Florida Fun!

Bob and I just went to Florida and had so much fun! Not working is a rare treat in and of itself, but we also really appreciated the sunshine since it's been so rainy here!

We packed a lot in this trip! We arrived on Monday afternoon and just checked in and played mini golf at a really cool place with a pirate theme that had impressive caves and waterfalls and a big pirate ship that shot cannonballs every so often! Then On Tuesday we went to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, which were both a lot of fun! Islands of Adventure had more coasters while Universal Studios had more shows, but both were really awesome and not too crowded so we rode the Dueling Dragons 5 or 6 times in a row because there was no line! The joys of going in the off season!

On Wednesday we went to Blizzard Beach (A Disney World water park) which was one of the most fun days! The whole waterpark is like a ski resort, so there's a ski lift that takes you up to some of the slides! One of our favorite slides was a toboggan ride where you went down the slide on a foam mat curled up at the end like a toboggan and slid down head first. It was 8 lanes wide so everyone could race! We did it over and over again and Bob won almost every time although I did beat him at least twice... I think he just didn't get a good start those times, but I'll take it! :) They also had a super-awesome lazy river that was a lot of fun too! Definitely one of the most fun waterparks we've ever been to, and great weather too--in the high 70's-80's our whole trip! Like Universal, minimal crowds as well, which added to the fun! We also saw a little British boy squeal that he saw a snake! The workers freaked out and got on their phones right away to call someone to take care of it, and on the next time we went down that slide there was a lady there with a pincher thing poking in the bushes, although she never caught the snake.

Here's the toboggan racers we loved so much

So we didn't really take pictures our first few days because we didn't want our camera to hinder our fun at the water park or Universal (where we got wet on almost every ride), but luckily, Bob's folks came to join us there on Wednesday and Carolyn is NEVER without at least 2 cameras, usually 3 for this trip!

There are a lot of pictures to post, so we'll start with one of the most fun ones! A very nice family took this one of us at the entrance of the Magic Kingdom! We had a lot of fun there!

We stayed the whole day at pretty much every park, wanting to pack everything in, but the bonus at Magic Kingdom was we got to see Cindarella's castle lit up for Christmas! There was a very cute lighting ceremony where the whole crowd had to say "Bippity boppity boo" and it lit up--very impressive!

We played mini golf again with Bob's folks Wednesday night after they got there. The place right across the street from our place had a giant volcano that erupted every 15 minutes, like the Mirage in Vegas! Pretty awesome! We had fun and I won the first game (surprisingly--Bob always beats me!) and Bob's mom won the second!

This is also from Magic Kingdom--we're on a ride through a boat in the jungle--lots of neat animatronics :)

We of course had to enjoy the teacups! Bob doesn't enjoy the spinning so much, but it's a classic!

One of the best parts as I've mentioned was the small crowds! We had heard that Space Mountain was closed and didn't expect to ride it as all the schedules for the day said it was being refurbished and closed down, but we were on our way to another ride and passed it and there were signs saying it was open for test runs! So we rode it twice in a row and it was awesome! So much fun--basically a roller coaster in the dark so you can't anticipate the twists and turns which made it a lot more fun!

We had a great time at Sea World too, although despite sitting several rows behind the "soak zone," he still got us! That Shamu is huge!

Did anyone realize that Shamu had Christmas outfits? Well, he does!

Sea World had some great rides too, including a new roller coaster called the Manta where you're lying down on your stomach for the whole ride! The track is above you, so you dangle below on your belly and go through all the twists and turns! Great fun! We did it twice and Bob's Mom eespecially loved it! :) Here's a pic I googled to show ya--on one of the turns it dips near the water and fountains squirt up at you--we didn't actually hit the water!

This is Disney Hollywood Studios which was tons of fun--this is the New York City area

This was the center of the park--pretty huge Hat!

Ok, that's enough for today!--I'm a bit frustrated with formatting issues--this is my first post on our Mac and there are just differences, like I can't drag pictures and change their order once I upload them, which is really annoying, so I have to cut and paste each time I want to move them... also for some reason it kept changing the font size randomly... And I had some videos that wouldn't work after I uploaded, and took forever to upload and never did when I tried again later! UGH!

So anyway--we had a great trip and loved spending time with Ron and Carolyn too! Sad to come back to work this week but we had a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends here before I went to work that night! I hope that those of you who enjoyed the Black Friday madness have recovered enough for Cyber Monday sales! :) I was on call and got off at 7am so Bob and I went to a few stores at 8 but everything we wanted was still there! A few movies, sheets, towels, socks, and some presents for family. :) Hope you're all enjoying your weekend and that we can all remember all that we have to give thanks for throughout this holiday season!

~Cathy