Day 2: Unexpected Surprises and a Gorgeous Sunset

  Orlando, Florida, United States
Saturday, July 22, 2006

002 - Hardeeville, South Carolina

I woke up at 2:30 in the morning and mom was up and walking around the room.  Then dad and Mike got up a few minutes later and we decided to just get going.  Mom went into the bathroom to get ready, and the toilet in there creaked really loudly whenever you opened the lid so we all had a good laugh when mom did it.  I think we were all just crazily overtired.  Mom was out of the shower by 3:00 and I ran in to wash my face, brush my teeth and fix my hair.  Then I sat on mom and dad's bed and did my makeup and got ready while dad took a shower.  When he was done Michael ran in to the bathroom to get ready while mom and dad walked Oreo, and then they dropped her off in the room while they went to check out.  When Michael got out of the bathroom I ran in to finish doing my hair and then we were ready to go.  We had to wait five minutes for my straightening iron to cool off, and while we did mom and dad took the rest of our toiletry and overnight bags back to the car.  My stomach was bothering me and I didn't want to get stuck not feeling well out on the road (I was catching Michael-itis) but the room was grossing me out so we were out of there by 4:30.

003 - Hardeeville, South Carolina

We carried the rest of our bags out to the car and saw a huge roach with wings walking around the grounds.  Meet Rosy, the Sleep Inn Winged Roach.  The sight of that really solidified the fact that we were staying in a dump.  We also saw the biggest moth I had ever seen.  First the flying roach and now the Mothman!  This was turning into a freak show.  Anyway, the morning was just as rushed as these last few paragraphs - so rushed that I had forgotten my pillow from home in the room.  I finally realized that I didn't have it as we were pulling out of the parking lot.  How conveniant.

004 - Hardeeville, South Carolina

We didn't have our room keys anymore so mom and I ran back into the lobby to get the key, and then ran back to the room to get my pillow.  Then we dropped off our keys in the lobby, and dad had to come in to ask the security guard in the lobby to move his car since it was blocking the entrance.  That's one thing that was good about the hotel, the security was on point.  There are a lot of hotels where there is just one little woman sitting at the front desk all night, but here there was a police officer with her.  Anyway, we were out of there and driving down a dark I95 by 4:40.

007 - Georgia

We reached Georgia at 4:50 and spent the time looking around at the signs that littered the highway.  The sun began to rise soon after and I took a few videos since it was absolutely gorgeous.  The sky was a dark blue and pink, and with the low clouds huddling over the fields in the distance it looked like a scene right out of "Gone With the Wind."  It was truly amazing and something I won't soon forget!  We were all surprised by how long it took the sun to come up in Georgia.  In New York the sun is usually up by 5:30, but here the sun still wasn't up when we reached Florida at 6:20.  The sun rises in the east and sets in the west so it's not as if we switched time zones, but the sun must rise in the northeast and then slowly make its way down south.  Or something.  Dad joked that everything really is slower in the south.  Oh snap!

008 - Florida

We stopped at the Florida Welcome Center at 6:25.  We had finally made it, we were in Florida!  We didn't really remember just how much farther we had to go to get to Orlando but we were just excited to be in the same state.  We saw a few people with Jersey license plates in the parking lot which we thought was cool.  When we're home Mike and I are all, "Jersey sucks!" But in Florida it was like, "New Jersey! We're in good company!"  Perspective really does change everything.  Mom and I ran into the bathroom while dad and Mike walked Oreo, and I don't know if it had just been cleaned and not many people had been in there yet since it was so early or what, but the bathroom was one of the cleanest we had experienced along I95.  It was definitely a welcomed change.

010 - Florida

When we were done in there we took pictures by the big Florida welcome sign in the parking lot.  I had missed the chance to take a picture of the real one out on I95 since we had passed it so quickly, so I was really happy to see one here.  I was so excited to finally be in Florida and to see all the palm trees!  I have a bonafide palm tree fixation.  If I could plant a palm tree in my backyard I would... and then I would charge tourists $5 to come see the famous, and very unique, Brooklyn palm tree.  I should be an entrepreneur.  We were surprised to find that we were actually kind of chilly.  There was definitely a cool breeze which was nowhere near expected in Florida in July.  It was nice, though, and we hung out outside enjoying it for a few minutes before dad ran into the bathroom and we were back on the road by 7:00.

