Well, it's been over 2 months since my last post, so I should probably write something. The police have never found any of the things that were taken in the burglary, and at this point, I don't expect them to. Not even with providing a YouTube username and serial numbers for everything that was taken. But on a positive note, a few weeks ago, the police department did catch a would-be burglar over the course of a weekend (of course, when the would-be burglar attempts to break in to the Police Chief's house.... the incentive to catch him his greater). So yeah, a big pat on the back to our local police department. /sarcasm
That is all I will say about that topic because it's still a sore subject to me, so let's move on. Let me tell you about our vacation!
The vacation we had was a fantastic one. Even with everything that had happened, it was a trip that I am so glad to have taken. Jenna had to travel to St. Pete for a work conference, so me & the kiddo tagged along. A few days at the beach will do wonders. The sun, the surf, the salt air. Fantastic. During our stay down there, we made a trek over to Busch Gardens for a day, and I, for one, loved it. I think Jenna and myself were more thrilled by the zoo, and the kid was, well..... he's a kid. He liked the roller coasters. I got to take a good number of photos with my new phone while at Busch Gardens, but out of all of them, I like this one the best:
I didn't have to wait long for this shot, as he kept pacing in front of the window, but the fact that he is staring directly into the camera is that part I like best. For most of the day, we would weave between the rides and the zoo, occasionally taking in a sit-down show or something inside just to get out of the heat. We tried to ride as many coasters as possible, but the kid.... the 11 year old.... rode one that Jenna nor myself ever will. It's called the SheiKra, and it takes you to the top of the track, and hangs you there, above a 90-degree drop.... and then drops you. Ahahaha..... no thank you. My butt will stay on the ground, thankyouverymuch! The kid came off the ride with wind blown hair and a huge grin (though the grin was missing in the photo that was taken at the bottom of the 90-degree drop). Our last burst of energy of the day was spent on the newest ride in the park... the Cheetah Hunt. We waited in line with 100,000 other hot & sweaty people for a little less than 2 hours, to ride a 3 minute ride (I'm not very good at math, but doesn't that sound like a bad idea?). Fortunately, the ride was fantastic. We got to ride it about 20 minutes before the park closed, so it was dark outside, and I'm not sure if that made it better or worse. The kid enjoyed it too, but Jenna...... not sure if she was a fan of that one or not. The only time she wasn't screaming was when she was catching her breath. I'm sure they were screams of joy though. The entire day, will be etched in my mind for many decades to come, and I will frequently visit the memories to put a smile on my face. It truly was a great day, from start to finish
While in St. Pete, we also got to take in another Tampa Bay Rays game, and we were all very happy to have beaten the Boston Red Sox that night. It was Carl Crawford's return to Tropicana Field since he left Tampa for Boston. It was a good game. Here is the first pitch:
I won't bore you with specifics of the baseball game, so I'll sum it up with; we went, great seats, great game, ate nachos, ate Cracker Jacks (how can you not?), we won.
Believe it or not, the was just the first half of the vacation. Proceed to 2nd half!
After the awesomeness that was had in St. Petersburg, we headed up to Orlando to spend a couple days with a mouse. Our first stop was the afternoon we arrived, we headed over to DisneyQuest, which is really just a 4 or 5 story arcade area. Nothing too special about that, but we still had fun. Now for the life of me, I cannot remember our reasoning behind going to Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM Studios) over the Magic Kingdom, but it probably had something to do with the fact we had an 11 year old, and Hollywood Studios had more exciting rides. So that's where we went.
Jenna had made us a lunch reservation at a place called the Prime Time Cafe, and just like everything else, it was great. The entire restaurant is decorated like the 50's, and if you sit at a table with a hat on, the servers will get on to you. Trust me... I know! The same goes for elbows on the table, and make sure you say your please's and thank you's. I ordered Dad's Traditional Meatloaf. Oof. That was a lot of food. A lot of delicious food. And I ate it all (I was afraid of them yelling at me again, and I didn't want to wash the dishes). I must thank our server for giving the kid his new nickname...... Sparky.
It's really impossible to do everything in the park in one day, so we tried to narrow it down to the main things we wanted to do. Toy Story, Indiana Jones show, the Muppets, the Catastrophe Canyon ride, Star Wars, Aerosmith's Rockin Roller Coaster, etc. Everything in between was just gravy. Although, we did wander into the "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" play area..... and I remember it being..... bigger. I guess I'm not as shrunk as I was last time I was there. Another day gone. More memories in the bank.
Next day we headed to Disney's Typhoon Lagoon. A water park. A Disney water park. The atmosphere and decorations around this place were fun to look at. The entire park was set up to appear like a Typhoon had recently come though, so there was debris all over the place. They even put a ship on top of a volcano, which erupted water every half hour or so. The rides were your typical water slides and raft rides, so nothing really special there. We spent most of the time in the lazy river. I think we decided where to go next by how long we could stay in the lazy river to get there. The best part about that whole day, thanks to Jenna, nobody got sunburnt! Later that evening, we decided to head over to Downtown Disney. Oh. My. God. The people. This place was crowded! Nevertheless, we hug around for a little bit, and tried to wader the LEGO store, but as you can see....
... it was a little busy. So we postponed that for the next day, and went to have dinner at T-Rex. Oh. My. God. The portions!
I couldn't finish it! It made the meal at Prime Time Cafe seems like a garnish! By the way... that is one piece of chicken in that photo. ONE! Again, it was the atmosphere & decorations that made this place stand out. Animatronic dinosaurs everywhere, with a giant meteor crashing every 30 minutes. Very cool.
The day we left, we headed back to Downtown Disney to slowly wander before heading home. This time, we got to hang out in the LEGO store.... and it was STILL extremely busy!
We spent close to 2 hours in there, and Sparky got to buy a bunch of LEGO sets. The rest of our time was spent meandering in most of the stores and doing a lot of window shopping, buying just a few things here & there. I think we kept wandering just to avoid the inevitable trip home.
Long story still kinda long... we had a wonderful vacation. It was something we really needed... and something we'll be paying off for quite some time.
It was worth it.
(p.s. - for those that are interested, all the above photos, and many more, can be viewed here.)
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