Way too many details about the vacay...

So Steve & I got back fairly late Sunday night from vacation in Florida…we got in to Orlando late the previous Sunday night, and then got shuttled to our hotel on Disney property… We got up Monday morning, at like 5am Cali time, and proceeded to EPCOT for our first adventure. EPCOT is pretty cool, and the food options are fabulous for a theme park. We ended up staying until we got too hot in the middle of the afternoon (a mimosa didn't help cool me off either), and chilled @ the hotel until evening, when we went back to EPCOT to watch the laser/fireworks show. As always, I'm constantly amazed that Disney spends gobs more money on fireworks EACH night than my poor little Clay Center does once a year for the 4th of July! One evening's show is quite enviable for the CC folks…

Tuesday brought the journey to Animal Kingdom, which I hadn't been to before… And then I figured out AK isn't as cool as it could be, because the Omaha zoo is AWESOME and other zoos/animal places lack in comparison… We were done w/AK fairly quickly, and because it was rainy, that was OK. We went to Downtown Disney & the House of Blues for dinner, then walked/shopped for a while.

We decided to do MGM on Wednesday…and I worked up the nerve to go on Tower of Terror…there's something about dropping straight down that frightens me… I ended up grabbing the leg of the Asian guy sitting next to me, along with Steve's…he didn't say anything to me after I apologized profusely afterwards, so I think he really didn't care…or didn't understand English. The Rock-N-Roller Coaster was also pretty good, as were the rest of the tours & shows @ MGM. I even did Tower of Terror for a second time…but Steve made me sit on the aisle, and him, so I couldn't grab anyone again.

We then skipped on over to the Magic Kingdom, ate a late dinner, and partook in the extra hours for resort guests… We rode Space Mountain, then Splash Mountain (my favorite), then decided to call it a night…

Thursday morning, we headed back over to Magic Kingdom…we got to go on Pirates and Splash Mountain all by our lonesome…we purchased our Splash picture… Then we wandered and rode/saw everything… We headed out in the afternoon, and got mobbed by a pack of ducks as we waited for our bus…they wanted food from Steve :) The evening culminated with dinner @ Gloria & Emilio Estefan's Cuban restaurant Bongos, and we did a bunch of gift shopping, for ourselves and others.

We got up @ 5:30 the next morning (2:30 Cali time - yeeks!), so that we could get the shuttle back to the Orlando airport, and get a rental car. The Budget lady tried to give us a Taurus, but I wasn't having any of that…so then she gave us a Monte Carlo…except it wasn't a Monte Carlo, rather a Ford Focus. Not sure if she was trying to pull a fast one on us, but she ended up having to give us a free upgrade to a Seabring convertible. Oh shucks! We rolled out of town, and headed toward the Atlantic…and Cape Canaveral. Our journey brought us to Kennedy Space Center, where Steve was in aerospace engi-nerd heaven! We took a 2 hour bus tour where we saw things that go up the the ISS (International Space Station), then we got to go by the Vehicle Assembly Building, and then see Launch Pads 39A and 39B…and some 'gators and turtles also along the way. Our tour ended at the Apollo/Saturn V building, where Steve spent the next hour engrossed in the details of all 13 Apollo missions. I spent the hour sighing and feeling hungry. We went and ate (finally), then went to see a 3-D IMAX about the ISS, narrated by Tom Cruise. Very cool, best part of the day. Then I got to go shopping while Steve wandered through the rocket garden. Steve was very upset I couldn't find a good "Rocket Scientist" shirt for him.

We headed out for the drive across Florida with the top down…then we decided the dark clouds were too threatening, and put the top back up… Good thing, the sky dumped about 5 minutes after we did. We got to our relaxing hotel, ate dinner, then I passed out on our nice comfy bed with squishy feather pillows…

We got up to blazing temps on Saturday, and drove to Busch Gardens… I became angry because they required we put our little bag & water bottle in a locker, which cost $.50 each time we did that…it's bullsh*t that they are making money off something no other theme park does. Why can't I leave my bag sitting on the platform, especially since they were only running 1 set of cars for the coasters?? My favorite ride had strange issues right before we got on…not once, but twice! Grrr! Had to pay again for the stupid locker later, so we decided to hit all the coasters we could so we didn't have to pay anymore… Then Steve made me go on the SheiKra, and plummet down the 90-degree first drop. (see http://www.buschgardenstampabay.com/buschgardens/fla/sheikra.aspx for more details) Oh yeah, they make sure to pause you for like 15 seconds right on the edge of that drop…how freaky! Then we went on another coaster, and there was a family who got to go on early, because they had a wheelchair…for the kid who had a broken arm… Steve told me not to jump to conclusions, but then I see the family later, and the broken arm kid is skipping along - not in his wheelchair! I hate people who abuse the system!! But the middle of the afternoon, I'm roasting and getting sunburned, so I'm pissy; I keep paying for stupid lockers, so I'm pissy; and there are people manipulating the sytem, so I'm - that's right - pissy! We then left, chilled at the hotel for a while, then went out after dark, and found a Village Inn (they don't have them in Cali). Steve & I both got pie. We came back to VI in the morning for breakfast (yummy!), then went out to the Gulf Coast, just to walk around the beach. We didn't have a desire to swim, the water is too hot. But the sand is nice to walk in, and it wasn't too hot on the coast. Then we tottled back to the airport, had some flight delays, and finally made it home. Whew! What a trip!

PS - Radar seemed relieved to be in him home, and Sylvester didn't really care… We had a nice Monday, except I had to make-up one of my Becker classes in the evening…