021 - Florida

At 7:30 we stopped for breakfast at a Dunken Donuts in the small shopping center of a small town.  I don't know which town it was but based on all of the Porsche's parked in the parking lot of a Dunkin Donuts at 7:30 in the morning, I would have guessed West Palm Beach.  It obviously wasn't, but it looked just like it.  Everyone we saw out and about had on huge Rolexes and were dressed in khakis and polo shirts.  It had the air of... sophistication.  Well, as much sophistication as a Dunkin Donuts in Florida could possibly have.  Mike and I waited in the car with Oreo while mom and dad ran in to get a few things to eat.  My stomach was still bothering me so I only wanted a French Vanilla Coolata.  I hate coffee so I didn't want anything that tasted like coffee.  The French Vanilla Coolata is like a frozen milkshake and is really good, so that's all that I would drink.  Mom and dad said they didn't know if they still had them before they went into the store but from in the car I could see a big sign advertising the drink in the store, so I called mom's cell phone to tell her.  Could I have gotten out of the car and run in to tell her?  Sure.  But the look on her face was a lot funnier this way.

024 - Florida

Mike and I sat in the car with Oreo and talked while I took pictures of the area.  Mom and dad were back within ten minutes with my French Vanilla Coolata, their coffees and bagels, and Mike's coffee cake muffin.  We continued driving down I95 as we ate our quick breakfast.  They also got some kind of big glazed donut that we all shared and it was delicious.  Man, yesterday was bacon and egg croissants and today was donuts and French Vanilla Coolatas.  We were off to a great start when it came to our unhealthy vacation eating habits!  At 8:00 we reached Jacksonville and I loved it.  It looked like a really nice city where everything was bright, open and airy, and the sun was finally visible.  It was a nice drive and we were excited to be in the area.  It was turning into a gorgeous day and we were having a good time.  We were all exhausted, but things could definitely be worse.

029 - Florida

By 8:50 we were in New Smyrna Beach and we decided to pull off of I95.  Mom and I had to go to the bathroom but there was no rest stop.  We had reached an area with a lot of stores ten minutes before but dad hadn't stopped.  After some yelling about missing the last stop we pulled over at a Bob Evan's and mom and I ran in.  We pretended we were waiting for people as we casually walked over to the bathroom.  It wasn't the cleanest, but it wasn't too bad.  Then as we were leaving we looked at a few things in the gift shop and again pretended we were waiting for people.  As we walked past the podium mom said, "Wow, I wonder where they are.  They were supposed to meet us here for breakfast at 8:45.  Oh well, let's wait for them outside."  And then we ran.

039 - Florida

We met dad and Mike in the car and drove across the street to a gas station.  Dad wanted to use his American Express card to charge the gas but this station didn't take American Express so we left, but not before we realized that the woman getting gas in front of us had no shoes on.  In a gas station.  What ever happened to "No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service?"  I can understand walking around like that at a beach resort or something, but in a public, dirty gas station?  I just don't understand people.  From there it was a long ride to Orlando.  A lot longer than any of us had remembered.  It was a good three hours from the border of Florida, but at 9:30 we finally reached the city we had been waiting for.  Orlando, the home of all things fun!  And touristy.  And slightly overpriced.  And definitely commercialized.  But still ridiculously fun!  None of us were as excited as Michael was, though.  Because of the theme parks?  Restaurants?  Shopping?  Nope, because that meant we were almost at the house and his stomach was killing him.  He had hardly eaten for two days but his stomach had STILL caught up with him!  We drove through Downtown Orlando and finally reached the resort area at 9:50.

