to the mountain... a little bit of a line, but whatcha gonna do? Crazy ride! Then we saw the Buzz Lightyear ride which was kinda fun, too. People started lining up for the firework show- which meant the lines were low! We boogied over to the Haunted Mansion- our shortest line ever.

Brenda had her evening show and was unable to be with us, we invited her to meet us, but she respectfully declined as she was enjoying a little quiet time at the hotel (perhaps she found a BBD (bigger, better deal)?). So, we did our best to have fun without her.... P.A.R.T. Why? Because we gotta!" We grabbed some ice cream and walked around trying to find things to do. I think this is when we hit Splash Mountain- not smart to ride this one when it's late and a bit cold... oh well, it was a splash and it brought back good memories of Disneyland ;)

It was getting a bit late and we thought we had better think about heading back. So, we hopped the first monorail we saw leaving the place... remember earlier when I said you have to remember where you are/were and how to get back? We got off at the last stop, and well, things didn't look all that familiar- hmmmm. After trying to figure out where we were, I finally did the manly thing and, ladies... Wait For It!!!!... asked for directions. As you might have guessed, that first monorail was NOT the one to take- and it was getting late and the buses don't run all night. Unbeknownst to us, the monorail back to the Magical Kingdom is the slow ride- a death dirge if you will , and we stopped at everybody else's hotel and wait for all the drunken princesses to disembark. Man, did your pumpkin dump you in the gutter or what?

With directions from the friendly Mouseketeer, we were able to make the correct connecting monorail which connected to the correct bus. That is one thing I have to say about the staff at Disney, they are all very helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, cheerful, obedient,... a very scout-worthy bunch. Who knows, without their help, I might still be there "...runnin' off the rails on the crazy train!". Well, we finally made it back to the hotel... is 2a in the morning too late? So, the answer to the question, "can you can do 4 parks in a day?" Yes, not everything, but doable. And what a blast- what a day!

Tale of a Trip... part uno

We had a great opportunity to have a family vacation down in Florida in March. Brenda had a show she had to do for her work and decided to take me, Sydney, and Carson along with her. We had quite an enjoyable time, even though we did soooo much in a week- what a whirlwind tour of Florida! I'm going to break the events up in separate days (parts), so forgive, but it's my blog anyway :)

Miracle of the arrival:
As we were traveling to the airport (leaving late as usual, but thinking we still had plenty of time), Brenda had been saying that the plane was supposed to leave at 8:45a, so as we get off the shuttle, we look at our boarding passes and they say 8:25... and we're late, remember? We check in and the lady says that we may not make the flight and since we're so late, the bags may not either. The security line is out the door. I just smile and say- "we're not going to make it on the flight. Don't freak out, just relax cause there is nothing we can do about it." But, we go through security anyway, the flight has gone- the kids are fuming... at least Carson was. So, we talk to the ticketing people to see what we can do. Everything looked like we wouldn't make it to FL until 12:30a- yuck! Plus, even then we'd be lucky to get on a flight as they were almost all full. She said our best bet would be to go to Phoenix- and that plane was ready to go, right now... and guess who had just gone to the bathroom??? Yes, Sydney, my little toilet princess. So Brenda ran to go get her as the boarding people were trying to rush us aboard.

We make it to Phoenix and talk to the ticketing people about our problem... they also told us the only flight out was at about 4:30p, and would be lucky to maybe get on board as it was full. Just then we heard, "Last call for flight blah to Orlando, leaving at gate blah blah". We say, "what about that one, can we go on it?" They quickly look it up and said that there is one seat, and 3 other people haven't shown up yet. They said, "they haven't arrived- just go, we'll do the ticketing later". We didn't even have time to get boarding passes and they rushed us on board- the last 4 seats! I unfortunately had to sit in the middle of a pretty good sized guy, and this woman that was... ok, large boned. (I preface this, letting you know that I love large people- I have a lot of large friends- so I'm not dissing large people... got it?) I'm sorry, but she had the extender strap and was in her seat and half of mine! It was the most uncomfortable flight I've ever had. She was very nice though- she worked at Disney and gave me a few tips. I was thankful when she had to go to the bathroom (window seat) as it allowed me to get up and unfold. But when she sat back down, she forgot to put down the armrest and dang- even more into my seat. There was no use trying to wedge that baby down now- just long suffering, endure to the end, etc!

As we unloaded in Orlando (at just about our planned arrival time of 4:30p or so), we are walking to baggage claim wondering where our bags were, when or if they'd made it. As we walk up to the carrousel, just coming around the corner were our bags- unbelievable! A traveling miracle! I gave a quick thanks to the Lord. The trip had already started out with excitement... and we hadn't even been to any theme parks yet! And as we said many times during the course of our stay... "Adventure's out there!"