Vacation, Part Two

Dusty and the boys, outside Haunted Mansion

Day Five (Well, Night, Really): Medieval Times

What can I say? I'm a sucker for a guy with a really big lance.

Thanks to my knee (and my MIL's knee), Dusty agreed to get us primo seats for Medieval Times. We had front row, red and yellow knight seats, which put us basically front row center...

... to watch our knight get his ass handed to him by the eeeevil Green Knight.

Bah. My knight never wins. Especially when he's really cute.

Day Six: Mom's Stuck Home And The Boys Will PLAY...

Epcot! I missed Epcot and dinner at the Rainforest Cafe, the one restaurant I was really looking forward to!

Stupid knee. It was swollen, as were both ankles. When I complained to my MIL, she said, and I qoute: "Welcome to Florida. Go put your feet up, you'll be fine."

So they went to Epcot, and I went back to bed, a sadder but wiser northerner.

To make up for it, Dusty bought me a kimono/robe from Japan, and a turkey wrap from Rainforest Cafe.

I love that man.

Day Seven: Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure

Did you know Universal allows you to take their rented ECV's from park to park, as long as it's before two hours before closing time?

I like them.

We decided to do two days in Universal as well as WDW. And let me tell you, my youngest is something of a daredevil. Every ride we took him on he loved, unless it was "boring". Spiderman? "Let's go again!" Cat in the Hat? If the teacup didn't rotate and push us all over the place, he would have fallen asleep. Poseiden's Fury was loud, but fun, and the Dr. Seuss train? It broke. In fact, it was the first of two rides we did that broke.

We didn't get to do any roller coasters this time out, much to my older boy's disappointment, but otherwise we had a grand old time. We made it to Universal in time to do the Shrek ride, and called it a day.

Day Eight: Universal Studios

Yup, we devoted one whole day to Universal Studios. It was fabulous. The only disappointment? The Mummy. We couldn't ride it. Our oldest flatly refused, and our youngest was too short. Ah, well. Next time.

The Jimmy Neutron ride was a lot of fun, as was the ET Ride (although it broke halfway through; yup, it was the second ride to break.) The Simpsons ride ROCKED, even though I had to transfer from the ECV to a real wheelchair for it. We did Jaws (which gave our oldest some bad moments, but the little one liked it), Twister (which gave me bad moments, since I have this thing about tornadoes), and Disaster (which was hysterical, and starred Christopher Walken).

Day Nine: Hollywood Studios (formerly Disney-MGM)

Toy Story Mania wasn't working while we were there, and Star Wars wasn't available until the weekend after we left; otherwise, we had a grand old time there. The little one loved Playhouse Disney Live. We watched MuppetVision 3-D (my personal favorite, since I love the Muppets), and the Great Movie Ride (not as interesting as I remembered... ah, well). The highlight, however, is something Dusty talked us into: Tower of Terror.

I wish I'd bought this picture. See, I didn't know when they were going to take the shot (they always take a picture of you screaming, right?). So here we are, bouncing in the elevator of doom, when I looked over our screaming children, stared Dusty in the eye, and said, "I hate you" just before we dropped.

Of course, that's when they snapped the picture.

I shoulda bought it... damn.

Day Ten to Fourteen: Off To West Palm Beach!

Yay. Thunderstorms the whole time we were there. Which means these tootsies did not get to play in any sand. However, Dusty and my father in law found an arcade to take the kids to, so they had a grand old time. I wound up getting some work done, after all, and just relaxing a bit in our hotel room. We got to see Dusty's grandparents, who live not far from WPB and were thrilled to see their great-grandkids. We flew home (so taking Southwest in April for the RT convention... their customer service was great.), got in really late, and did our best to relax on Sunday and recover a bit. Or at least the adults did. The kids were too busy running around, checking their old stuff and adding in their new stuff.




So we had a good time, arthritis notwithstanding. And even though I didn't get to play "Let's dump sand down Daddy's bathing suit, boys!", I did get to see the cover for Sweet Dreams, which I've added to my website and the blog.

I'll post the excerpt for Sweet, and a couple of other tidbits, a little later. Right now, I'm off to bed.

Damn. I need a vacation...