Last Florida post

Of course you can't go to Orlando without giving some money to Disney.  We hit Magic Kingdom one day and Epcot the last day.  We didn't get as many photos these days - since the hurricane had passed, these days were starting to approach typical Florida-in-August weather, and we were starting to get worn down from all the walking we were doing on the trip.

 Had to get a photo of the castle.

 Jim and Alex on the Dumbo ride. 

 Grace was always game for a silly photo.  The Toy Story ride was lots of fun for all of us.

A great photo op that we somehow missed on the way in that morning.

  

 Our final day was at Epcot.  We really didn't get to take full advantage of the park since it was so hot and we were quite worn out.

 Grace was up for getting her photo taken with just about every costumed character we ran across.

 The kids worked together to get through a game about saving money.

 

The kids and their piggy bank before the end of the game.

 

Grace and Jim took off on their own, so Alex and I completed as many of the Phineas & Ferb/Agent P Adventure segments as we could.  You got a cell phone that played programmed messages (cartoons) that gave you clues of things to find in each of the World Showcase areas in order to find the evil Dr. Doofenschmertz (it used to be a Kim Possible adventure, but has been updated with the newer cartoon). Once you found a particular spot you used the cell phone to "connect" to it before you got your next assignment.  My stick-in-the-mud kid really got into it and took it very seriously, even going so far as to ignore his shyness and going up to a person working in a tea shop in the United Kingdom area and saying "Danger is my cup of tea" in order to get the Twinings tea packet with the next clue on it.

And just before we left Alex FINALLY found a costumed character that he wanted to take a photo with.  Duffy the Bear has only been in the United States Disney parks since 2010, and was who Alex had chosen the day before at Magic Kingdom as his souvenir (because he didn't have enough stuffed animals as it is, the mother comments dryly). We saw him as we were heading on the way out and couldn't pass up the chance to stand with him.  You can see from the photo how happy the boy was to be with the bear.

More Florida

So if Legoland was Alex's favorite park in Florida, Universal Studios was Grace's (and mine, too).  I think if we ever did an Orlando trip again we would maybe blow off Disney properties and go to both of the Universal ones.  We only did the Islands of Adventure, mainly because we needed to make sure we went to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Alex wasn't in a great mood that day, so most of the photos I have are of Grace.

We went straight to Harry Potter, and Grace was greeted by the conductor for the Hogwarts Express.

 

 I was so impressed with the detail given to the entire area.  The snow on the roofs in Hogsmeade was wonderful - almost making you forget it was an August day in Florida.

 The Hogwarts castle which houses the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride.  Fantastic ride, but it FREAKED Alex out.  Enough so that I felt bad about taking him on it afterward! 

 If the Hogsmeade detail was cool, the Forbidden Journey detail was amazing.  Here is one of the Mandrake plants you pass by while waiting in line.

 While he didn't care about the Harry Potter stuff, Alex loved all the Marvel Hero things.  Unfortunately most of the Marvel-based rides were way too big for him.  

 The Dr. Seuss area was fun too - Grace's second favorite area after the Harry Potter part.  Alex even cheered up some.

 The Lorax area was really big since the movie had recently come out.

 Truffula trees!

 

Grace is always game for chasing down a costumed character to get her picture with them.  Alex, not so much.

 

 Grace and I decided to ride the Harry Potter ride one more time before leaving because it was so awesome.  And we had to stop and try a butterbeer before we left.  It wasn't too bad - butterscotchy ginger ale with a foamy top.

This sign cracked us up.  This specific one is from the Harry Potter ride, but they used the bottom portion of it for any ride applicable.  We thought the cartoon of the guy barfing over the side of the boat was funny!

Vacation!

Well, the kids finally wore us down and this summer we took them to Orlando ("But M-O-M, ALL our friends have been to Orlando").  In order to be economical, we drove down rather than fly, which was a beating in itself (thought we could do it in one straight shot by taking turns driving and sleeping, but realized that we needed that extra hotel night on the way home).  Of course a hurricane hit while we were there, but it largely bypassed us.  It was a blessing in disguise - for dealing with one full day of rain we were given lower crowds (people scared away because of the storm) and lower temperatures (from the cloud cover).

 

 Even though we were driving to Orlando, we had to make a pit stop at the first Florida beach we could once we hit the state before heading west.

  

All we did was walk out onto the sand for 5 or 10 minutes, but it was a nice refresher after being in the car so long.

 Since we were doing Legoland in addition to Disney and Universal Studios, we found a townhouse in Kissimmee to rent to be somewhat centrally located.  It was very nice and very affordable. Grace was in love with it because she got her own bedroom with television and her own attached bathroom.  We had a tiny pool just for ourselves, but the better bet was the pool at the main club.

  

 

It was very Paradise-esque.  And there were never more than a couple other families there at any given time - possibly because of the off-season, or the hurricane, or because the development was only about halfway finished.  No matter - it was very nice to virtually have the pool to ourselves.

 

Legoland was the first park we visited.  I think was the best one of the trip for us.  The kids were just the right age for the rides; the rides and shows weren't too much for Alex but were still entertaining for Grace. Plus Alex is so Lego-crazy you couldn't help but enjoy it. 

  

 Characters from our favorite Lego game.

 Alex loves the Hero Factory line of Legos and was very excited to see this lifesize guy.  Until he saw him from the back and realized it was just a guy in a Hero Factory suit.

 

 The kids did a little driving school.  Alex was very nervous and very serious about his driving, and got angry at me when I tried to break his concentration to have him look at me for a photo ("Mom, I'm DRIVING.")

One of my favorite areas was Miniland USA, which were these incredible recreations of various US areas done in Lego bricks.  You could see Daytona International Speedway, many areas of Florida from across the state, Kennedy Space Center, a pirate area, Northern and Southern California, New York City, Washington DC and Las Vegas. I just thought it was fascinating the detail they had.

 

30 Rock!

 

 

I tried to get a few shots showing many of the areas and to get some actual people in it for perspective. 

Need to come back

So Jim and I realized how nice it is to have the blog to look back and remember things from. So I told him I'd really try to get back in the swing of posting again.  And I'm going to try to post a lot of things that got missed while I've been lazy. So fingers are crossed that I'll get at least one up tomorrow!