050 - Florida

We passed Universal Studios but I wasn't able to see the roller coasters at Islands of Adventure like I had on the drive into Orlando last year.  Mike said that he saw them, though, so I just wasn't looking in the right direction at the right time.  Then we passed Sea World, Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede and Disney World.  It was ridiculously surreal to see all of the sights and attractions again.  It seemed like only yesterday that we had been making the same drive into Orlando the year before.  Hell, it seemed like yesterday when I was acquiring my love for Orlando on my trip with school back in 2001!  We kept driving and looking for exit 64B, which was the exit we needed to reach 192 West which would bring us to the house.  Exit 64A, the exit for the Magic Kingdom and MGM Studios, came and went with no sight of 64B.  So we got off at the next exit and drove around looking for Route 192 West.  We eventually found it and drove passed Old Town on our way to the house.

080 - Orlando

We drove and drove and drove and drove... and this was just down 192 West.  We finally reached Poinciana Boulevard, the street on which the resort was located, a good half hour after we had entered Orlando.  The website for the home said that the house was only ten minutes away from Disney and we had already been driving for twenty, so we knew we had to be close.  So we drove and drove and drove and drove and drove.  Where the frig was the Crescent Lakes resort?!  We had been driving for a good half hour and still didn't see it.  We passed a ton of other resorts, though, so we figured we were going the right way.  Or we had been majorly duped and there was no Crescent Lakes Resort.  Uh oh...  With each passing minute Mike felt worse and worse, until he felt as if he was going to pass out.  He just kept screaming, "You're going to have to pull over, I can't wait. I can't wait anymore!"  What made it even better was that there were no wooded areas in which to pull over.  If he seriously needed us to pull over, he would have had to do his business behind a single tree or in one of the several pastures full of cows.  Which would have been both mortifying and white-trashy, as well as priceless and ridiculously hysterical.

081 - The House

We drove faster and finally reached the resort.  We drove through the front gates and all felt a sigh of relief, although we weren't quite there yet.  We drove past a good six or seven subdivisions before we reached our own, Allamanda Grace.  We made a few turns around a big circle that was located in the complex before we reached the house.  I had to punch a code into the lock box on the side of the house which was very small and hard to find.  I eventually found it, got the keys out and had some trouble opening the door, but we finally got it and Mike ran to the bathroom.  He didn't know where it was, though, since we didn't yet know the layout of the house, so he limped his way over to several closets, the wash room and a bedroom before panic-stricken and weakly finding the bathroom.  The vacation was already off to a memorable start.

083 - The House

I helped mom and dad bring our bags in and then we went to look around... and we were very surprised by what we saw.  The house was filthy!  There was a vacuum full of dirt and dust sitting next to the front door, the carpets were stained, the house was full of dust, and there was tape and other markings on the walls.  What was going on?  I had no idea why the house was so dirty and why everything looked so out of place and disheveled.  The one thing I did know was that I was pissed.  The condo last year had been gorgeous and this place just wasn't cutting it.  We had paid $2000 up front for it so the house should have been spotless.  I called Mia, the girl who was supposed to manage the house during our stay, but I couldn't get through to her so I called the management company to whom I also couldn't get through.  I was NOT happy, and mom and dad were even madder than I was.

086 - The House

We kept hearing a constant beeping coming from mom and dad's room so we ran in there and it was the alarm.  All of the doors leading out to the pool were equipped with alarms.  Each time a door was opened you had to push a button on the alarm within five seconds or it would start beeping and you had to press a button to make it stop.  It was for guests with kids and would alarm their parents if they wondered out to the pool on their own.  The alarm obviously wasn't working, though, thanks to it's excessive beeping.  Was that going to beep the whole time?  We finally got a call back from Mia who said that she was on her way over from Walmart.  She said that she had been at the house and heard the beeping and went down to Walmart to get new batteries for the alarm.

085 - The House

When Mia arrived we told her that we weren't happy.  The house was a mess and it seemed as if no one had bothered to get it ready for us.  There was a guest book full of messages from pervious guests talking about how great the house was and how they really enjoyed their stay... were they talking about the same house?  Mia said that the maid had been there earlier and that she herself had done a walkthrough that morning and hadn't seen anything wrong.  We pointed everything out to her and then she went into the backyard to show us how to take care of the pool, but she really didn't do anything but dump a crapload of chlorine in it and leave.  We really weren't happy so Mia said she would call the management company in England to tell the owner that we were having problems.  She would either get us a new house or take care of all of our complaints.  She lived in the Crescent Lakes resort so she went home to make the call and we cleaned up the house a little and started to unpack.  We then got a call from the management company saying that we could either move to another house they had available, which was older than this one, or we could be compensated.  We decided to be compensated and we were told that we would be refunded the money for at least our first night's stay.  It was better than nothing.

