Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel And Suites Orlando

... the local weather with my cousin Maureen that lives in the Orlando area I was more convinced that I made the right decission, but then my cousin Maureen suggested I still go but stay at her place, which is what we ended up doing, and I am glad I did because my kids and I had a great weekend and I got to spend some time with my cousin Maureen that I very much enjoyed.

Rebecca, Christopher and I ...

... delayed for over three hours. i still kept my hopes high of our trip going good.I have always loved being in the airport observing people and trying to understand the objective of each ones presence there. Not to forget the multiple shops and eat-outs.So we finally din't realize the passing of time until before we were boarding and were on our way to Orlando.

It was mid November for us at Maryland and we were ...

... stream - see video below. Julie stood next to a huge stuffed alligator in a gift shop on international drive (see picture).

In the afternoon went to wet n wild and had another go on some rides. I carefully stayed out of the sun to give the sunburn chance to heal.

all told a lazy day .... but a nice one. Also had some chocolate covered pretzels... yum yum...

... including birds we think were probably Golden eagles and geckos. Dan was quick to point out the incredibly tall bamboo just inside the driveway to Universal. We never did get around to using the water taxis we saw though.

Universal Orlando can be done in one day, but would be better in two days. We went first to Universal Studios park. I would direct Martin at this point to take a look at our photos and then pay up when I see him at Christmas. You know what I mean ...

... open at 10am. There was already a long line in Manta ride. We bought an express pass for $19.99 for DS. He is the only one interested in riding the roller coasters. He has his own cell phone and he can call us when he is ready to meet us for lunch. We went to sea the sea turtles in the turtle point then proceeded to Stingray Lagoon where the girls were able to pet the sting rays. Then we went to Dolphin Cove. For $7.00 you get a tray to feed the turtle. DD1 wants ...

... of Holly when we saw "High School Musical 2:" playing on a stage on the street - lots of young wannabe's singing & dancing their hearts out. My favourite show was the Muppet*Vision 3-D Theatre with Kermit & the gang leaping out at you, Miss Piggy in 3-D is very scary. I went on a real white knuckle ride, "The Rock 'n' Roller Coaster" - you are blasted from 0 to 60mph in under 3 seconds before doing loop-de-loops, inverted loop-de-loops & firing through holes that ...

... Bridge going from Staten Island into Brooklyn. It was such a pain because by this point it was around 12:30 and I was absolutely exhausted. I could hardly keep my eyes open but I couldn't actually fall asleep because I was so uncomfortable and annoyed. It was nice to see the city skyline across the bridge, though. If we have to leave Orlando then New York City is the perfect place to come home to. Luckily the traffic opened up after ten ...

... only to haunt us with light drizzle for the next hour. Spectromagic is a nightime parade of lights and music with disney charachters, quiet hard to describe, but the parade was really excellent and got some really nice video of it! Wishes, is the main nightime feature at The Magic Kingdom, which is a fireworks and "narrated story" by Jiminy Cricket. The fireworks are set off over Cinderella's castle, and is spectacular, got some amazing ...

... circle in the ground and had to fly a plane which was projected off of the circle. I had no idea what I was doing. I couldn't even see my plane, I kept seeing other people's planes being projected into my area. Mike came in first place, dad came in second, and I came in fourteenth out of... well, fourteen players. We continued walking through Innoventions West but didn't really see anything else that we wanted to do. We went to the ...

... again. Well Christen was nobody's fool and figured this out after the 2nd time it was done. Realizing this was a total injustice when she re-opened a color book, she whirled the book from the back seat back at us, hitting Leah with the color book. You never learn how smart a 2 year old is except times like these....we've never laughed so hard.