Day at Universal Studios

Today is our last full day in Florida, so instead of eating breakfast in, we went out to Perkins for breakfast.  Ray had a waffle and I got to try something different - a potato pancake stuffed with scrambled eggs and ham, served with applesauce and fruit.  It was very good.

After breakfast we headed over to Universal Studios.  This park was a lot of fun, more our speed than the Universal Islands of Adventure.   The rides in Islands of Adventure seem to be at 2 extremes, either kiddie rides or roller coasters.  Universal Studios has more 3-D rides, simulators and shows. 
We got to a Disaster movie making show, Shrek 4-D, Twister, the Blues Brothers Show, and a Beetlejuice Graveyard Rock 'n Roll Show.
In the "Disaster!" show, they pick people from the audience to play bit parts in a movie they are making.  First they selected a little boy, then the M.C. asked for a grandmother.  Guess who he looked at?  ME!!  I guess it's my gray hair.  He then selected about 4 others and had us all go to the stage.  My part was to sit on a garden stool and pretend I was digging in the soil with a small hoe, then look up in the sky as if something wonderful was coming down.  At the end they showed us the edited movie trailer, with each of us in for a few seconds.   I appeared hoeing and looking up in the sky, then getting blasted to smithereens.

We ended the day with dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, then when for a drive around the area to see how it has changed over the years.  Over the past 30 plus years, the area around Kissimmee and Lake Buena Vista has changed drastically.  Kissimmee and Rt 192 used to be the center of things, along with a short stretch of International Drive.  Over the years, International Drive has expanded and developed, Rt 535 has grown and Rt 192 has declined.  I wish I had my old photos with me to show the before and after images. 

Celebrating Our Anniversary - Our Way

Ray & I both woke up this morning still feeling the effects of all the walking we did yesterday.  As I've said before, it's no fun getting old. Anyway, we decided to take the day off and enjoy our 32nd anniversary stress free.  After a leisurely breakfast, we went to an outlet mall to do a little shopping, had a llight lunch, and then continued to a 2nd, larger outlet mall in the afternoon.  We took it slow and picked up soon excellent bargains. 
After bringing our purchases back to the condo, we read for awhile, then went out for a nice anniversary dinner at Carraba's Italian Grill.  The food and wine were all very good. I know this isn't everyone's idea of an exciting day, but we enjoyed relaxing in each others company on our special day.  Tomorrow we'll make one last trip to Universal before we begin the drive home.

Universal's Islands of Adventure

Today we visited Universal's Islands of Adventure theme park.  This is the first time we've been in this park.  The objective was to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but we didn't realize that there are actually 6 distinct areas to this park.  After walking through Universal's City Walk, the path splits.  The original Universal Studios Florida park is to the right and the Islands of Adventure park is to the left. As we continued through the entrance gate to the left, the first area was the Port of Entry.  This is a street of mostly shops.  At the end of the road is a lake and the 6 theme areas surround this lake. 

Entrance to Seuss Landing

We started by going around to the right, to Seuss Landing.   This was a fun surprise.   There is a carousel with all Dr Seuss characters instead of horses,  a One Fish, Two Fish ride, a Cat in the Hat ride, and a High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride.   Anyone who appreciates Dr Seuss will love the whimsy.  It made me feel like a little kid.

The Lost Continent was next.  We passed through here at first, but came back at the end of the day for the Eighth Voyage of Sindbad Stunt Show.  It was a typical theme park show, cheesy, but fun.

Hogwarts

The 3rd area was our primary destination - the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  The stores are a combination of Hogsmead and Diagon Alley, with Hogwarts above.   I was hoping they would have simulators, but the rides are all roller coasters and I'm afraid we aren't up to that anymore. It was fun to walk through though, and I got my very own wand, modeled after the one Sirius Black used.  We also got to watch the Triwizard Spirit Rally.

Flight of the Hypogryph

The next area was Jurassic Park, with dinosaurs and water rides.  We had lunch there and watched children on the Pteranodon Flyer ride, where adults are not allowed unless accompanied by a child.  The Jurassic Park River Adventure river raft ride looked like it would be fun on a warm day, but getting drenched in 60 degree weather didn't seem like a good idea.