093 - The House

We then went about cleaning up the house.  I was exhausted and in the worst mood.  Mom kept screaming that we should have gone back to the condo from last year and that she wanted to just go home.  After driving for nineteen hours and having all of our theme park tickets, there was no way we were going home.  Dad vacuumed, mom washed all the linens on our beds, dad fixed the backs of the chairs by the counter since they were all loose, we sprayed down the house with Lysol, and then everything looked good.  Before dad was able to vacuum his and mom's room, though, Oreo almost ate a pill from under the bed and mom had a fit.  We called the management company back and said that this was unacceptable.  Within two hours the house was clean and actually looked pretty nice.  The house itself was great but just hadn't been cleaned.  Now that we had cleaned it from top to bottom we were happy with the place.  We were still fuming over the fact that we had to pay $2000 to clean these people's house, though.  Not cool.  The management company called again soon after and told us what had happened.  The John Eden management company didn't own the home; they just dealt with the financial side of the deal for the owners.  Usually when a home is managed by John Eden they get their own cleaning service to clean all of the homes, but the owners of our home hadn't wanted to pay for these services so they got someone on their own to take care of the house.

106 - The House

Then it came to us... Mia was probably the girl who had been cleaning the home.  She lived right in the complex and was probably asked by the owners to take care of everything.  When she came by earlier in the day she was dressed in sweats and her hair was pulled up, and the vacuum that was out was full of dirt . There had also been towels in the washing machine and the dryer lint wasn't cleaned out.  Mia had probably been there cleaning up and when she ran out to get batteries for the alarm we had arrived.  Dad later found a different vacuum, one that came with the house, so the dirty vacuum by the door was probably the one Mia was using to clean up.  Regardless, the house should have been cleaned and ready to move into the day before, but now at least things made more sense.  If she would have just told us that she was in the middle of cleaning up we wouldn't have had a problem at all.  We would have gone out for a little while and came back but no one ever said anything.

097 - The House

When the management company called back they told us not to deal with Mia anymore, and they gave us the numbers of two people in their agency who would help us for the next three weeks.  They must have called the owners and said that we had a lot of complaints, and they now had to use John Eden's services if they wanted the company to continue representing them.  By now it was 12:00 and I was exhausted.  It felt like it should have been 10:00 at night but it was only noon.  We all unpacked and hung out in the house until mom and dad headed out to go shopping.  I laid in bed and and watched some of MSNBC since they had breaking news on the war between Israel and Lebanon.  I think I fell asleep for ten minutes because when Michael came into my room to tell me something I was completely out of it.  I didn't want to fall asleep and then wake up feeling like crap, though, so I walked around the house and took some pictures, and then at 1:00 I got my sunglasses, "The Great Gatsby" (my favorite book of all time) and my camera and sat outside with my feet in the pool.

094 - The House

It was a gorgeous day.  It was warm but not hot.  The sun was right overhead so I could feel my arms and legs burning a bit, but it felt great.  The water was cool and also felt really good.  The only bad thing was all of the bugs out there.  Even though the pool was enclosed, there were still bugs everywhere, especially spiders.  Earlier in the day dad had knocked down a bunch of cobwebs around the big back porch but he had left a few dead spiders in the corners and a ton of ants were now hovering around and eating them.  Nice.  Mike came out after a while and Oreo followed him.  Mike sweeped up a bit and Oreo sniffed around and ended up with a dead spider stuck to her nose.  It was the grossest thing ever and Michael had to get it off because I was freaking out.  I don't deal with bugs well.  It was bad... really bad.  Mike and Oreo went back in after a while and I sat outside and took pictures.  There were a few geckos and lizards running around the outside of the porch and there were birds out on the lake, so it was nice.  Then I noticed that in the hour that I had sat out a spider had already made a web in between my two flip flops.  That was all I needed.  I tried to figure out how to get inside but I was stuck to the spot.  I needed my flip flops to get in the house because I didn't want to step on any bugs, but what happened if the spider was still in my sandals?  Ah, it was a very bad dilemma.  I have the biggest and worst bug phobia ever and I was freaking out.  I hated those damn freaken spiders! I eventually banged out my shoes, slipped them on, grabbed my stuff and ran inside.

