Orlando theme parks and Tampa

After the wedding festivities in Sanibel, John and I made the long drive back up to Orlando to see my aunt and uncle. It was a nice drive through the highways which took us through citrus country. We saw signs for bear crossings which I thought was really strange. Isn’t Florida too hot for bears? And flat? There must have been a zoo nearby with rubber bars in the bear holding or something. Oh and as a side note, I picked up Reena from the Ft Myers airport before the wedding and along the road to the airport there were loads of panther crossing signs. Panthers! Florida is cool. My cat Jude is big and black and we call him our little panther, so the signs made me miss my Jude.

So anyway, we got to my aunt’s about 100 hours later. My cousin Marliz and her two kids came over and we all caught up. My aunt has the cutest house out in the country with a pasture for a horse that I hope she gets in the future. They took us out on their friend’s boat for a while. We went in a lake called Gator Lake, but we didn’t see any gators. We also went four wheeling around their property, and John managed to not crash into anything, ha ha!

Monday we went to Sea World, which we both just loved. We got to feed the sting rays. It felt like a really soft vacuum taking the little fish from me, but in a kind of weird way. They were sweet though. But the birds that were around were really aggressive and they flew over and tried to take the fish from our hands! Little buggers. And we got to pet dolphins which was amazing. We stood next to one of the zoo keepers and we got to pet them loads. They recognize the zoo keepers because of their bright uniforms and such, so they come right up to where they stand.

We saw the Shamu show (which John calls Shuhmu for some reason. He claimed that’s how British people say it but all our British friends have been laughing at him when he says it since we’ve been back), which was really good but so cheesy. I have seen it before and don’t remember it being so cheesy so either you don’t notice those thing when you’re a kid or it’s gotten that way since I was last there. And we saw a whale and dolphin show which was funny because the whales decided they didn’t want to go back in their play area when their bit was over so they ruined the whole show because they couldn’t get them out of the performing area!

There was also this really cute pet show where they had trained dogs, birds, a pig, a skunk, a mouse, and – wait for it – cats to do this whole little show. Yes, that’s right, someone has figured out how to train a cat. I didn’t even realize this was possible, and if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes I would not believe it myself.

And of course we saw the sea lion and otter show which is the same as when I last saw it but very cute and funny. And the mime at the beginning was fun too.

We stayed in a Disney resort Monday to Thursday. It was nice and had a boat on a canal that you could take to get to downtown Disney, and also horse drawn carriages going through the resort in the evening.

Tuesday was the only day it rained. We went to Universal Studios, which was a good place to go when it rains because most of it is indoors. It was good but ended up being our least favourite of the parks (even though we did like it). I prefer actual rides to simulations, and U.S. was mostly one simulation after another.

Wednesday we went to the water park Blizzard Beach, which was fun. They had a waterslide that was really tall and very steep (like the steepest in America or something like that). We went down that but it was kind of scary, gave me a huge wedgie, and was over really, really fast. Plus you had to walk for miles or take a chair lift to get to it. So I decided I didn’t like it enough to do twice. But the whole park was really fun and we had great weather. We also laid around by the wave pool for a while in the sun, rested, and read our books. In the evening we played mini golf at a Disney course. It was a really cool winter/Christmas-themed course. And I won, might I add.

Thursday was our last day in Orlando and we went to Island of Adventure. That was cool because it had roller coasters and other thrill rides. I went in my first ride that shots you straight up in the air and back down again. It’s like the Tower of Terror thing but I don’t know what it was called. And we went on the Hulk roller coaster which I think is new. It was pretty fun, lots of loops and such.

Thursday night we drove to Tampa and met Faith and Steph, Gordon, and their baby Jaden for dinner. It was the first time I’d met Jaden. He was so cute and good! It was great to catch up with all of them, and Steph and Gordon seem so happy with their new addition.

We stayed with Faith and Jeremy for the rest of our trip. Friday John and I went to Busch Gardens. Faith is 4 months pregnant and rides and pregnancy don’t mix, so they went to work instead (suckas!). That was John’s favourite of all the parks, and my second favourite to Sea World. It was as nice or classy as the Disney or Universal parks, as far as upkeep or the people who were there, but there were so many rides compared to the other parks. They had lots and lots of roller coasters, including a very extreme roller coaster called Sheikra (which John kept calling Shakira) which has two 90 degree drops. That’s straight down, folks! And when you’re at the top you’d think they’d be kind and get it over with as soon as possible, but instead they mind hump you (let’s keep it clean, shall we?) and leave you hanging on the edge for a good five seconds (hours) before you drop down. So other than all the roller coasters Busch Gardens also has lots of animals. There’s a safari ride where a guy actually drives you around the African animals in a little 4x4 vehicle, and this bridge breaks while you’re on it and takes you down this river and all this stuff. It was great. In the evening the four of us went and got some surf (for me) and turf to throw on the barbie.

Saturday (I’m almost done now, hang in there!) we all went to Anna Maria island. We had lunch at a great restaurant on the beach. We’d hoped we’d see some dolphins but we watched all day and they never came by. However, Faith saw online the next day that there had been a shark close to shore the next town over! That night we went to a sushi restaurant and John and I shared this huge boat of sushi and sashimi. Neither of us eats sushi very regularly so we’re hardly connoisseurs, but our taste buds told us it was delicious!

Sunday it was time to go home. We laid around Faith’s pool for a little while before we had to pack up and drive the couple of hours to the Orlando airport. We had a good flight back and arrived in rainy and cold England on time. It’s been raining almost continuously since. Good for the grass, bad for my psyche!

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