Vacation Day Seven – Rain Rain Rain

Today was scheduled to be not much of anything either….just pool time.  But, this will be the third picture I’ve uploaded that’s looked like this:

I would believe it if somebody told me there was a guy building an ark…..

So, we slept in….we sat around, we went out to Costco and purchased the camera bundle that Suzanne had been looking at.  If the lightning ever clears the area we’ll head out to the pool, rain or no rain. 

The only other highlight from today is this picture…..we bought these shirts at Universal on Tuesday.

 

Me and my things.  It’s disgusting how tall the tallest thing is….

Vacation Day Six – Sabal Palms and BMG

Sabal Palms:  We’re at the Sabal Palms complex; that means we have access to the BIG pool over at the adjacent Marriott.  It’s a five minute walk (the other pool pictured earlier is about 30 seconds away from our room)…..so, we gather up the troops and head out.

Of course, we have the waterproof camera on hand for this adventure:

 

 

Two shots of the pool…

 

 

The picture groupings here are by title (I usually try and go chronological..).  Since Cpher took most of the pictures before Mom and Dad hit the pool, there are more of his brothers than him…..

You’ll note he has his goggles on upside down in the first picture  :)

 

 

Cpher spent more than a few minutes with Mom when she hit the pool…..

 

 

More than a few pictures of Kevin.  He has his contacts on underneath the goggles.

This last picture is during the moments when Kevin and Matthew were attacking me (grabbing my legs and tipping me backwards underwater)

 

 

I’m not sure what Matthew and Christopher were trying for in this photo…Matthew must have just jumped in the pool to get this level of bubble action

 

 

 

Matthew and Kevin are hanging on my back at this point.  It’s a lull between the wrestling that’s been going on…..

 

and that you can see going on here….I’ve dragged Kevin over to the waterfalls and am holding him while he gets pelted from above.  Matthew is trying to get to me to help Kevin….Christopher is coming over to pull Matthew away

Blue Man Group:

The evening plan was to attend the 9 pm showing of Blue Man Group.  The afternoon was taken up by a Mom and Kevin disaster of a shopping trip to Best Buy to get a camera (the trip was so bad that Suzanne promises never to shop at Best Buy, ever, anywhere, again) and some more swimming for Fric and Frac.

Around 5 pm a set of thunderstorms (complete with tornado warnings and watches) blows through….50-60 mph winds and tree branches are down everywhere.

But, at 5:30, things seem to be easing up.  Hop in the car and head to the City Walk at Universal for dinner…we have reservations at Pat O’ Briens.  Suzanne figured the boys would like the piano bar concept and so that’s the plan.

Dinner, at least for the first 40 minutes, was a disaster of epic proportions (Suzanne remarked she’s never had a customer service day like this…).  We sit down…no one comes over to take our order.  Three other tables sit down around us….those parties are promptly greeted and drinks furnished.  We don’t even notice at first that there’s a delay since we’re talking, etc. 

But, finally, I have to get up and go to the front and ask if they are going to have someone wait on us….and a guy comes over, he apologizes, just got on shift, it’s not his table, blah blah blah.  We order our drinks and appetizer and they show up pretty quickly.  We finish our drinks….and we finish our appetizer, and another 15-20 minutes go by…no waiter.  We still haven’t ordered our meal.  I have to get up again; I find the first guy, tell him we’d like to order, and now I’d like to speak with the manager.

The guy takes our order right there and then.  The manager comes over, again starts with the talk of just got on shift, blah blah blah….asks what he can do to make things right.  Blah blah blah…we just want our food.

So, that’s the first part of the Pat story…and it deserved it’s own discussion.

The second part was all good times…..The boys eventually warmed up to the piano bar concept (especially after we yelled up and got “Hound Dog” playing for Christopher).  He played American Pie that Kevin and I sang the Weird Al  Star Wars version for (….maybe Vader someday later…).  Suzanne had me shot out “Brown Eyed Girl” and the boys liked that…and then some fool says “Katy Perry!”…..

The guy stops and goes, really, a Katy Perry song?

(go back a few days…..on the drive to Orlando I posted this facebook update)

I can’t even begin to tell you how much I dislike that Katy Perry song, there’s a lot of songs that I like at first but dislike over time after they are played to death.  This song I’ve disliked from day one.