128 - Hanging Out Around the House

I sat in the living room with Mike who was watching a "Walt Disney World Resort: Behind the Scenes" special on the Travel Channel.  I had seen it a while ago, back in 2002 when it was first on, but it was a great special and what better place to watch it than in Orlando?  I then started typing up some of my trip report but I was just too tired, so after ten minutes I shut the computer off and we just hung out.  At 3:45 Michael walked Oreo around the front of the house while I waited inside to let him back in.  We only had two keys and mom and dad each had one so we couldn't both leave.  Mom and dad were finally back at 4:00.  They had gone to a gas station to get bottled water, Target to get a new garbage can since the one in the kitchen had no cover, and Publix to get food and other accessories and appliances for around the house.  I helped them carry it all in and then helped mom put everything away.  She had gotten hangers since there were only a few in the house when we arrived, so I finished unpacking my stuff and hung my shirts in the closet in my room.  Mom was doing laundry at the time, cleaning the sheets and pillowcases in our rooms, and we wanted to wait for it to be finished before we left.  I sat around and watched "Bubble Boy" in the living room with Mike (I love Jake Gyllenhaal. A lot.) and then we watched the beginning of "Coming to America" while I had a Mike's Hard Lemonade.  Yes, at 5:00 in the afternoon.  Hey, it had been a long day!  And we were on vacation.  I'm allowed!  When the laundry was done we all put the linens back on our beds and headed out for dinner at 5:20.

138 - Hanging Out Around the House

We love Cracker Barrel.  The first time we tried the food was last year in Orlando and we had absolutely loved it.  We wound up eating there four times last year.  We don't have any near us and we had spent a good part of the drive pointing out the Cracker Barrel's we passed on I95, so we knew where we wanted to eat on our first night in Orlando.  The drive from Crescent Lakes to Route 192, which is where all of the attractions were, was a good twenty-five minute drive.  It was fun, though, since we passed other resorts and a few farms full of cows.  I had no idea there were so many farms in Orlando.  We also passed a ton of trailers and trailer parks.  It was definitely interesting to see the real Orlando, away from all of the glitz and glamour of Disney World and Universal Studios.

142 - Dinner at Cracker Barrel

Did I mention that the drive was fun?  Well it was.  The first, oh, three or four times we did it.  After that?  Well after that it seemed like the longest drive EVER.  First it took five minutes for us to get from our subdivision to the exit of Crescent Lakes.  Then it took another five minutes to get to the only intersection in the area where there was a sole 711, two gas stations, and a big factory that made a few popular brands of electronics.  Then it was another twelve miles to get out of the town of Poinciana and onto Route 192.  Twelve miles may not seem like a lot, but it is, especially when you're on a single one-laned road surrounded by cows.  It's twelve miles to get from our house to Manhattan.  Driving over twelve miles just to get to a store or restaurant was definitely different since here in Brooklyn we have stores right on the corner.  But we did all like the peace and quiet of being so removed from the main strip, so it wasn't all bad.

