Our family vacation, Day 4

Day 4:

Universal Studios, here we come! After hanging out with Shaggy and Scooby near the entrance,

George took the kids on rides (or at least tried - the main coaster broke down while he was in line) while I spent some time walking around with various kids in the Shrek area

and in Metropolis.

After a break from the heat, we made our way to Beetlejuice's Graveyard Review (kind of cheesy and raunchy but the music was good),

and then over to Jaws.

Because the line for Jaws was very long, George again took two kids to Men in Black, and then took them to the Simpsons Ride (while Megan and I chickened out, I mean waited outside).

When we went back to Jaws, the line had gtten a lot shorter, and like Beetlejuice, it was a bit cheesy. we then walked through the studios and caught the Blues Brothers show, the best thing we saw all day.

We spent the rest of the time there walking through the movie sets and looking at the movie car collection

and visiting the Lucille Ball Museum exhibit. Although not as fun as IoA, it was still a good day, and after dinner at Bubba Gump's Shrimp Co., we were pooped!

Our family vacation, Day 3

Day 3:

George and I have made a "vacation pact" to go places we've never been before. Because we've been to Orlando, we decided to at least go to a theme park we've never been to. We decided on Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios. We chose Islands of Adventure for the first day's fun. We made our way through Dr. Seuss Land

straight to the Harry Potter area because we were told by a few people that we needed to head there first.

Bad idea. The wait times for all of the rides were over 1 hour, so we decided to get in the "shortest" line (45 minutes) for Ollivanders. Unfortunately, all of the people exiting the other rides joined their parties in that line, and it ended up being close to 30 minutes longer than planned. We were starting to rethink our decision when we got inside and, lo and behold, Danny's wand was chosen by Ollivander himself!

Totally worth the wait. The next stop was Three Broomsticks for lunch. Due to the unseasonably warm weather (read that as "it was dang hot again that day"), and the long lines, by the time we got inside the restaurant,

Megan nearly fainted and then threw up the water that she had drunk all over Danny. While Megan and I took a trip to the medical facility at IoA, George, Zachary and Danny chowed down on the feast before them.

Once Megan's vitals were checked, we returned to the restaurant, and she must not have been too affected because she ate plenty of ribs and we all drank plenty of butter beer and pumpkin juice.

After lunch, the lines for the rides were still too long, so we made our way through Honeydukes candy shop and Zonko's magic shop, and back to Dr. Seuss Land.

After a short ride there, we went over to where the superheroes hang out so that George and Zachary could ride The Hulk. Meanwhile, the other superheroes rode through the streets on their superhero vehicles.

Awesome, although I must say that Captain America and Wolverine look much better in the movies!
My favorite part was the comics area, where Danny and Megan got to meet Popeye and Olive Oil,

we posed under some awesome captions,

and we rode Popeye's river ride, where we all got completely soaked.

Because we didn't mind getting more soaked, we went on the Jurassic Park ride next,

and by the time we got back to Hogwarts castle,

the wait time was 20 minutes, tops. After being blown almost completely dry by the Hogwarts greenhouse fans, we rode the ride, and I have to say that I am so glad we waited until the end. It was a fantastic ride, but because I am so prone to motion sickness, I was done for the day. Last stop was dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, and then back to the resort for bed.

Our family vacation, Day 2

Day 2:

Day 2 of our family vacation (June 6th) started with more exploring. The resort has a mini replica of the Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine

and a series of cracker-style swamp shacks in the everglades area. The channel cats grow pretty large in the swamp.

We continued on to play a friendly game of putt-putt golf.

Due to the unseasonably warm weather (it was dang hot, that is), it was a short game. After the golf, all we wanted to do was swim, The salt water pool was extremely refreshing, and the kids loved the slide.

It was a super-relaxing day, and we went to bed early to prepare for the theme park the next day.

Our family vacation, Day 1

Back in April, when Megan won the civics essay contest, the grand prize was a two-night stay with the Remember Romance package at the Gaylord Palms Resort in Orlando. George and I decided to and add a few more nights on to make it a full week family vacation .

Day 1:

On the way down, we stopped at one of our favorite on-the-road restaurants...

I know, not gourmet, but we can't get it in Tallahassee.

We arrived at the resort and immediately went exploring. It was huge and filled with flora and fauna representing Florida. After a bit of exploration, we ate at Villa de Flora, a Mediterranean buffet style restaurant with something for everyone. It was too good.

After walking around some more, and an evening swim, we went to the room and our Remember Romance Package was delivered.

Champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries - would have been very romantic if we hadn't had to share the strawberries with those kids hanging in our room!