Day 18: I Love Lucy and She Loves Me

  Orlando, Florida, United States
Monday, August 7, 2006

02 - Hanging Out in the House

I woke up at 10:00 this morning and laid in bed for a while.  I finally got up at 10:30 and went into the living room to have breakfast.  Mom and dad were again sitting out by the pool so I sat in the living room with Oreo and watched "Regis and Kelly" while I went online for a while.  I took a shower and got dressed at 12:00.  As I did my makeup and got ready I watched "The 101 Sexiest Bodies in Hollywood" on E.  The afternoon was spent just hanging out and lounging around the house.  Mom, dad and I played a game of California Rummy at 2:00 and then I spent the afternoon reading "Their Eyes Were Watching God" and watching VH1.  At 4:00 I saw that "Great Hotels" was on the Travel Channel and it was the Portofino Bay episode.  I thought it was funny that it was on since I had watched it every time it was on for the past few years and now we had finally been there.  Everything looked a lot nicer on TV than it had in person.

31 - Lucy: A Tribute

At 5:00 we left for Universal Studios.  We took a new back road this time and the drive was actually really quick.  We spent the time listening to the many awesome rock stations on the radio and taking pictures, and we were pulling through the Universal Studios gates by 5:15.  Not bad!  We parked and took the people movers down to CityWalk, and then walked all the way to the right to the entrance of Universal Studios.  When we entered the park we made a right and headed into Hollywood.  We hadn't yet looked around "Lucy: A Tribute" so we went inside.  Mom and I both absolutely love Lucy so this is a must do on every trip.  We looked around the gift shop first and mom contemplated getting a shirt to wear as pajamas.  They had some really cute ones for only $20, and they would be even cheaper with dad's 35% discount.  She decided to wait to get one and we headed into the museum.

37 - Lucy: A Tribute

We spent a good twenty-minutes looking around the museum.  It's small but there are a lot of interesting props, memorabilia and facts about both the life of Lucille Ball and the "I Love Lucy" television show.  They had the actual dresses and costumes worn by Lucy on the show as well as several of her Emmy awards, recreations of the "I Love Lucy" sets and behind the scenes pictures.  I really loved the pictures they had of Lucy and Desi with their kids when they were young.  We spent some time playing the Lucy trivia game that we had played last year but my console wasn't working.  I was putting in all the right answers but was being told I was wrong!  After twenty minutes in there we headed back out into Hollywood.  We wanted to get something to eat but we weren't sure where to go.  I knew that Universal Studios has great sit down restaurants, but the counter service restaurants are gross.  I wanted to go to Lombard's, the seafood and steak restaurant in Amity, but everyone else just wanted something quick.  Mel's Drive-In was in the area so we decided to eat there.  I had heard hideous, hideous reviews of the place but no one wanted to listen to me.

42 - Hollywood Boulevard

On our way to Mel's Drive-In, Marilyn Monroe came out with a huge bodyguard.  There were only two women in front of us who wanted to get a picture but neither of them knew how their camera worked and it took forever.  When it was my turn to get a picture I stood next to Marilyn and she was the cutest thing!  She spoke just like Marilyn, really breathy and high-pitched, and she told me she loved my hair.  Thanks!  Dad took a picture and we were on our way.  When we got to Mel's Drive-In Mike and I got a seat at a booth while mom and dad went to get the food.  Mel's is a recreation of the diner from American Grafitti but it really only looks good from the outside.  On the inside it's nothing special; we have better 50's-themed diners in the city.  Anyway, Mike and I sat at a booth that was covered in flies and was right in the sun.  No thanks.  We then moved to a different booth but it was just as bad.  I wasn't a happy camper.

43 - Mel's Drive-In

I had to go t the bathroom pretty bad by this point so I told Mike that I'd be right back.  I didn't know where the nearest bathroom was, so I just kept walking and walking and walking.  I had to walk halfway across the park to the bathroom behind Revenge of the Mummy in New York.  It took a good ten minutes to find it, and when I made my way back to Mel's I found mom and dad waiting for me outside.  I hadn't had my cell phone on and they had no idea where I was, even though I told Michael I was going to the bathroom.  Then I saw where they were standing... right in front of a bathroom.  A bathroom attached to Mel's Drive-In.  Damn!  If I had seen it things would have been a whole lot easier!  When we headed back inside Mike was sitting at a different booth from before.  There was a whole empty back section to the restaurant that we hadn't seen.  This section was a lot less crowded and a lot less dirty.  While we were eating there was a band playing right outside of Mel's.  They were playing all old fifties and sixties music, most of which was summer themed.  There were a lot of the Beach Boys hits!  I was going to go out and take some pictures and video but I didn't bother.

44 - Mel's Drive-In

When it comes to the food, dad and I both had bacon cheeseburgers and I got a chocolate milkshake while he got vanilla.  Mom got a chicken sandwich and Mike got a salad with pieces of fried chicken in it and we also got an extra order of onion rings.  Well, the food was even worse than I had anticipated; it was ridiculously disgusting.  The fries and onion rings were mushy and soggy, and my burger tasted really processed and like fake meat.  It was worse than fast food restaurants.  As unhealthy as they may be, at least McDonald's burgers taste good.  This burger was the most hideous thing that I had tasted in a while, and my shake was so thick that I couldn't drink it.  Normally thick shakes are great but this one just wasn't right.  Everyone else pretty much felt the same way about their food and I just sat back and said, "I told you so!"

54 - Pet Stars

When we were done eating we walked over to Kidzone. Dr.  Emmett Brown from "Back to the Future" was out taking pictures and I really wanted to get a picture with him but no one else wanted to stop.  An "Animal Actors" show had started twenty minutes ago so we made our way up to the theater just to see the end of it.  There weren't any seats left so we just stood at the top of the steps.  I thought it was stupid to just see the last ten minutes and I suggested coming back earlier the next time we came to Universal Studios, but everyone else wanted to stay.  I spent the time looking down at the rest of Kidzone from the top of the theater and then taking a few pictures and videos of the show.  It was cute but nothing special.  They had Lassie and a monkey doing most of the tricks and it was all things that we've seen before.

56 - Pet Stars

Less than ten minutes later the show was over and we made our way out of the park.  It was only 7:30 but there wasn't anything left that we wanted to do, and we wanted to be back at the house in time to see "Last Comic Standing" at 9:00.  On our way out of the park we stopped back in the Lucy store and mom got a nice shirt.  It was originally $20 but it came to only $11, including tax, with dad's discount.  Nice!  We made our way out of the park and were driving out of the parking lot by 8:00.  We took our new shortcut back to the house and were walking in the front door by 8:25.  We hung out in the living room until "Last Comic Standing" was on at 9:00 and then mom, Mike and I played a game of California Rummy.  We were all pretty tired by then so mom and dad went to bed, Mike took a shower, and I read "Their Eyes Were Watching God" in my room until I fell asleep at midnight.