So, of course, he picks out Firework to sing.  And the boys love this; they are singing loud and laughing at me since they know how much I don’t like this song.

The other part of the fun was what Suzanne and Kris were talking about above….

 

Suzanne hasn’t been that tipsy around me…ever.  So combine that with being around the boys and that made things even better.  Suzanne’s not sure she can walk steadily to the bathroom….the boys are using the language they’ve heard from tv and songs….asking Mom is she booze’d it up and if she’s an alcoholic and in general making quite a big deal about it.  Suzanne’s face is flushed red; several people told her she really got sunburned! 

All that before the show!!

A panorama of the City Walk; you can see the Universal Globe on the left…

 

Kevin was constantly asking “what kind of show is this?  Music?”  Yes.  “Comedy?  Yes….

 

   

We were in the ‘poncho’ zone…..the possibility of getting wet or slimed existed.  Didn’t come to pass….

Really really wish you could take pictures and video at the show…..the family featured prominently in the proceedings.  At the beginning, they have red signs with the text that moves in them that say things…..as the show starts this announcement comes up “We have a few special guests with us tonight”…..”Scott H. won the Gold Medal in the 2010 Winter Olympics”.  “Let’s welcome Scott H. to the show”  “Repeat after me”  “Congratulations Scott on winning the gold medal”…..

The show begins, and the boys are really enjoying it, and then, the blue dudes come out into the audience and grab three people…..and one dude snags Matthew!  That boy has all of the participation luck!  They take him on stage, and attach a drumstick with a little tie to each ear.  When the blue man ‘yanks’ the drumstick an electronic “Ow!” is produced….they play parts of Beethoven’s Fifth and a few other things before returning Matthew (with the drumsticks as a souvenir) to the audience.

A good and memorable night!

Vacation Day Five – Universal Studios

Do you know what rain Monday means for Tuesday?  It means everybody who was going to go the park on Monday goes on Tuesday instead….man was it packed!

We got up early and made it to the park before opening time (9 am).  The whole goal was to get to the Harry Potter ‘section’ and do everything that needed to be done there. 

The Village of Hogsmeade….took this picture as we were walking in.  Think the Universal people need to do a better job on directing the crowds at the beginning….was a bit of a mess. 

 

Hogwarts

The boys as we are about to head inside the castle for the ride

 

 

Like every other ride in the world, you walk back and forth and back and forth in line….once you are inside in the castle you pass statues and pictures….not sure who either of these dudes are though.

Pictures were a challenge…it was really dark and flash just made things worse….

Harry, Ron, and Hermoine appear in this part of the line and tell you that they are going sneak us out of the terribly boring Mr. Binns’s class and get us out to the Quidditch match….

This lady is the ‘'guard’ into Gryffindor tower….just like the books and movies, the paintings…

animate and come to life.

The sorting hat tells you that this ride will move and bounce and blah blah blah

The ride isn’t a lot of movement…you are essentially at the end of a robotic arm that you might see in a car factory and it moves you up and down and around while the screen in front of you shows you flying through the air or there are animatronic spiders or dragons or trees attacking you.  It’s the kind of ride that will definitely get my stomach moving around and I had to close my eyes more than once to stop the vertigo feelings.  Happily, the boys don’t have any of those issues and really enjoyed it.

Another (better) view of Hogwarts

 

Hagrid’s house at the other coaster near the castle….This coaster is very short and very low-impact

 

We happened to walk out of the Castle right as the show with the teams from the Tri-Wizard tournament was starting. 

 

another view of Hogsmeade.  I didn’t take any pictures of the storefronts; just imagine wall to wall people between each of these buildings

 

I did take a picture of this quidditch set as we waited to go inside Ollivander’s

 

The boys had fun….I bet we would have had a better time coming on Monday in the rain, because I think the crowds and lines were just overpowering everyone by the end of it.

Not much to report on the rest of the park.  This is the Hulk coaster, which Matthew described as “Awesome!” and has certainly signed on to be Kevin’s roller-coaster partner in crime.  We didn’t do many other high-impact rides…the Jurassic Park water ride was a must (since the soaking rides seem to be a family tradition at this point…) and we didn’t walk away too wet.  Finally went home about 12 hours later….

The rest of the night was pretty sedate; boys went to the pool almost immediately; Kevin was asleep by the time we got back….the oldest kid was the most exhausted (to be fair, he did say he had a headache…..)