143 - Dinner at Cracker Barrel

Anyway, we reached Cracker Barrel by 5:55 and the parking lot was packed.  We pulled in right after a car from Ohio and we made a joke about beating them into the restaurant.  It looked like we were going to beat them until we got to the door and two kids came running in front of us.  The people had sent their kids to run in ahead of us!  Hey!  We didn't mind, though, since they were cute kids and one of the little boys, who was around twelve, insisted on holding the door for mom and I.  Aw.  We went up to the podium and were seated within two minutes.  While it was crowded, the restaurant's huge and there were a lot of empty tables.  I like the décor in Cracker Barrel; everything's so "country."  The music is another story, but the decorations are fun.  We got our menus and decided on what we wanted to order.  For drinks I got raspberry lemonade, mom and dad got diet Cokes, and Mike got a Sprite.  We all loved our drinks except for Mike, who thought that the Sprite had been watered down and tasted weird.  He asked the waitress for a different drink, and dad piped in and said he wanted lemonade.  Mike didn't want lemonade; he had wanted raspberry lemonade and didn't feel the need to say anything until the waitress was gone.

144 - Dinner at Cracker Barrel

Speaking of soda being watered down, make sure you know where you're ordering from when you get a drink in Orlando.  The Disney and Universal restaurants were fine, but most chain restaurants greatly watered down their soda.  Normally this wouldn't be a big deal but Orlando water is HIDEOUS.  H-I-D-E-O-U-S.  Really, really, really bad.  It's like toilet water.  Sewer water.  Water I would never want to drink.  It actually smells!  Where was I?  Oh yea, when Mike's lemonade came there was pulp in it since it was fresh and Mike doesn't like pulp so mom poured half of it into her Coke and dad gulped down the rest all at once.  Chug!  Chug!  Chug!  It was crazy!  He downed that thing like... a fat kid loves cake!  Then he asked for a refill of raspberry lemonade.  When that came Mike didn't like it either, so he just didn't drink anything.  The great drink dilemma, it was a constant plague for poor Michael this trip.

146 - Dinner at Cracker Barrel

Eventually our food came and it was absolutely delicious.  We all got biscuits and corn muffins and then I got chicken fingers with honey mustard, mashed potatoes with gravy, coleslaw and apple sauce;  mom got grilled chicken fingers with barbecue sauce, a tossed salad with French dressing and coleslaw;  dad got chicken fingers with mashed potatoes, coleslaw and corn;  and Mike got grilled chicken fingers with mashed potatoes, fries and corn.  The food was great.  While we were eating our waitress told the people at the table next to ours that she had been there since 9:00 in the morning.  Wow, that's a long day!  I can't imagine working that long, serving people and dealing with their complaints.  Like when the soda tastes like sewer water.

147 - Dinner at Cracker Barrel

I got a refill of my lemonade but there was something floating in it so I drank Mike's since he didn't like it.  I would have complained but I felt bad for our waitress.  Even though she probably tells all her customers that she's been there since 9:00 in the morning every day just so they feel bad and don't complain.  It's a conspiracy theory that CNN really should look into.  The check came to $55 with tax and tip, which wasn't at all bad considering all the food we had.  Dad, Mike and I went to pay while mom ran into the bathroom.  Then we all looked around the store and Mike wanted to get something with peanut butter.  He was first going to get a big Twix bar, and then changed his mind to chocolate covered peanut butter balls, and then pure peanut butter balls that looked just like Oreo's treats.  Appetizing.  He wound up not getting anything.

150 - Publix

When we were done in Cracker Barrel we drove over to the CVS next door.  Mom wanted to pick up a few more things for the house but they wound up not having them.  We did wind up buying a new mister fan for the theme parks, and dad bought me two entertainment magazines and a pack of Disney pens.  There were three pens in the pack - one with Aladdin and Jasmine, one with Bambi and one with Alice in wonderland.  They're really cute.  I'm a sucker for anything with Aladdin so I bought it just for that one pen.  Then we drove over to Publix.  This Publix was huge and SO clean; I loved it!  It was like a grocery resort . Not just a store, a resort.  With a FOUNTAIN!  You will never, ever, ever find a fountain in a Walbaums in New York City.  We walked around and got a pack of AA batteries, a fabric softener ball for the laundry, filters for the coffee machine mom and dad had bought earlier, a case of Pina Colada wine coolers, and two small umbrellas for Mike and I to bring to school with us in the fall.  Hey, how did that work it's way in here?  School doesn't start for another month, no more talk of that.