Popeye

Toon Lagoon was next, an area themed on comic strip characters. Popeye and friends, Betty Boop and the Simpsons were represented.  These were mostly food places, like Whimpey's Burgers, Blondie's and the Comic Strip Cafe. 

The 6th park is Marvel Super Hero Island. We went on the Amazing Adventures of Spider Man, a ride enhanced with a 3-D Movie.  They also have a coaster and a free-fall, as well as a kids ride that is similar to spinning teacups. 

We ended the afternoon with a little souvenir shopping on the way out.  I remember when we were young and could spend a whole day at a park like this, from opening through to closing, but 5 hours of walking around was enough for today.  It's tough getting older.  We came back to our condo, put our feet up, ordered a pizza, and called it a night. 
We have a 3-day pass for Universal, so we'll go back and visit the Universal Studios park tomorrow.

Thunderstorms

Monday's Drink- Swamp juice

Lois' Miami Hurricane

  

Ray's Passion Sunset Colada

Not much to say today.  One of the negatives about owning a timeshare is that they offer you great discounts on attraction entry fees if only you will listen to their "resort update" spiel for a few hours.  We picked today because the forecast was for rain.  The discounts were good so we spent a good part of today listening to the salesman.  We had a late breakfast but the talk took so long that we missed lunch and decided to just go for an early dinner at Red Lobster.  Dinner was good and the first downpour came while we were eating.  The rain stopped long enough for us to leave the restaurant and drive back to our condo, but then began again in full force with winds and lightening. We are in for the night, waiting anxiously (t.i.c) for the President's State of the Union Address.
Since I don't have anything exciting to report about our activities, I'll share photos of our drinks.  Yesterday I enjoyed a nice fishbowl of Swamp Juice at R.J. Gators.  Since we had a long drive back, Ray stuck with coke.  Today however, the Red Lobster we choose was just on the opposite side of the highway from our timeshare, so Ray joined me in a festive libation.  Now that we've finished with the salesmen, the vacation officially has begun.

Day at The Villages

Greeter in front of R.J. Gator's

Today we slept late, then drove north for our 1PM appointment for a tour of The Villages. This is very large 55+ community a half hour south of Ocala and about an hour and a half north of Disney World.  We expected large, but this place is amazing.  There are about 42,000 homes in this development, divided among over 40 neighborhoods, each with it's own recreation center.  There are 2 town square areas for shopping and restaurants and they are building a 3rd.  Weaving in and around the neighborhoods are numerous golf courses, ponds and lakes.
We were planning to stop for lunch before meeting the salesman, Norm, but we ran into construction traffic and arrived too late.  However, it all worked out.  The couple who were supposed to meet with Norm at noon must have been late because they seemed to be just getting started.  Norm asked if we would like to take a walk around the square or get a bite to eat and meet him a little later, an offer we gladly accepted.  We had a great lunch at R.J. Gator's restaurant on the lake, just off the square, and then came back to start the tour.
It's a good thing we had lunch because we spent the next 5 hours with Norm, seeing the shopping areas, recreation centers, pools, neighborhoods, and various model homes.  After all of that we sat down with Norm and priced out what our ideal house would cost.  We saw some really nice houses in our price range, but it is way too soon for us to make any decisions.  We came out with lots of papers to look through and even more to think about.

Catholic Mega Church?

