Ah, vacation. Happy smiley delightful boy despite our appalling travel experiences. While it wasn’t exactly summer warm while we were there, the sun was shining and it was perfect for mulling around looking at things. And apparently it was perfect for swimming if you’re three years old and don’t mind blue lips.
The hotel had seven pools and that was pure bliss for the boy even though I wouldn’t let him go into the big pools because I wasn’t going in there with him. I blamed my foot but really, brrrrrrrrr! My foot is much better now by the way. I have new pink skin that looks like the result of severe sunburn that’s already peeling off but it’s skin! No more blood, no more pain, just itching.
We found it amusing that we were the perfect stereotype of people who go to Orlando – parents with small children – yet we didn’t visit a single Disney location. In fact, Sam didn’t even recognize Mickey Mouse since I don’t think he’s ever seen him before. Ben’s friends were amazed at that but then again, in Orlando there is a 24-hour Disney station that promotes the various parks. Orlando is amusingly distant from real life.
Our first day we meandered through Ben’s old stomping grounds and discovered the naval base where he’d been based is now row after row of pastel-colored condos with, according to one of his friends, such bad planning that cars can’t get to the garages because the turns are too tight. The restaurant where Ben had worked has turned into a helicopter tour headquarters and nothing looked the same as when he lived in the area 15 years ago. Change is rapid in Mickey Mouse land and it appears that zoning is just a joke.
There are some nice places such as the park where we meandered after breakfast one day.
We had an excellent time at Gatorland. Sam loved the train but took a long time to warm up to the gators.
Of course we needed to go to the beach so we headed toward Tampa because we thought it might be warmer. It was cold. That didn’t seem to bother Sam in the least. Notice how his clothing diminishes over time. On the drive there we stopped at a gas station to use the restrooms and bought some candy for the road. As we were leaving the beach Sam told us “I need to pee in a place that has candy.” 
Shall we discuss the food? There must be good food there somewhere but we didn’t find it although our methodology is less than strategic – when we’re hungry, we want to stop and eat. We were also somewhat handicapped with a small child but in the interest of trying new things, we stopped at a diner in downtown for breakfast the first day. The waitress was a little surreal; it looked as though she was wearing a mask instead of having a normal face but she seemed to mean well. The food though? Eh. 
We went to the grocery store and bought easy to eat things for the hotel.
We did eat out a few times though and we ended up at chain restaurants. The sad truth is that the best meal (flavor wise) we ate outside the hotel was at McD’s.
I wonder if there was good food at the restaurants near the convention center? The problem was that we couldn’t get near the convention center because there were about 105,000 people there for a builder’s show. Amazing! That’s nearly three times the population of Burlington proper.
But we didn’t care about the food very much. We were warm! It was sunny! Flowers were blooming! We had the windows open! It’s amazing what a bit of sunshine can do for your outlook. I wasn’t ready to come home; I needed at least another week to get to the point I was ready to return to real life.
The hotel had seven pools and that was pure bliss for the boy even though I wouldn’t let him go into the big pools because I wasn’t going in there with him. I blamed my foot but really, brrrrrrrrr! My foot is much better now by the way. I have new pink skin that looks like the result of severe sunburn that’s already peeling off but it’s skin! No more blood, no more pain, just itching.
We found it amusing that we were the perfect stereotype of people who go to Orlando – parents with small children – yet we didn’t visit a single Disney location. In fact, Sam didn’t even recognize Mickey Mouse since I don’t think he’s ever seen him before. Ben’s friends were amazed at that but then again, in Orlando there is a 24-hour Disney station that promotes the various parks. Orlando is amusingly distant from real life.
Our first day we meandered through Ben’s old stomping grounds and discovered the naval base where he’d been based is now row after row of pastel-colored condos with, according to one of his friends, such bad planning that cars can’t get to the garages because the turns are too tight. The restaurant where Ben had worked has turned into a helicopter tour headquarters and nothing looked the same as when he lived in the area 15 years ago. Change is rapid in Mickey Mouse land and it appears that zoning is just a joke.
There are some nice places such as the park where we meandered after breakfast one day.
We had an excellent time at Gatorland. Sam loved the train but took a long time to warm up to the gators.
Of course we needed to go to the beach so we headed toward Tampa because we thought it might be warmer. It was cold. That didn’t seem to bother Sam in the least. Notice how his clothing diminishes over time. On the drive there we stopped at a gas station to use the restrooms and bought some candy for the road. As we were leaving the beach Sam told us “I need to pee in a place that has candy.” Shall we discuss the food? There must be good food there somewhere but we didn’t find it although our methodology is less than strategic – when we’re hungry, we want to stop and eat. We were also somewhat handicapped with a small child but in the interest of trying new things, we stopped at a diner in downtown for breakfast the first day. The waitress was a little surreal; it looked as though she was wearing a mask instead of having a normal face but she seemed to mean well. The food though? Eh. We went to the grocery store and bought easy to eat things for the hotel.We did eat out a few times though and we ended up at chain restaurants. The sad truth is that the best meal (flavor wise) we ate outside the hotel was at McD’s.
I wonder if there was good food at the restaurants near the convention center? The problem was that we couldn’t get near the convention center because there were about 105,000 people there for a builder’s show. Amazing! That’s nearly three times the population of Burlington proper.
But we didn’t care about the food very much. We were warm! It was sunny! Flowers were blooming! We had the windows open! It’s amazing what a bit of sunshine can do for your outlook. I wasn’t ready to come home; I needed at least another week to get to the point I was ready to return to real life.
1 comment:
Yay, sun! I must admit that being forced to spend last week in Miami wasn't the worst aspect of my job. And it really was warm enough to go in the ocean at south beach - I think it was 80 degrees when we were there. However, there was no place to pee that had candy.
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