154 - Going Back to the House

On our way back to the house we got slightly lost.  We took a wrong turn and weren't sure how to get back to Poinciana Boulevard, the road we had to follow all the way back to the resort.  We made a U-Turn and made our way back towards Cracker Barrel before realizing that the road we were lost on would have taken us back to Cracker Barrel also.  While we were stopped at a light we saw three people on superhero-themed motorcycles, and people driving by were beeping and screaming at them, waving and smiling.  It was crazy how big of a deal they were making out of them, but these guys were just basking in the attention.  I didn't see what the big deal was.  But I took a picture of them anyway.  We were back at the house by 7:30 and we all hung out.  I ran into the bathroom and then Mike watched TV while I went with mom and dad to walk Oreo around the resort.  The sun was beginning to set and the sky was absolutely gorgeous.  It was red and pink and just perfectly beautiful.  Oreo loved walking around here.  The grass at Emerald Island last year had been very sharp and prickly and Oreo didn't want to walk in it, but now Oreo loved this grass and didn't want to leave!  She was running around and going crazy.  It was also a ridiculously amazing night out.  It was only 72 degrees with a nice cool breeze.  We couldn't believe we were in Orlando in July.

173 - Hanging Out Around the Pool

When we got back to the house we all changed and sat out by the pool.  I don't really like the water so I only put my feet in.  First it was just dad and I out there and dad decided to go in the Jacuzzi.  It said that the water was ninety-nine degrees, but when I put my hand in it didn't seem that hot.  I think the water's hotter when I take a shower at home.  Then Michael came out and he and dad went in the pool.  I took some pictures and had a great time.  It was a gorgeous night and our view from the pool was AMAZING.  The red and pink colors of the sunset were reflecting off the lake and I knew that it was a view I would definitely get used to within the next few weeks.  It was one of the most beautiful views I had ever seen.  What's funny is that tonight was the last night that we got to see such a gorgeous sunset from the pool.  After that night we were either out when the sun was setting or the colors just weren't as pretty.  I'm glad we caught the sunset that first night, though, because it really was a sight to be seen.

181 - Hanging Out Around the Pool

At 8:00 I went in to get our video camera and I took our first few minutes of video for the trip.  I gave a tour of the house and then taped dad and Mike out in the pool.  Then I put the camera away and sat out with my feet in the water, taking more pictures.  Mike kept trying to take a Baywatch picture where he would flip his head out of the water and the pictures came out absolutely hysterical!  It doesn't work without the water flinging back off of long hair, though.  Mom and Oreo came to sit out after a while and mom had coffee while Oreo sat on a patio chair.  Dad got out of the pool at 8:30 and Mike still posed for hilarious pictures.  He kept doing really stupid poses, and then we talked about the time Cris Angel, our favorite magician, walked on water.  Mike had to outdo him so I took a picture of Mike napping on the water.  He's very talented.

211 - Hanging Out By the Pool

At 9:00 everyone got out of the pool and dried off, and I sat in the living room and watched "The Hot Chick" while I typed up some of my trip report from the day before.  Then I turned on the local news and the Weather Channel to see how the weather would be for the next day.  It said ninety-degrees with afternoon showers.  Typical.  At 9:30 dad watched a Brady Bunch special where they counted down the top ten episodes of all time on TV Land while mom, Mike and I played a game of California Rummy at the kitchen table.  We hadn't played since all the times we had played in Orlando the summer before, we're usually busy doing other things while at home, so it quickly became a vacation tradition.  As we played, Oreo kept trying to jump up to see if we had food, which we didn't, and then she just laid under the table.  Dad went to bed at 10:00, and our game ended at 10:30.  I won by over a hundred points.  Go me!

220 - Hanging Out By the Pool

Mom and Mike went to bed at 10:30 and I put on my pajamas and relaxed in my room.  I thought I would have trouble falling asleep since I always have trouble falling asleep on our first night somewhere new, but I was exhausted.  The bed took some getting used to since it was as hard as a rock, probably due to the fact that it was a doube-sized bottom bunk of a twin-sized bunk bed, but I eventually did get used to it.  I read my OK celebrity gossip magazine until 11:00 and then I drifted off to dream land.