We slept a little late this morning, all the way to 7:30AM.  It was about 28 degrees when we walked over to the hotel lobby for breakfast, so we decided to skip Silver Springs for today.  Instead we decided to find the Catholic Church listed as the parish for the Villages.  As we started the trip I was still looking for the address so we pulled over into an empty parking lot to enter our destination into the GPS.   A police car followed us in and pulled up next to us.  The officer just wanted to check if we were OK and she drove off as soon as we explained what we were doing.  The thing about this is, we aren't even through the first month of 2011 and this is the second time a police officer has stopped to check on us.  The first time was in the wee hours after midnight on New Year's as we drove from my sister's house to our hotel room.  Both times Ray was driving and hadn't done anything illegal, so he's starting to think they are after him this year.
It took only about a half hour to get to St Timothy's, so we thought we were early.  We should have suspected something when we looked it up on the web and found they have 6 masses scheduled each weekend, 2 on Saturday night, 3 Sunday morning and 1 Sunday night, plus 2 masses each weekday.  St Timothy's is a big, well attended church.  We arrived at 10:30AM for the 11AM mass and had a hard time finding a parking space.  Inside, we walked around a few minutes before finding two of the few remaining seats.  Shortly after we sat down it was standing room only.  We estimated there were around 2,000 people inside for mass.
Despite the crowd, we both like the church.  The priest was friendly and gave a good homily.  The alter is in the center of the church with seats on all sides, but they also have 7 flat screen TV's strategically located on pillars around the altar.  The projectionist displayed inspirational messages and info about the day's readings before mass, then alternated between showing music lyrics and live video of the priest and readers during the mass.  The people seemed very friendly and, from reading the bulletin, it is a very active parish.  Even if it weren't for all the activities the Villages offers, we felt we could keep very busy if we were to get involved with the various church groups.
After mass we drove down to Lake Buena Vista and had lunch at Fulton's Seafood Restaurant in Downtown Disney.  This restaurant is one of the first that was built in this shopping area and is built like a river paddle boat.  We had a good lunch with a very friendly waiter, originally from Boston.  Lunch was followed by a walk around the shopping area where we made a point of checking out the Lego store and the Toy Story store, but didn't buy anything.   Check-in time at Vistana is 4PM, so we left Downtown Disney about 3:30.
We haven't used our timeshare here in the last few years and it has undergone a major renovation since our last visit.  They did a great job.  The furnishings are classy, the kitchen has all new appliances, and the bathrooms have been remodeled beautifully.  We have a 2nd floor unit overlooking a pond, so I am looking forward to breakfast on the screened in balcony tomorrow.
Once we got our bags into the room, we went back out to shop for breakfast foods and snacks.   Since we had a big lunch we picked up some salads for dinner tonight.  Ray is now contentedly watching the Packers/Bears NFC Championship football game while I write this blog.  I'm not much of a sports fan, but I've got a good book waiting for me.  
We don't have any plans for tomorrow morning so we can sleep late again.  We have an appointment to tour the villages tomorrow afternoon and we are looking forward to that.

End of Day 2 Drive

We drove in four 2 hour shifts today and made it to Ocala by a little after 4PM.   It was a very uneventful drive, but we are tired.  I'm amazed how we used to do much longer drives without a second thought, but now this trip of 6 hours one day and 8 the next has really exhausted us. 
We had a nice dinner at Olive Garden after checking into the hotel and are now settled in for the night.  Our original plan was to go to Silver Springs Park tomorrow, but the weather is calling for a hard freeze overnight tonight.  We're not sure it will be a nice enough day for a walk in the park, so we may have to change plans.   We may start by trying to find the Catholic Church near the Villages.  They have a 7AM, 9AM & 11AM mass, so the options are open and it will give us an idea of the parish.  After that we'll see what the day brings.

On the Road Again

Well, it's been a whole 7 weeks since we've been on vacation so we're ready to be off again.  In between our Carnival cruise and now we did make the 6 hour drive to spend New Year's weekend with family, but that only involved 2 nights in a motel and that doesn't really count.
This time we are driving back to Florida to celebrate our 32nd wedding anniversary.  We have owned a timeshare just outside of Disney World for many years, but for a long time we have been trading it for trips to other places.  The thing that tipped the scales in favor of our using it this year was the opening of "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter" at Universal Orlando. We are both Harry Potter fans, so when Ray suggested we visit this new park for our anniversary, I immediately said yes.
Our other goal this week is to check out a Florida retirement community that we've been hearing about, called The Villages.   It seems that every time we've gone on a cruise for the past few years we've met couples who live there and rave about it.   One of the guys I work with owns a house there that he currently rents out but eventually plans to live in, so I started by asking him about it.  He had all kinds of positive things to say about The Villages too, so I wrote away for info. We were impressed enough that we have an appointment for a tour on Monday.
So stay tuned to this channel and I'll try to post something each day to chronicle this mid-winter adventure.